Route 66 Clothing Australia

[Giorgiana Sulyma]

Immigrationis a vital feature of Australia's history and national identity. Explore the journey through immigrants' stories; discover the changing routes and travelling conditions, and find out what departure and arrival meant for those seeking a home in this distant land.

Immigration is a vital feature of Australia's history and national identity. Since 1788, millions have made the long journey across the oceans to Australia seeking fortune, opportunity and freedom. They came by clipper, steamer and liner until the aeroplane became established as the main means of long distance travel in the 1970s.

For those who travelled to Australia in the nineteenth century, the journey was often long and dangerous. In calm weather a sailing ship might take as long as four months, while a well-run clipper ship with favourable winds could make the journey in a little over half this time. These ships represented the pinnacle of sailing ship technology. With their streamlined hulls and acres of sail designed to catch even the slightest breeze, clippers were built primarily for speed.

By the 1850s it was possible to make the journey by auxiliary steamer, using a combination of steam and sail. However steam technology was still too inefficient to allow a ship to travel all the way to Australia under its own power. With the strong prevailing westerlies on the 'Great Circle' sailing route benefiting the clippers, sail continued to dominate the trade until the end of the 1870s.

Regardless of the difficulties in getting to Australia, it had become an increasingly popular destination for free settlers. Convicts were no longer the major source of new arrivals to the colonies. With the discovery of gold in 1851 and a booming economy, people were now coming to Victoria and Australia by choice. People came from many countries, the majority from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany. (For details, see Origins - the First Census.)

Chinese immigration remained controversial for many decades. The following verse from a song by Charles Thatcher perhaps encapsulates the attitude of many colonists to the arrival of immigrants from China. (Thatcher became a popular music-hall entertainer on the Victorian goldfields after his arrival in 1878).

You doubtless read the paper

And, as men of observation,

Of course you watch the progress of

Chinese immigration.

A thousand of these pig-tailed chaps

In Adelaide are landing,

And why they let such numbers come

Exceeds my understanding!

The first iron-hulled steam ships made the journey to Australia in 1852. However, these early steamers, known as auxiliaries, still carried a full set of sails, as their inefficient engines and the lack of coaling ports en route to Australia prevented the use of the new steam technology over long distances.

Whilst speed was not initially improved by the introduction of steam, comfort and strength were. The change from traditional wooden hulled ships to iron hulls enabled steamships to be larger and stronger, with much greater space below the decks.

In the 1860s the more efficient compound steam engine, in which steam was expanded in successive cylinders, was introduced. This enabled ships to make the voyage to Australia entirely under steam power. However, it wasn't until the 1880s after the introduction of a government mail subsidy, that steam ships became profitable and began to carry the majority of immigrants. Less reliant on wind, they travelled at a constant speed and provided power for electric lighting, refrigeration and ventilation. Grand saloons were able to be provided for first class passengers, and small cabins instead of sleeping berths were provided in steerage class.

Navigating the route to Australia was a complex task, requiring great skill on the part of the ship's captain, as well as the use of various navigational tools. These included the telescope, marine compass, ship's log and sextant. However, navigation was also dependent on the ship's captain having a good working knowledge of the position of the stars in the night sky.

Telescopes were an essential tool of marine navigation for examining sightings of land more closely and for identifying ships passed en route. This was especially important in times of war.

The introduction of iron hulled ships such as the Great Britain created complications for the use of the compass. The metal in the hull of these ships interfered with the behaviour of the magnetic needle, requiring special adjustments and calculations to be made for accurate readings.

Charts and navigation maps were developed by the Admiralty for the use of British naval and merchant ships. Detail and accuracy were very important, and many are still in use today. Charts and maps were always kept in the chartroom on board the ship.

A chronometer is a timepiece that is able to keep accurate time on board ship. It enables mariners to calculate longitude by observing the position of certain stars in the sky at specific times, and comparing their observations with the data contained in a nautical almanac.

