GROUP SETTLEMENT IN WA Group Settlement Scheme 2a

Group 68 on the Peel Estate

Governments often have good ideas. The problem seems to be making them work….

In 1921, with so many of its young men lost to the Great War, Western Australia was in desperate need of new settlers. The Government of the day offered free land and assisted passage to British families who were willing to develop farms in the State’s South West.

Settlers were to work in groups of 20 developing the land and later each would take over a farm when it was fully prepared. Groups were established in the Manjimup district, followed by others at Denmark, Northcliffe, etc. as well as on the Peel Harvey Estuary south of the State’s capital, Perth.

Sunday Times 1935 18 Aug p1

The voyage of a lifetime Dangerous Seas

Following on from our previous article on the passenger list for the TSS Belgic.

The story of the Belgic 1911 voyage gives an intersting insight to just one voyage for immigrants to Fremantle, Adelaide and Sydney.

The Passengers

According to the passenger list in WAGS possession, the Belgic carried a total of 1,548 passengers - 925 to disembark at Fremantle, 252 for Adelaide, 203 for Melbourne, and 168 for Sydney.

Newspaper reports of the day have slightly different numbers of passengers.

The West Australian of Friday November 10, 1911, reports that there were 283 men, 332 women and 290 children (905 total) disembarking at Fremantle. According to the newspaper report this comprised 188 families totalling 697 people, and 208 single persons, and included 8 assisted immigrants (one family of 6 and 2 domestics).

TSS Belgic - Arrived Fremantle 11 November 1911 - Passenger List

Belgic Passenger List Fremantle 1911Some years ago WAGS Library was given an original Passenger List for the TSS Belgic, one of those been given to all passengers travelling on board the ship. The ship sailed from Liverpool on September 23, 1911 and arrived at Fremantle on November 11, 1911. There were 925 passengers on board for Fremantle and others bound for Adelaide (252), Melbourne (203) and Sydney (168) giving a total of 1,548 which included some new immigrants.

The person who donated the document to WAGS is unrecorded, but they had obviously had some connection with the ship as there are some pencil markings on the document which may indicate their interest.

The Belgic passenger list (opens in new tab) spent a lonely time on the WAGS library bookshelf attracting little if any attention, until now...

NCO Class Blackboy Hill WA, 2 December 1915 - Who are they?Blackboy Hill WA - NCO class 2 Dec 1915 -ex Susan Salvair

WAGS member Susan has this photo in her possession, which presumably includes an image of her great uncle Robert MacBeth, but she doesn't know for sure.

So, the challenge for you, dear genealogists and family historians, is to identify all of the 33 men in the photo.

Is one of your family members in this photo? Nineteen and a half men and a tractor

A WAGS member from Cunderdin needs some help to identify the group of men in this small photograph found in her family’s collection. (Click to zoom)

The family has been told they are possibly members of a Roads Board somewhere in rural Western Australia, perhaps in the Goldfields or towns of Cunderdin, Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie or Day Dawn but the location is unknown.

Mystery of the Cards img420

I'm looking to return six Tweede Distributie Stamkaart  issued to individuals with the surname de Ruiter who resided in Delft in the last century.

The surname may now have been Anglicized to de Ruyter