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Irish life and progress in colonial South Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Eric Richards
Eric Richards*
Affiliation:
Discipline of History, Flinders University, Adelaide
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Extract

South Australia was the least Irish part of nineteenth-century Australia. Proportionately fewer Irish arrived at Port Adelaide than at the other great immigrant ports of the southern continent. They also came later: relatively few Irish participated in the first dozen years of colonisation in South Australia after its inception in 1836. In contrast with other parts of Australia the Irish were slow to reach a tenth and never reached a third of the colonial population. They were not in South Australia ‘a founding people’. They were indeed conspicuously a minority which faced the established and unquestioned primacy of Anglo-Scottish colonisation.

South Australia was overwhelmingly English in its origins. From the beginning it was virtually a fragment of southern England, a Home Counties colony expressly designed for superior expatriates. It was also heavily advertised as a haven for Protestant dissenters. The first Catholic priest in South Australia, William Benson, was hardly exaggerating when he described it in 1843 as ‘a little dissenting colony, exclusively Protestant evangelical’. He went further, saying that ‘when this colony was established no Catholic gentlemen of property were allowed to join the founders’ — implying thereby that the planners deliberately discouraged Irish participation. Only when the colonial population reached 14,000, asserted Benson, did ‘our late evangelical governors’ feel confident enough to permit a minority of Catholics reasonable and equal entry. Another Catholic Irishman, Major Thomas O’Halloran, also claimed that the early colonial planners had been anti-Irish, wishing to restrict their numbers to less than 5 per cent of the colonial population. It is little wonder that South Australia seemed, in Irish eyes, the most alien quarter of the new continent.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 107 , May 1991 , pp. 216 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1991

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References

1 MacDonagh, Oliver, ‘The Irish in Victoria, 1851-91: a demographic essay’ in A.N.U. Historical Journal, x-xi (1973-4), p. 30 Google Scholar. Some of the statistics are summarised in Nance, Christopher, ‘The Irish in South Australia during the colony’s first four decades’ in Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, iv (1978), pp 66–73 Google Scholar, and Sherington, Geoffrey, Australia’s immigrants (Sydney, 1980), p. 82 Google Scholar.

2 Quoted in Pruul, Susan (afterwards Woodburn), ‘The Irish in N.S.W., Victoria and South Australia, 1788-1880’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Adelaide, 1979), p. 203 Google Scholar. See also the reference to small numbers of Catholics in the population in Despatches from Australia, 26 June 1840 (Mortlock Library of South Australia, Adelaide (hereafter M.L.S.A.), Government Record Group (G.R.G.), 2/6/1).

3 Observer (Adelaide), 14 July 1849, quoted in Pruul, ‘The Irish in N.S.W.’, p. 198.

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7 On Torrens, see Meenai, S.A., ‘Robert Torrens, 1780-1864’ in Economica, xxiii (1956), pp 49–61 Google Scholar; Black, R.C.D., Economic thought and the Irish question, 1817-1870 (Cambridge, 1960), pp 217-23Google Scholar; Robbins, Lionel, Robert Torrens and the evolution of classical political economy (London, 1958)Google Scholar. See also Pike, Douglas, Paradise of dissent (Melbourne, 1957), p. 128 Google Scholar.

8 Torrens, Robert, Systematic colonisation: Ireland saved without cost to the imperial treasury (London, 1849)Google Scholar. See also Keain, Maurice B., ‘The Catholic church in South Australia: a genealogist takes a look’ in Peake, Andrew G. (ed.), Genealogical papers, 1980: Genealogy Congress (Adelaide, 1981), p. 20 Google Scholar.

9 See Howell, Peter, ‘The South Australia Act’ in Jaensch, Dean (ed.), Flinders history of South Australia: political history (Adelaide, 1987), pp 43-8Google Scholar. The parliamentary debate is reported fully in Dickey, Brian and Howell, Peter (eds), South Australia’s foundation: selected documents (Adelaide, 1987), pp 32–42 Google Scholar.

10 Initially 13 in England, 4 in Scotland, 1 in Ireland; in 1865, 16 in England, 3 in Scotland, 1 in Ireland (Pike, Paradise of dissent, p. 151; Pruul, ‘Irish in N.S.W.’, p. 246).

