Rosanna McDonnell

Rosanna (Rose) McDonnell/McDonald was eighteen years old when she arrived in Australia as one of the young women who were part of the "Earl Grey Orphan Scheme". Her family had lived at Killaid in Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The "Earl Grey" sailed from Plymouth in the beginning of June 1848 with two hundred Irish female orphans on board. I twas the first of a series of similar deportations of suitable girls from the workhouses. In the eyes of the imperial social engineers, the famine orphans were young marriageable women who would bring a stablising influence to rough masculine colonial societies. The girls were often known as "The Potato Orphans" or "The Lost Children".

On arrival in Sydney, the young girls were transferred to the Hyde Park Barracks where they lived until their future could be decided. On leaving the workhouse, the girls were given a chest with personal belongings including some clothes, a bible and a hairbrush.

Rose married Patrick Casey in 1850 and they had moved to Queensland by October 1851 where Patrick was later granted land on the Warrill Creek in Churchill.

Patrick died 28 May 1898 and Rose in September 1911. Both Rose and Patrick were buried in the Roman Catholic A section of the Ipswich cemetery.