Artemisia

The Artemisia was the first immigrant ship to arrive in Moreton Bay bringing the first assisted free settlers from England. She was a barquentine of 492 tons (558 tonnes) built at Sunderland in 1847 and owned by A. Ridley. Under her master, Captain John Prest Ridley, the Artemisia arrived in Moreton Bay in December 1848. Free settlers for Moreton Bay The Moreton Bay Settlement was established in 1824 as a place of secondary punishment for convicts sentenced by the colonial courts in New South Wales and the newly separated colony of Van Diemen's Land. It was opened to free settlement in 1842. By 1846, North Brisbane had 483 European settlers, South Brisbane 346 and Ipswich (formerly known as Limestone) 103. A great labour shortage had developed: manual workers, shepherds, tradesmen and domestics were needed by the pastoralists and by those living within the towns. The Reverend Dr John Dunmore Lang, who had sponsored German missionaries to the Moreton Bay settlement in 1835, visited the district again in 1845 and decided to travel to Britain in 1846 to recruit free settlers for Cooksland, the name he gave to north-eastern Australia. However, Lang had antagonised both the colonial and imperial authorities and his mission to England spurred the government to organise its own emigrant efforts. The Land and Emigration Commissioners were charged with British emigration. In a report dated 1 August 1848 to Under Secretary Merivale, the commissioners advised that they had received recent, urgent representations on behalf of New South Wales for emigrant vessels to ports other than Sydney and Melbourne. They advertised for vessels for Moreton Bay and Twofold Bay and chose the Artemisia for Moreton Bay.