11 Pike, Paradise of dissent, p. 140; George William Robertson to George Fife Angas, 12 May 1837 (Public Record Office of South Australia (hereafter P.R.O.S.A.), Angas papers, P.R.G. 174/1/801).

12 Hilliard, David and Hunt, A.D., ‘Religion’ in Richards, Eric (ed.), The Flinders history of South Australia: social history (Adelaide, 1986), p. 212 Google Scholar; Press, Our broken toil, pp31,51.

13 Handasyde Duncan, June 1850, quoted in Pike, Paradise of dissent, p. 318; Reports of the select committee of Legislative Council of South Australia … into the excessive female immigration (South Australian Parliamentary Papers, 1856), qq 9, 51; Government Gazette (Adelaide), 10 July 1851, pp 478-9.

14 Agreement between Archibald Adam snr of Greenock and Chas H. Bagot, 7 July 1840 (P.R.O.S.A., A 939).

15 Press, Our broken toil, p. 146.

16 A holograph memoir of Capt. Charles Hervey Bagot (new ed., Adelaide, Pioneers’ Association, 1960).

17 Special survey by Sir Montague Lowther Chapman, 1847 (P.R.O.S.A., Department of Lands, G.R.G. 35/584/31); Despatches from South Australia Colonization Commissions to resident commissioner, 25 May 1838, 14 Oct. 1841 (ibid., G.R.G. 48/5).

18 Bray, Kenneth W.A., ‘Government-sponsored immigration into South Australia, 1872-86’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Adelaide, 1961)Google Scholar; Miscellaneous papers on immigration, 1864-78 (P.R.O.S.A., Department of Lands, Immigration Agent, Adelaide, G.R.G. 35/46).

19 I wish to thank Sr Marie Foale for this information.

20 Press, Our broken toil, p. 96; Pruul, ‘Irish in N.S.W., p. 246.

21 Bray, ‘Government-sponsored immigration’, pp 154-6, app. C; Nominations for free passages, 1876-8 (P.R.O.S.A., Immigration Department, G.R.G. 7/42/1-3).

22 Fitzpatrick, David, ‘Irish emigration in the later nineteenth century’ in I.H.S., xxii, no. 86 (Sept. 1980), pp 134-7Google Scholar.

23 Clare was also the greatest source of immigrants for Victoria ( McConville, Chris, ‘The Victorian Irish: emigrants and families, 1831-91’ in Grimshaw, Patricia, McConville, Chris and McEwan, Ellen (eds), Families in colonial Australia (Sydney, 1985), pp 6–7 Google Scholar.

24 Despatches on excessive female immigration during 1855 (South Australian Parliamentary Papers, 1856, no. 183), pp 7 et seq.

25 The best source is Parkin, C.W., ‘Irish female immigration to Australia’ (unpublished B.A. thesis, University of Adelaide, 1964)Google Scholar. The quotation from the South Australian Register is in ibid., p. 20.

26 The Irish girls represented 37 per cent of the intake and of these half only were from the Catholic parts of Ireland.

27 Parkin, ‘Irish female immigration’, pp 24-30.

28 Ibid., p. 46.

29 Ibid., p. 59.

30 Some of this common prejudice, temporary though it was, was regurgitated by SirDilke, Charles Wentworth in Greater Britain (London, 1869), pp 372-4Google Scholar.

31 The select committee inquiry summarised it as the ‘shipment of unsuitable females, in most unusual numbers, without usual protection, and within a very limited period’ (Report of the select committee of the Legislative Council of South Australia … into the excessive female immigration (South Australia Parliamentary Papers, 1856).

32 Ship reports, Sea Park (P.R.O.S.A., G.R.G. 35/48/1855).

33 Report of the select committee … into the excessive female immigration, q. 51 et passim.

34 Parkin, ‘Irish female immigration’, p. 74.

35 Immigration ships’ papers, 1857 (P.R.O.S.A., Department of Lands, Crown Lands and Immigration Office, G.R.G. 35/48/1857); Richards, Eric, ‘The Highland Scots of South Australia in the 1850s’ in Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, iv, (1978), pp 33–64 Google Scholar.

36 Quoted in Parkin, ‘Irish female immigration’, p. 110. The fear of pauperism diminished rapidly, partly because immigration practically ceased in the immediately following years.

