The subject of German migration to Australia has interested me for many years but when I finally sat down to study the topic about fifteen years ago I soon found it to be more fascination than interest. To try and answer Pam's question we need to put to bed a few myths that seem to have developed. First of all religion had absolutely no bearing on German migration to any state but South Australia in the 19th century. There was a fleet of three ships that docked off Port Adelaide in 1838. The total passengers of these ships made up one Lutheran congregation. They came under the lead of a Lutheran pastor who was fleeing Saxony because of perceived religious persecution. The people in the fleet were in the main members of his congregation in Saxony. Actually they came from Silesia although Saxony gets a fair mention. It cannot be doubted that some had come because of religion but if we examine some of the material created by these migrants we begin to see that family and opportunity played a large part in their decision. In 1842 a ship arrived in Prot Adelaide and there can be no question that almost all of these migrates had come because of religious beliefs. In fact if one traces their families down the line we can see those same religious concerns being promoted as late as 2007. After these two groups the South Australian Germans came from Silesia, Saxony and the Wends came from Slovenia. The church in South Australia did play a role in their migration but in every instance where I have researched I find family or opportunity was the motivator. In fact I consider that German migration to South Australia was relatively small compared to NSW and Queensland. Victoria is interesting because while some groups migrated direct from Germany to Victoria to places like Thomastown and Geelong there were probably as many who jumped ships of which they were crews and headed south from Sydney. There were probably many more who travelled across from Adelaide to the Western districts and Wimmera. I can find no record of Gamna migration to Western Australia. The few German settlements in that state seemed to ache come from Adelaide. Tasmania is of interest and to date I cannot get much on it. However I know that threat was a small German migration to that state. New South Wales has fascinated me. Initlaly I was told that there had never been any migration to NSW. Then I stumbled on some data that started me to ask lots of questions. The interesting things I found is that there was a wine industry in NSW well before any vines wert grown in South Australia. The gentry of Sydney began to bring German mignrats from the Rhine regions from the early 1800s to tend their vineyards. In the mid-1800s there was a huge migration of Gemrnas to the Hunter regions and further out. These mignrats came via Sydney buit a lot come via Moreton bay. There were large German settlements in Grafton, Armidale, Tenterfield, west of Bathurst and the Hunter Valley regions. They were brought there because of their skills. In many cases they were sponsored by employers and in some case by government. What I find amazing is that within a generation all trace of German ancestry seemed to be forgotten. As I have moved about asking questions I get people even today who say they never knew they were of German descent. The German migration to South Queensland seems to out number the other states combined. I don't think I am too lazed in saying that there were actually two or maybe three migration periods. Prior to separation from NSW the Moreton bay administration had encouraged agents to go to Pomerania in northern Germany and recruit migrant families to come to Queensland to work as shepherds and farm hands for the station owners. Then after separation the infant Queensland government sent agents across the Pomerania and Poland to recruit settlers to come out to take up land selections. Depending on who we look at it we can say that this continued until the 1890s or we can say that there was another recruitment drive in the same places in the 1970s and 80s. We can go further here and say that this time the government also enticed professionals and skilled tradesmen to migrate. I could expand on this and am happy to if anybody wants it. I have given a very broad answer to Pam's query. I can assure anybody who questions me that religion played NO part in migration to Queensland. Having said that I know that a pastor Neimeyer did go to Pomerania a number of times at the request of the Queensland government to recruit migrants. Hope this helps answer a little bit. Albert Grulke -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lorrae Sent: Tuesday, 30 October 2007 6:33 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [SEQ-Germans] German immigration Hi Pamela There have been some wonderful discussion on this in the SEQld German list. Some of them have been sponsored by the Government through the German religious ministers to bring people from the homeland to Australia. Lorrae Glenore Grove Qld 4342 http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=helmrich Researching: WESCHE, KADDATZ, SCHAPER - Germany 1880's - Qld Aust. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/j/o/h/Lorrae-Johnson/ Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:34:48 -0800 From: Pam Dowling <[email protected]> Subject: [Gen-Qld] German immigration To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi all, I'm interested to know why there seem to have been so many German immigrants to SE Qld. Can anyone expand on the timeframe, reasons or the social history behind this please? Regards Pam An Aussie transplanted to Rotorua, NZ A List for the research for the descendants of the Germans who migrated to South East Queensland, Australia. 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