Author(s): Brian Stace; William Othams

History

Sometimes called 'the first emigrant ship', the Coromandel was the first vessel from England to arrive in South Australia after the Governor.

Based on extensive research of records of the day, this account examines the lives of the Coromandel's free passage labouring class passengers and their roles in the settlement and development of South Australia.

A unique study of all the free settler emigrants from one ship arriving in the first few months of an Australian colony.

Sailing from London in September 1836, with 124 adults and 32 children, having survived storms and scurvy, the Coromandel arrived at Kangaroo Island on 12 January 1837, only 15 days after the Governor arrived at Holdfast Bay.

It was the first vessel sent out by the Commissioners for Colonization of South Australia to carry predominantly young working class couples, the first on which the number of men and women were almost equal and the first where most of the labourers were free to work for whomever they wanted at whatever wage they could negotiate. It was 18 months before a larger group of labourers arrived on a single ship.

The Coromandel also carried South Australia's first Advocate General, first Surgeon General, first banker and first geologist, all of whom were influential and controversial characters in early South Australia.

Deserting crew added early drama as potential bushrangers and then to the workforce of the colony.

This collection of biographies of the passengers (and crew turned colonists) analyses their lives, their characters, their successes and failures, their social and geographic mobility and their contribution to the colony, providing insights into the lives of other South Australian pioneers.

Examination of the events that affected these pioneers, and the events in which some of them played lead roles, brings South Australian colonial history, and some of its controversies, to life at the personal level.

Not just for descendants of the Coromandelians, this is for all who are interested in the story of South Australia's early pioneers and the social history of the South Australian colonisation experiment.