37 Quoted in Parkin, ‘Irish female immigration’, p. 109.

38 Journals of Caroline Emily Clark for 12-14 Apr. 1851 (M.L.S.A., Crompton papers, P.R.G. 331). See also Catherine Hussey to Barker, 5 Dec. 1855 (P.R.O.S.A., Hussey letters, A64 (Al)); and, for John Church’s description, in 1853, of ‘a great rough Irish girl’ who was employed as a domestic servant but was innocent of the niceties of the English class system, Church letters (M.L.S.A., D 6440 (C)).

39 Assisted immigration (South Australian Parliamentary Papers, 1855, no. 152), app. K, p. 15.

40 Memoirs of O’Dea, Michael (M.L.S.A., D 5235); ‘Memoirs of Michael O’Dea’, ed. Pruul, Susan, in South Australiana, xv, no. 1 (1976), pp 3–35 Google Scholar.

41 Wyly, Dorothy A.A., Irish origins: a family’s settlement in Australia (Launceston, 1976)Google Scholar.

42 A.A.L., ‘The first settlers at Gawler’ in Royal Geographical Society of Australia (S.A.) Proceedings, xxviii (1926-7), p. 77 Google Scholar; Cockburn, Rodney, Pastoral pioneers of South Australia (2 vols, Adelaide, 1925), i, 6–7 Google Scholar.

43 A.A.L., ‘First settlers at Gawler’, pp 53-82.

44 Pike, Paradise of dissent, p. 337.

45 It is likely that the Irish were disproportionately influential in the northern extension of settlement; see Press, Our broken toil, pp 42, 46.

46 Account of Dempsey family by Dempsey, J. (M.L.S.A., D 5084 (T)); The Dempsey family (1933; new ed. Condon, B., Adelaide, 1983)Google Scholar.

47 Irish Harp and Farmers’ Herald, 23 Apr., 1, 8, 15, 21, 22, 29 May, 2, 12, 26 June 1874. Daniel Brady claimed to have brought to the colony more than 500 people including relatives from Co. Cavan (Michael and Daniel Kenny to lieut gov., 8 Feb. 1851, P.R.O.S.A., G.R.G. 24/6A (1851) 437). Kenny’s nomination activity is confirmed in part in Index to free colonial nominations, 1876-9 (ibid., G.R.G. 7/44); 8 Feb. 1851 (G.R.G. 24/6A (1851) 437); 17 Mar. 1851 (ibid., no. 889); Advertiser, 24 July 1886. See also Kenny, Kevin, The descendants of Brigid Purtle (Adelaide, 1979)Google Scholar; Press, Our broken toil, p. 150. Brady’s progress is charted through his land purchases and applications for nominated migrants in Brady to lieut gov., 27 Sept. 1847 (P.R.O.S.A., G.R.G. 26/4A (1847) 1223); Lieut gov. to Brady, 12 Aug. 1848 (ibid., 24/4/P (1848) 390). See also Dempster, ‘The Dempsey family’; Keain, ‘Catholic church’, p. 23.

49 Reminiscences of Thomas Hogarth (M.L.S.A., D 5747 (L)).

49 SrMacklin, Shirley F., ‘Pastoral pioneers in South Australia: a quantitative analysis’ (unpublished B.A. thesis, Flinders University, 1978)Google Scholar.

50 See Barbalet, Margaret, ‘State children: theory and practice in South Australia, 1918-1928’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Adelaide, 1973)Google Scholar; Far from a low gutter girl (Melbourne, 1983), pp xv-xvi; Dickey, Brian, ‘Dependence in South Australia’ in Australia, 1888: Bulletin, no. 8 (Sept. 1981)Google Scholar; Pruul, ‘Irish in N.S.W.’, pp 224-5.

