Good afternoon everyone!

I am a third year history student at Sydney Uni. I chose to do my final project on the Quarantine Station because I have simply always found the site so beautiful and intriguing. I remember going on a ghost tour when I was about 8 years old, and since then have enjoyed coming up to North Head to enjoy the tranquillity and isolation offered by this unique historical site. As a local community member, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more about this prominent location, and have thoroughly enjoyed being able to explore and research the physical and recorded history of the station.

In my work, I chose to research the passage of the ship Canton, which travelled to Sydney from London in 1835. The ship was the first to officially deliver passengers to quarantine at the station, due to instances of small pox on board the vessel. As a Female Emigrant Ship, women outnumbered men 8 messes to 3, and 167 of the Young Women came at the expense of the government program Single and Free[1]. This was a migration scheme employed to assist free women in migrating to Australia from Great Britain and Ireland around this time[2].  

My insight into the voyage was gained primarily from the original journal of a 16 year old son of an English emigrant, John Dawson, a gardener travelling to Australia from Lincolnshire with his wife, 3 daughters and 5 sons. Dawson’s son, also called John, was meticulous in recording the daily activities and happenings on the ship, noting sightings of dolphins and porpoises with particular excitement, though his detailed recordings of daily food rations and wind directions proved much less engaging. The Canton voyage was also significant in spurning an elaborate inscription into the sandstone at the Quarantine Station, which seems to read:

J DAWSON LANDED HERE TO PERFORM QUARANTINE ON 11TH OF SEPTEMBER A.D. 1835 WITH HIS WIFE MARY AND 3 SONS 5 DAUGHTERS FROM LINCOLNSHIRE OF LONDON ON THE SHIP CANTON IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IV BRITAIN AND IRELAND

As the Canton was the first ship to officially deliver passengers to the station for a quarantine period, it is believed this is one of the earlier inscriptions of the thousands now present at the station. Thus, it holds special importance as it is believed to have inspired the tradition of leaving carved or painted messages - a tradition that carried on until the closure of the Quarantine Station in 1984.

The Canton journey seems relatively tame by some standards of voyage occurring in similar times, with rough seas, rotten food and the occasional clumsy accident more commonly affecting passengers than did debilitating and deadly disease. Dawson records that even early in the voyage, the ship “swarms with filth - almost every one being covered more or less."[3] This said, the Dawson journal records the death of 3 children taken by the small pox disease, while many more were admitted to hospital with the disease. Three of the Dawson girls, Jane, Fanny and Charlotte, fell victim to the disease during passage, but recovered before arrival to Australia.  With scarce resources on board to fight the disease, and such close living quarters enabling rapid spread of the virus, methods of management for small pox was simply airing the beds on deck, and sprinkling them with chloride of lime in hopes of disinfection. At times, the passengers were served lime juice and made to eat their victuals on deck in the fresh air, presumably in the hope of fighting scurvy and other disease[4].

Not only plagued by disease, the journey was also not without scandal. Entries in the Dawson diary speak of several rows between emigrants and those in charge, in particular for inappropriate behaviour between couples below the deck. In one case, Dawson tells the story of the Steward and the ship, and one of the women on board. “We had also anor gt Calamity on board last night One of ye young Ladies named Miss Storey (A Cabin Passenger) being caught with ye Steward in his Pantry by ye Captain himself on which a/c she was taken into ye Hospital immy by bodily force by 4 of ye Sailors. The Stewards was this morning ordered to deliver up his keys & remove his box & other things into ye Forecastle where he himself is to remain during ye voyage. ye man has a wife & family in London."[5] Further, one Female emigrant was repeatedly thrown into the “coal hole because she persisted in smoking after being ordered not to”[6]. The girls certainly seemed to band together during the voyage, and Dawson reports that one day “a pretty Row kicked up between the Doctor & a Girl of the name Kitty Mannings he ordering her to go on Deck when she refused & he struck her with a switch when a lot of the other Girls joined her & abused him shamefully. thinkg to murder him at the first opportunity”[7].

