Why is Caroline Chisholm special in Australia's history?

Answer 1

Caroline Chisholm is special in Australian history for the tremendous work she did on behalf on women and new immigrants.

Caroline Chisholm moved to Australia as a young married woman, in the 1830s. She was shocked by the conditions experienced by women and new immigrants to Sydney who had supposedly come to Australia for a better life. Many of them had nowhere to live, so lived on the streets of the town. Initially, Caroline Chisholm took some of these women into her own home.

Begging the Governor for a building that could house new female immigrants, Chisholm was able to procure Immigration Barracks. She established it as a home for women who had come from overseas and had no jobs or relatives to care for them. While they were housed there, she also worked tirelessly to find employment for these women. Because of her efforts, she was able to close the Female Immigrants Home in 1842 because it was no longer needed.

Chisholm's next step was to return to England in order to improve the conditions of the migrants on the ships which brought them to Australia. She was unable to secure government support for migrating families, but she did manage to gain free passage to Australia for the wives and children of former convicts. Her nickname was "the emigrants' friend". Whilst in London, she established the Family Colonisation Loan Society. This society provided money needed by migrant families to travel to Australia, including chartering its own ships to transport the people. The society also organised for people in Australia to find employment for these new arrivals, whilst collecting the loan repayments once the migrants were established.

Although Chisholm died in relative obscurity in England, her work was certainly remembered in Australia, and her picture was on Australia's original $5 note.