‘Fair Delinquents’?

Irish Famine Orphans of Colonial Bathurst and Beyond

Leonie Glynn Blair and Perry McIntyre

Discover the stories of 185 Irish Famine orphan girls who settled in Bathurst, the first inland settlement of New South Wales, researched and revealed by Leonie Blair and Perry McIntyre in their new book ‘Fair Delinquents’? Irish Famine Orphans of Colonial Bathurst and Beyond.

Over 2,200 teenage orphan girls volunteered to leave the workhouses of Ireland during the Great Irish Famine of 1845–1852, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales between 1848 and 1850. They braved the long sea voyage to become apprentice domestic servants, making a new life for themselves in a new country. New skills, newly earned wages, new opportunities for marriage and family, and a new life beckoned the girls as they set foot on the ships of the Earl Grey scheme.