Author(s): Jonathon Fairall

History

NEW.  Author signed copy.

Between 1848 and 1850, over four thousand orphaned girls arrived in Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme. They were refugees from the Great Famine in Ireland.

Earl Greys Daughters, The Women Who Changed Australia, tells the story of one of these girls. Who was she? Why did she and the others make the perilous voyage to the far side of the world? What happened to them in their new land? Did they make a difference?

The answers to the first two questions have their roots deep in Irish history. The girls were the victims of generation on generation of poisonous social relationships.

When they arrived some sections of society greeted them with hostility. But Australia was changing. To the new migrants, it offered opportunities that were unthinkable at home.

The contribution of these women to the evolution of the Australian spirit has been largely written out of our histories. Earl Grey’s Daughters tells the story of one of them.