The Folk from the Wind Wound Isle > Coming to Australia
page 7
Arthur Robertson travelled to Australia on the Vanguard, a ship of 1303 tons carrying 232 passengers (47 Scots, 82 English and 97 Irish), which sailed from Liverpool on 21 July 1863 and arrived in Melbourne on 1 November. Arthur disembarked at Geelong. He is listed in the ship’s manifest as ‘labourer’, but it is understood in the family that he worked his passage as a leading hand.
John Collins McCue tells us that when the Vanguard docked at Geelong it was met by John Lang Currie. Currie was the owner of Larra station in Victoria’s western district. He was looking for workers for his farm and as Arthur had experience with sheep in Shetland he was taken on. The trip to Larra was made on foot, walking beside a wagonload of supplies pulled by Shire and Clydesdale horses. John McCue describes Arthur’s first encounter with a kangaroo, “There were no fences between Geelong and their destination, only ‘corner cairns’ of piled stones to mark the limits of various ‘runs’. Being in the wilds and uninhibited as were most of his people - he went into the bushes. Choosing unwittingly the established ‘squat’ of an old man kangaroo. Both fled in terror at this novel encounter. The kangaroo in huge bounds, the immigrant in hobbled haste, his ‘breeks aground’. His dignity shattered, he skinned his knees on the ‘pebbled sward’ as he clawed his way back to the wagon and the squatter.“ 1
James was the first family member to join Arthur in Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1865, he came overland to join his father in Victoria. James’ grandson, Neil Saunders, wrote in 1975, that James worked his passage, leaving his ship with an honourable discharge. 2 Neil had seen the discharge papers but did not know their current whereabouts. Neil's sister, Margaret Haine, says James walked from Sydney to Melbourne accompanied by a friend. They had little money and people they met along the way helped them by giving them food. One of the problems James encountered was understanding the English spoken by the people he met and no doubt they had trouble understanding his Shetland dialect! 3
Margaret Henderson was the next to arrive, accompanied by the two youngest children, Robert and William Adie. They sailed on the Chariot of Fame out of Liverpool on 29 June 1866 and arrived in Victoria on 22 September. In the shipping record their ages are stated as forty-five, eleven and seven respectively. Margaret was in fact fifty-four years old at the time of her arrival, Robert had turned thirteen, and William was eight. The Chariot of Fame of 1639 tons, carried 278 passengers - 31 English, 25 Scottish, and 242 Irish. There are two interesting points about entries in the passenger list of the Chariot of Fame. Firstly Agnes, Margaret Jnr and Arthur Jnr were booked to travel on the same ship with their mother. For some reason they did not do so and their names have been crossed off the list. The family were paying passengers and possibly there was not enough money at that stage to pay for the three extra fares.
Sailing Ship. Miriam Robertson Lawson, the daughter of James Robertson, included this postcard in her album This may be the type of vessel on which the Robertsons travelled to Australia in the 1860s. >
page 8
Secondly, listed with the rest of the family is Ann Robertson, widow, 23 years. Who was Ann Robertson and what happened to her? The passengers’ surnames are not listed alphabetically and the seven Robertsons appear as a group. John Collins McCue was told that John Robertson Jnr and his wife had intended to join the rest of the family in Australia and the reason Agnes, Margaret and Arthur, did not sail with their mother in 1865, was that they were waiting for John. Is it possible that Ann Robertson was his widow? However if the Ann Robertson, who sailed with Margaret Henderson was in fact John’s wife, they would have already known of John’s death, because Ann was listed as ‘widow’. All these questions must be left unanswered until and unless we obtain more information about the mysterious Ann Robertson.
When their father had saved enough money, Agnes, Margaret Jnr and Arthur Jnr were sent for. It is understood that Arthur Jnr worked his passage. They sailed from Plymouth on 2 July 1867 aboard the John Temperly, 998 tons, carrying 356 passengers, Master - J W Tucker. The ship arrived in Melbourne on 26 September. The two girls are described as knitters and Arthur as farmer. Travelling on the same ship were a number of single women including Mary F Halls, age 18, ‘servant’. Mary Halls would later marry James Robertson.
William Adie Robertson about the time the family migrated to Australia >
1 Notes written by John Collins McCue supplied by his daughter Helen Krigsman
2 Letter from Neil Saunders to John Collins McCue, 12 June 1975
3 interview with Margaret Haine. April 2000
Garry Gillard | New: 5 March, 2019 | Now: 5 September, 2022