taken from IMMIGRATION DURING THE 1850's by William S Logan. "An Assistant Immigration Agent was appointed to Warrnambool about September, 1856 to cope, presumably, with the increased flow of immigrants through Lady Bay. But the continuing scarcity of labour was not satisfied by the immigrants who arrived, and the Melbourne authorities gave instructions in September 1857, for HMS VIctoria to take a batch of unemployed from the metropolis to Warrnambool to fill work vacancies. Some immigrants entering at Port Fairy also began to make their way to the more flourishing town of Warrnambool: for example, of the 55 married couples, 33 single men and 14 single women who landed at Port Fairy from the Balnaguit in January, 1857, about one third left almost immediately for Warrnambool by coastal steamer...leaving one third to be engaged at Belfast and district and the remaindeer waiting in the Belfast IMmigration Depot to be engaged". The significance of the port-towns roles as immigrations centres were greatly reduced in 1859 when the colonial government decided that all assisted immigrants would in future disembark at Melbourne and be transferred, subsequently, to the out ports by coastal vessels. In that year, therefore, no vessels brought immigrants directly from Britiain to the SOuth-west, though 75 persons were transhipped in Hobsons Bay for Portland, 49 for Belfast and 72 for Warrnambool. The following web page gives further examples of emigration schemes used to attract migrants. http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/migrate.htm best wishes Jenny Fawcett