FROM HAMBURG TO HOBSONS BAY

GERMAN EMIGRATION TO PORT PHILLIP

by Thomas A. Darragh and Robert N. Wuchatsch

Discover the beginnings of German migration to Victoria and the reactions of some of the pre-Separation immigrants to their new homeland. Read for the first time the lists of names of many of those passengers who arrived on the first German vessels. In researching and writing From Hamburg to Hobsons Bay: German Emigration to Port Phillip (Australia Felix) 1848-51, the authors have drawn on a whole range of  sources, many previously unknown to Australian readers. This 350 page book also contains endnotes, appendices and index.

Part I, which relates the history of German emigration to Port Phillip, is based on extensive research of Australian and German newspapers and archival material from Saxony. This material is supported by a wealth of illustrations such as shipping advertisements, emigration documents and photographs. Part II, which covers the early reactions and experiences of 10 Port Phillip Germans, is a collection of letters written back to Germany and, in the case of the Wend, Carl Traugott Hoehne, a small book published in Germany in 1853 following his return home there. Part III contains brief biographies of emigrants mentioned in Hoehne’s book, and these enable the reader to judge the success or otherwise in Australia of these new settlers.

In the Appendices, the authors have included the names of as many of the 700-800 pre-Separation Germans as possible. Passengers known to have disembarked in Melbourne from the Godeffroy, Wappaus and Dockenhuden are included, along with partially reconstructed lists of more than 350 passengers from the Emmy, Pribislaw, Alfred, Sophie, Dockenhuden (second visit) and Antonie.

From Hamburg to Hobsons Bay: German Emigration to Port Phillip (Australia Felix) 1848-51 is essential reading for all Australians with German or Wendish ancestry, those people interested in early European settlement in Victoria, and social historians interested in the problems faced by non-English speakers in an English-speaking environment.

Find out about your ancestors and how they fared on arrival in Australia