The Single and Free program upon which the majority of female emigrants travelled was surrounded by disapproval from many upper class members of society, with contemporary criticisms of the program, as explored in Elizabeth Rushen’s book Single and Free: Female Migration to Australia, 1833-1837, classing the women as ‘sweepings of the gutters’, with this pessimism and slight intrigue about the women evident in Dawson’s recordings. Earlier voyages taking part in the program reported their ‘cargo’, speaking of these women, as thoroughly revolting at heart, even before their voyage. Others, who began the journey as reputable women, were apparently ruined forever by the abhorrent society to which they were made to travel, and then live in. While the Canton was first reported to have carried better cargo than its predecessor female emigrant ships, statements taken from the Colonial Secretary’s Office of Sydney, less than a year after the ships arrival, tells that this was not the case. Apparently, ‘’the character of a great proportion of Females by this ship became notorious very soon after their arrival”, while over forty of women were found to reside asylums, poor houses, and other place of bad repute in the colonial capital in the years following their arrival on board the Canton[8]. Upon arrival to Australia, the Secretaries Office appointed a ‘respectable person… to superintend and to carry into effect all the arrangements of the Committee of Ladies and gentlemen, who attended for the purpose of procuring suitable situations for the Young Women, and every possible precaution was used to prevent any of them going into the service of improper persons. However, as stated, this was not always achieved. While, initially, the women were all in some way provided for, the Office singles out women labelled as imbecilic, insane, drunkards and prostitutes as individuals who will remain a burden on the Colonial Government, and whom should not have been sent at the expense of the Colony in the first place[9].

In completing my transcription of the diary, I was curious to find out what happened to the Dawson family following their arrival onshore after time in Quarantine Station. I was lucky enough to discover a book chronicling the family’s early beginnings in Lincolnshire, touching on their migratory passage to Australia, and providing a vast amount of information about life after Quarantine for the original Dawson family, and their more recent ancestors. The text, The Gardener’s Gamble, provides a substantial detailing of the successes of the Dawson family, with Australia proving a land of opportunity, where they became prosperous landowners, lawyers, engineers and traders following their initial voyage to Australia and time in quarantine[10].

On a quick end note, as I was finishing up my many hours of transcribing the 10000 so words of the Dawson diary, I was informed that scrawl I had mistaken for scribble at the beginning of the diary was in fact a message written in French. With the help of Peter, and his academic connections, we discerned that the text, reading (and excuse my terrible French)

Mr Dawson

Est un imbecile 

un foutu con

de Grimbsy -

Par son ami 

-       Could be translated to "Mr Dawson, is a fool, a bloody fuckwit. Grimbsy, his friend," with a name crossed out at the end[11]. While I am not sure who wrote this piece, and whether it was written before the voyage or interjected after, it certainly provides a different tone to the meticulous, controlled recordings otherwise present in the journal, and proved that 1835 was not as polite as I had come to believe.

Thank you all for your time today, I hope you have enjoyed the presentation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Colonial Secretary’s Report of the manner in which the Female Emigrants, arrived per Ship “Canton”, 3 September 1835, have been disposed of.  Enclosed in a letter from Sir Richard Bourke to Lord Glenelg, 3 March 1836. Contained in Historical Records of Australia, p. 343-346.

Dawson, J. Journal or diary of the passage of the ship Canton, 19 April- 8 September 1835. Archived in Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, call number IZA456.

Rushen, Elizabeth. (2011). Single & Free: female migration to Australia, 1833-1837. Sydney: Anchor Books Australia.

NOTES

__________________________________________________

[1] Colonial Secretary’s Report of the manner in which the Female Emigrants, arrived per Ship “Canton”, 3 September 1835, have been disposed of.  Enclosed in a letter from Sir Richard Bourke to Lord Glenelg, 3 March 1836. Contained in Historical Records of Australia, p. 343

[2] Elizabeth Rushen. Single and free: female migration to Australia, 1833-1837.

[3] Journal or diary of John Dawson, 11 August 1835, State Library of New South Wales, call number IZA456.

[4] Dawson, 1835.

[5] Dawson, 26 August 1835.

[6] Dawson, 16 May 1835.

[7] Dawson, 30 May 1835.

[8] Colonial Secretary’s Report, p. 344.

[9] Colonial Secretaries Report, 1836. p. 344.

[10] Helen Laidlaw, The Gardeners Gamble.

[11] Translated by Margaret Sankey, Professor Emerita of French Studies at the University of Sydney.

