Ipswich Immigration Depot

In 'Ipswich in the 20th Century' Robyn Buchanan wrote:

One of the great problems in the early years of Queensland was shortage of labour. Squatters and businessmen were always keen to hire newly-arrived immigrants. In 1862, residents of Ipswich petitioned the Governor, asking for an immigration depot to be established in their town. They pointed out that a great many immigrants were coming to Queensland and that immigration depots were needed. These should be close to places where country employers could come to engage them. Ipswich, they said, would be a very convenient place for such a depot. The proposal was approved, although the Police Magistrate Colonel Gray had some restrictions on the site: he said he wanted it on the banks of the Bremer where there would be a good water supply, but also away from the town, with the aim of: saving the inhabitants from the exhibition of many unsightly acts which must be enacted by an assemblage of such a heterogeneous collection of people. 

The depot was built on the northern bank of the river in 1863. It used prefabricated timber buildings originally intended to be sent to Port Albany on Cape York. Immigrants were brought directly to Ipswich by paddle steamer, their numbers and country of origin being reported regularly in the newspaper. In August 1864, for example, 238 immigrants arrived on the paddle steamer Settler and 50 were engaged by employers within a day.

Although quarantine was enforced when ships arrived at Moreton Bay, typhus came to Ipswich with one batch. On arrival at the Immigration Depot, their entire collection of belongings was burned as a precaution. It was reported that “the distress of some of the girls in parting with all they possessed was indeed pitiable”. There were no separate quarters for married couples and this angered some immigrants. On one occasion, a man attacked a warden when he was asked to leave the women’s section. Conditions were quite austere in the early years.  One immigrant, Andrew Nimmo, later recalled: The immigrants who slept there, both men and women, were issued with blankets and given wooden bunks without the comfort of a mattress. The Matron was Miss Graham, a Scotswoman and a very severe disciplinarian who soon got men folk to work chopping wood for the depot. 

The depot often became overcrowded, particularly when railway construction began in 1864 and large batches of railway workers arrived.

This was highlighted in 1865 when Mr. Welsby, the agent in charge of the depot, wrote to the government requesting urgent improvements and additions. He said there were 600 adults in the depot and they were “very unpleasantly situated”. Next day, the Police Magistrate Colonel Gray also wrote to the Colonial Secretary’s Department.  He admitted that the matter was “not strictly his business” but went on to give a vivid picture of the appalling conditions that the new arrivals faced in the reception centre that was supposed to welcome them to their new country.

He said the railway contractors had not been able to take 300 people to Bigge’s Camp as they had promised, and this was causing particularly bad overcrowding. The previous night, a pregnant immigrant woman had gone into labour. She was lying in a ward occupied by 150 people and had absolutely no privacy.  Dr Dorsey was summoned and Gray reported: There was no ventilation whatever in the wards and the stench was so unbearable that he was obliged to rush out into the open air to prevent his becoming sick.” 

Gray suggested a section of a ward be partitioned off in case this ever happened again. He also instructed Welsby to get a nurse for the woman and give her any help she needed.

This was an extreme example however, and when large groups arrived, the people were usually hired very rapidly and the depot was sometimes almost empty.

Most immigrants were seriously looking for a new life, but there was sometimes boisterous behaviour in town when they were finally released from a cramped few months on board a ship.

The depot continued to operate and as late as 1900, a newspaper reported that four immigrant girls from the ship Jumna were at the Ipswich Depot wanting engagement. Three were housemaids and one was a nursery maid.  Soon after this, the depot closed and its buildings were advertised for sale for removal. They were purchased by the trustees of Ipswich Cricket Ground in 1905. The site of the old depot is now a sports field.

Ipswich Water Works Plan, 1876

Sketch from "That Gallant Gentleman: The Remarkable Story of Colonel Charles George Gray" by Kenneth R Dutton

Sketch illustrating the Ipswich Immigration Depot during Gray's time as Police Magistrate - taken from an old newspaper cutting of unknown origin. (Courtesy of A Hancock, Gray's great-great-granddaughter).