Emigration depot at Birkenhead

Maker Illustrated London News (Established 1842)

Date1852

Object number00005623

NameEngraving

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 406 x 275 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionPage 520 from the Illustrated London News 10 July 1852 featuring three engravings under the title 'Emigration depot at Birkenhead'. The subtitles under each engraving read: 'Depot at Birkenhead, for the reception of Government emigrants to Australia with a vessel alongside the wharf preparing for the voyage'; 'Section of the emigrant ship BOURNEUF, of Liverpool, burden 1495 tons showing the arrangement for Government passengers to Australia' and 'Government emigrant's mess-room'. HistoryThe Government Emigration Depot at Birkenhead was built in 1852 for Australian emigrants due to overcrowding problems at Liverpool, just across the river. Emigrants waiting to board their vessel at Liverpool often had to wait for days and were often at the mercy of unscrupulous locals. The Government Emigration Depot was in Warehouse A1 of the Dock Company Warehouses, seen in these images as the building flying the flag. There would ultimately be six buildings to house emigrants with three of four ships a month departing at its peak. Early accounts of the enterprise were favourable noting the "large and well-ventilated dining hall of the depot comfortably accommodates six-hundred people, divide into classes, or schools, of English, Irish and Scottish, each table being so marked." SignificanceThe MANGERTON was the very first ship to leave for Australia from Birkenhead in 1852 and by the time the depot closed in 1868 some 180,000 emigrants to Australia and New Zealand had passed through.