51 E.g. John Crawford Woods (’Rambling recollections of John Crawford Woods, B.A.’ (M.L.S.A., D 5037/1/2).

52 On doctors, see Proceedings of the South Australian Branch of the British Medical Association, i (1880-83), ii (1883-6), iii (1887-92) and South Australian Medical Board Register and Minute Book, i, which indicates origins of doctors’ first degrees. For teachers, see reports of the Education Board, pr. in Government Gazettes and parliamentary papers. On the United Labour Party, see Dickey, Brian, ‘South Australia’ in Murphy, D.J. (ed.), Labor in politics (St Lucia, Queensland, 1975)Google Scholar; Coxon, H., Playford, J. and Reid, R., Biographical register of the South Australian parliament, 1857-1957 (Adelaide, 1985)Google Scholar. On the conservative side of colonial politics there was also considerable Irish representation, notably from George Kingston and Rev. Charles Howard, often regarded as red-hot Tories. See Press, Our broken toil, p. 45. For clergymen, see Reed, T.T., Anglican clergymen of South Australia in the nineteenth century (Gumeracha, S.A., 1986)Google Scholar. Other estimates are derived from South Australian Year Books (Adelaide, annually), and the Biographical register to South Australia (4 vols, Adelaide, 1986).

53 South Australia was led by an Irish Catholic governor in the years 1862-8. Sir Dominick Daly from Galway was ‘popular with all sections of the colony’s population yet uncompromising in his Catholicism’. The fact that the governor openly attended mass in Adelaide was regarded with some astonishment by local Catholics. See Press, Our broken toil, pp 168-9.

54 Pruul, ‘Irish in N.S.W.’, p. 237. Clare was the most Irish place in South Australia, yet even Clare had difficulty sustaining its Irish character. In 1881, of a total population of 1,131 only 120 had been born in Ireland, 197 in England and Wales, 699 having been born in the colony (Census, 1881, pt VII (South Australian Parliamentary Papers)). Without large transfusions from Ireland local demographic trends were bound to weaken the direct Irish influence. In 1891, of the South Australian population born in the British Isles 30 per cent were from Ireland and 12 per cent from Scotland, but Irish females accounted for only 23 per cent of total British Isles born females (Census, 1891 (South Australian Parliamentary Papers)).

55 Irish Harp, 26 June 1874.

56 Davitt, Michael, Life and progress in Australia (London, 1898), pp 41–110 Google Scholar; Glynn, Patrick McMahon, Letters to his family, 1874-1927 (Melbourne, 1974)Google Scholar.

57 In 1868 there was a widespread and systematic police investigation into Fenianism in South Australia. It discovered that while there had been open discussion of Fenian principles in public houses in Clare, Kapunda and Adelaide, the Irish population was well disposed to the ‘English’ government. Out of a total population of 170,000 ‘only’ 88 were known to be hostile. (Correspondence file of Police Department, 1868 (P.R.O.S.A., South Australian Police Department, G.R.G. 5/2/1868/395, 502, 721); List of letters received and sent by Police Department, 1868 (ibid., 5/3); Miscellaneous papers of the Police Department, 1840-75, at 1868 (ibid., 5/4). See also Attempted assassination of H.R.H. the duke of Edinburgh: correspondence, etc. (Parliamentary Papers of New South Wales, 1868-9), pp 9-10.)

58 E.g., Fitzpatrick, ‘Irish emigration’; Erickson, Charlotte, ‘Emigration from the British Isles to the U.S.A. in 1841, part I: emigration from the British Isles’ in Population Studies, xlii (1989), pp 347-68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Emigration from the British Isles to the U.S.A. in 1841, part II: who were the English emigrants?’ in ibid., xliv (1990), pp 21-40; Elliott, Bruce S., Irish migrants in the Canadas (Kingston and Montreal, 1988)Google Scholar; Finnane, Mark, ‘Irish and crime in the late nineteenth century: a statistical inquiry’ in MacDonagh, Oliver and Mandle, W.F. (eds), Irish-Australian studies (Canberra, 1989)Google Scholar.

59 See, e.g., Richards, Eric, ‘Australia and the Scottish connection, 1788-1914’ in Cage, R.A. (ed.), The Scots abroad (London, 1985), pp 111-12Google Scholar.

60 This is a condensed version of a paper given at a conference in Dublin in April 1987 entitled ‘Australia and Ireland: the emigrant experience’. I wish to thank Philippa Fletcher, Robert Foster, Sally Richards, David Hilliard, Robin Haines, Leith MacGillvray and Ruth Schumann for their help, and particularly Susan Woodburn, who kindly lent her thesis notes.