Warren Dent

The Irish Australian Monaghans Warren Dent

In the early 1800s greedy agrarian landlords in Ireland increased taxes and rents for the tenant farmers who worked their lands. Already poor, rural families suffered terribly. When the British bounty scheme was introduced to encourage free settlers to migrate to Australia many tenant families saw it as potential salvation from the miserable lives they were experiencing. Large families gave up their homes, said goodbye to relatives and friends, and trudged across country to the nearest port. Fearful, with only their faith to cling to, they spent four perilous months at sea heading to an unknown destination. The Monaghans left LondonDerry in 1840 and arrived in Australia just as a depression hit the country. They scrounged for work, straddling hardship again, wondering whether they had made the right decision to migrate. The penal colony was slowly transitioning to a more balanced civilization, but free settlers were still a minority. This is the story of one courageous family chronicling how the parents and children adapted to their new environment and joined other pioneers in helping create a more attractive culture in an alien land.