The Story of Australian Migrant Ships: From Convicts to '£10 Poms'

The author, perhaps better known for his many books on Scotland’s canals and industrial history, was one of these £10 poms, hence his interest in this subject as part of his family history. That’s what he tells us anyway, but maybe he was actually one of those early convicts transported to the penal colony of Australia in the 1780s whose experiences he seems so familiar with! The story of emigration down under continues with the encouraged emigration of the 1830s and the more comfortable vessels of the late Victorian era. The 20th-century ships that did the Aussie run for the Orient Line, the Blue Anchor Line, the Commonwealth Line, the Branch Line, P&O and more are featured, finally looking at the P&O ‘Straths’. Then, the book focuses on the ports of call before arrival at Sydney Harbour and the quirks of living in an English-speaking country with more sunshine (especially at Christmas), exotic fruit and a different array of bugs and beasties from snakes to flying cockroaches.