The Immigrants’ Friend
David Kippen recounts the extraordinary life of Australian heroine Caroline Chisholm.
UNTIL the 1990s, only two women had been pictured on Australian banknotes – Queen Elizabeth ll and Caroline Chisholm.
This remarkable woman also featured in a “Famous Australians” postage-stamp series, and a number of memorials and Australian institutions carry her name.
Caroline, “The Immigrants’ Friend”, was born in 1808 near Northampton, England.
She was the youngest child of William Jones, a yeoman farmer, and his fourth wife, Caroline.
After marrying Lieutenant Archibald Chisholm in 1830, Caroline converted to his Roman Catholic faith.
Archibald Chisholm was with the East India Company’s Madras Army.
Archie returned to Madras in January 1832.
When Caroline joined him she became concerned for the soldiers’ daughters.
She founded the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers to teach reading, writing, cooking, nursing and religion.
Whilst in India, Caroline had two sons, Archibald Junior and William.
In 1838, the now Captain Chisholm and his family moved to Australia, settling on a small farm at Windsor, north-west of Sydney.
After witnessing how many single female immigrants, left on the wharves with nowhere to go, were becoming prey to immorality, Caroline decided to take action.
In response to some “gentle persuasion”, Governor Sir George Gipps provided a former army barracks, and Caroline set up the Female Immigrants’ Home. Initially housing 96 women, it expanded to help families and young men.
Archie returned to India in 1840, while Caroline stayed in Sydney to care for their three young sons and continue her work, which included arranging suitable positions for the migrants.
Household servants were in short supply outside Sydney, so Caroline often accompanied groups to rural areas and set up sshelters for them there.
Caroline’s work was all ffinanced by subscriptions, ttherefore not dependent on ggovernment or churches.
In 1845, Archie retired, and returned to Sydney.
A son, Sydney, was born before the family returned to England in 1846.
Before leaving Australia, Caroline gave Governor Gipps a list of settlers’ children left behind because their parents could not afford their fares.
He wrote to Secretary Gladstone in London, praising Caroline’s work and saying the Colonial Government would pay the children’s fares.
Back in England, the Chisholms continued working for the welfare of migrants to Australia.
Caroline formed the Family Colonization Loan Society to help workingclass families migrate.
The society chartered ships and insisted on reforms in the often appalling conditions of migrant transport.
Caroline also helped arrange free passage to Australia for the families of convicts who had completed their sentences.
Archie went to Adelaide as the Loan Society’s representative, and 1854 saw the family reunited in Melbourne where they opened two stores, and later a store in Kyneton.
Kyneton is about halfway between Melbourne and the Mount Alexander and Bendigo goldfields.
Caroline lobbied the government to build low-cost “shelter sheds” for families travelling to the goldfields.
In 1855, sheds were built along the route, about a day’s journey apart.
When Caroline became seriously ill in 1858, Archie took her and their youngest children to Sydney.
She continued promoting social issues and ran a school until 1866, when her declining health finally forced Caroline to retire.
She, Archie and the three youngest children returned to England, where she lived quietly until her passing in March 1877.
Her beloved Archie died a few months later.
Caroline is remembered on May 16 in the Church of England Saints Calendar.