Tinteán

From 1787 to 1853, over 25,000 women, nearly half of them Irish, were transported in the dark holds of ships on a 16,000-mile journey to the other end of the earth. Arriving alone, or with small children in the colonies, these single, married and widowed women, lived, loved, toiled and died under Australian skies, there was no repatriation.

In a two-year period during the Great Famine, over 4,000 young orphan girls, inmates of the overcrowded Irish workhouses, were carefully selected and transported as free migrants on what became known as the ‘Famine Bride Ships’, to the colonies where men outnumbered women by 9 to 1 in the outback.

The series is a testament to the lives, struggles and legacy of these Irish women and girls and restores their historical importance in building the modern Australian nation.