A Ship's Log looked very similar to a torpedo but was used to measure the speed of a ship. When dragged behind the vessel, movement of water past the propeller caused it to rotate, turning the small needle dials to record the distance and speed travelled.

This route involved enormous risks from drifting icebergs and the wild seas generated by frequent storms. It required exceptional navigational skills, as even the slightest error could lead to disaster. The large number of ships that were lost when navigating the narrow path between King Island and southern Victoria led to the West Coast of Victoria becoming known as the Shipwreck Coast.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave ships coming from Europe an alternative route to Australia. However, as early steamers still partially relied on wind power, most shipping lines continued to use the 'Great Circle' route. It was several decades before steam engines were reliable and efficient enough to enable ships to complete the entire journey to Australia under steam.

We were just wondering how long the storm would last and sending up a silent prayer for protection when crash went something on deck, and the water swept over the decks and down in the cabin, we gave ourselves up for lost and the people rushed out of their cabins looking terrified. Ma sat quite calm, I looked at her and could see her lips moving, she was pale as death and so was Papa, we did not know what had been the matter, some thought it was the cookhouse washed away but one of the passengers who is a Sea Captain went on deck and came and said it was only a little bit of the flimsy part of the bulwarks gone, the hatching had broken open in the second class cabin and they were almost able to bathe, as the water then had come in, they all had to get to work baling out, all hands were called up, even the waiters had to start baling water out of the saloon as there in some parts it was a foot deep, the windows were all smashed and the things were all floating, we in our cabin fared the best, as we had not much in comparison.

For 'steerage' passengers in particular, cramped and unhygienic quarters became worse when tremendous storms were encountered in the Southern Ocean. At such times, all passengers were confined below deck for days, sick and tossed around, often in complete darkness, and fearing for their lives.

Deaths at sea were tragically common. As many as one in five children, and one in 60 adults died on the voyage to Australia. For the burial, the body was sewn into a piece of canvas or placed in a rough coffin (often hastily knocked up by the ship's carpenter) and weighed down with pig iron or lead to help it sink.

In the late eighteenth century, Captain Cook and others had discovered that a lack of vitamin C was the cause of scurvy. The juice of oranges, lemons and limes was subsequently given to sailors and passengers to prevent death from scurvy.

Water kept in wooden barrels would become very stale after a few months. Rats and mice would fall into the open barrels and drown, and algae would grow in the barrels and make people violently ill. The link between cholera and contaminated drinking water was not discovered until 1848, but even after this, ships continued to draw water from polluted rivers in ports that they visited.

To feed the sailors and passengers, stores were kept in the hold and opened as needed by the cooks. Stores such as pickled meat (pork or beef in brine) flour, sugar and dried pulses (peas) were kept on board in wooden barrels. These barrels were usually fitted with lids, but were often kept open overnight. The stores could be raided by hungry rats and mice, leaving traces from their nocturnal visits, and the grain and flour stores were often infested with weevils. Adulterated food and water caused diseases like dysentery to be commonplace, resulting in many deaths on some voyages.

Vinegar and chloride of lime were used to wash the wooden floors and decks of the ships, as fresh water was reserved for drinking and cooking. Cleaning with vinegar helped prevent the spread of disease and made the ship smell better. It also removed the vomit of people suffering from sea-sickness and other diseases.

Another fearful cold day. We are starved to death almost, our good ship rolls us about in a frightful style, every meal time we have to hold on to the tables and seats and keep our cups from wandering all over the cabin. During the night, we have been constantly on the move, first one side then the other, and we have been troubled to an alarming extent during the hot weather with a brown kind of insect, a terror to tidy English matrons and maidens, and one of the ladies in my cabin says she will pin a letter onto her berth to certify that it will accommodate a regiment of things besides a lady, of course you will comprehend the name of the regiment. We have fared better than the second cabin passengers, as they have the engine right in the midst of them and it made it much hotter.

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