For this project, I have chosen to research the passage of the ship Canton, in 1835, from London to Sydney.  The ship was quarantined at the Quarantine Station, a site near Manly, New South Wales, used for these quarantine purposes from 1833-1984. For my research into the voyage of the ship, I came across the presence of an inscription by one of the ships passengers, John Dawson, who travelled to Australia with his 8 children, with the ship spending one month in quarantine due to instances of small pox on board, before it’s passengers could begin their new life. My insight into the voyage was gained primarily from a journal written by Dawson’s 16-year-old son, which I have transcribed from digital images, and presented to Mitchell Library, where the original document is archived. I am also undertaking a short presentation to local community members who are interested in the Quarantine Station, thus clearly engaging in the public history element of the topic.

Through documenting and researching the inscription of focus, the fragility of historical sources comes to light. The need to do all we can to preserve the physical contents of history (where possible!), or at least the stories and circumstances behind them, are paramount in ensuring a well-rounded and engaging documentation of the past. As I have seen in field work undertaken throughout my project, lack of resources, weather and natural phenomenon are just a few of the many elements that have the ability to degrade and hamper historical sources such as engravings. Further, I have discovered the need, particularly in public history, to adapt resources and engagement to the modernising society in which we live. By digitalising and widening access to the various sources at our disposal, we can hope to engage more people and ensure the value of history, and its sources are not lost.

The recent story behind the inscription my project focuses on is evidence in itself for the need to correctly document and preserve historical sites for future generations. The need to not only document, but research and discover the meaning of historical sources is evidenced by the primary source of the Dawson inscription. In the years since it was last documented, at which point it was already significantly weathered and illegible in parts, the inscription has become further eroded and damaged. This is a natural process of which little can be done to halt, proving the fragility of much of history, particularly in its physical forms, and the need to correctly detail and uncover the meaning and stories behind it’s creation. The 1835 diary I utilised can also be seen as evidence for the value of adapting history and historical resources to the ‘here and now’. By transcribing the original documents to an easily understandable, technologically accessible setting, to be made available in a library of widespread engagement and access, this argument of history for the modern public is made.

The Quarantine Station is a rare and vast historical site, with innumerable personal stories and physical sources that cement it’s unique historical value. I believe the site itself may benefit from my project, by adding to the vault of personal stories and experiences of those who experienced the site. While, on its own, the project may not reach large numbers of people, by contributing to the research of the larger Sydney University/Q Station joint project, Stories from the Sandstone, I hope to reach a more significant group of people, of a broader age and interest demographic than mere history academics. I think my transcription work has the potential to reach a large number of people; through its inclusion at the Mitchell Library archives. It will be valuable to different groups, from those looking at early journeys to Australia, to those simply interested in life in these times. This work will be presented in numerous forms. As well as presenting the digital diary transcription to the Mitchell Library, my research and brief overview of the Canton voyage, and the Dawson family, will be presented as part of the Stories from the Sandstone project. This project, and thus my work, contributes to the promotion of the Quarantine Station in an open forum, while demonstrating the ability of history to become publicly accessible through digital means in an academic forum. By presenting my work in this way, I know it will be widely accessible and widely promoted to people from a large section of the community, both academic and general.

I think this project is significant because, as argued earlier, historical resources are fragile, and need to be efficiently documented and researched while they are still available. It will certainly be of use to the Quarantine Station in contributing to the overall understanding and bank of research surrounding the site. I also hope that, in future years, the presence and acknowledgement of such sources, and the interest they hold for various individuals such as myself, will ensure the value of the site is not underestimated, and help in safeguarding the site against development and change. I hope my short presentation will also contribute to this cause, as will my everyday discourse as I discuss this project with my friends, family and classmates. I believe any awareness and interest in the Quarantine Station is important in not only reinforcing the value of the place, but also in bringing history into public sphere.

As part of a larger, more established project, I hope the value of my work will transcend this unit and become valuable for future research and promotion of the historical site. Similarly, by having one of my project elements archived in the Mitchell Library, I hope it will be of use to people with similar interests to my own, and will remain patent and accessible in a constantly modernising society. I hope the project has proved my worth and interest to my community contact, as I have vastly enjoyed my experience and would certainly be interested in further, informal arrangements with the Quarantine Station.

— MOLLY CLARKE

Molly Clarke, "The Quarantine Station," History Matters, (25 October 2015)