Women Immigrants from Irish workhouses

Tuesday 3rd February, 2026, 11am – 12:00pm, Online

Single young women immigrants from Irish workhouses​
Historian Perry McIntyre explores the immigration scheme to bring young destitute single women to Australia during the years 1848–50.

Destitute families found refuge in workhouses in Ireland before the Great Famine of 1845. Australia offered young single women with little prospect of employment in Ireland a totally free passage to Sydney, Port Phillip and Adelaide. Who devised this scheme and why? Who were the key players and what were the outcomes for these young women and the colonies? Hear about a project that untangles the lives of the 4114 girls who participated in this immigration scheme.

Speaker
Dr Perry McIntyre’s research projects have focused on 19th-century emigration from Ireland. Her PhD from the University of Western Sydney looked at the reunions of convicts with their families left behind in England and Ireland, which she argues was the first assisted immigration scheme to Australia. Perry was appointed a State Library of NSW Visiting Fellow in 2024.

General admission: Free