Recruitment
Frederick Irwin travelled to England in 1834 to seek clergymen for the Swan River Colony and as a result, a society within the Church of England was formed called the Western Australian Missionary Society, later to merge with other similar societies to become the Colonial and Continental Church Society. This organisation provided Anglican missionaries for many of England's colonies in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
In 1836, a meeting was held in Guildford of residents of the Middle and Upper Swan regions of the new colony ... for the purpose of obtaining a clergyman for those populous districts, which owing to their remoteness from the Colonial Chaplains' residence, were destitute of spiritual leadership and devoid of public worship.
Shortly after, Rev. Louis Giustiniani was appointed, arriving at the Swan Parish in July 1836. He started a church at Woodbridge in Guildford and established the Middle Swan native mission (at the site of what was to become St. Mary's Church, Middle Swan), aimed at evangelising the local indigenous population. His tenure was unpopular however and he left the colony in 1838.
Mitchell was appointed to the replacement position and he and his family and a governess named Anne Breeze left Portsmouth onboard the Shepherd on 1 April 1838, arriving at Fremantle on 4 August 1838.
The eldest child – Annie, then 12 years old described her first impressions in her memoirs:
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The ship "Shepherd" anchored off Garden Island on 4 August 1838, after a voyage of four months and three days. We landed at Fremantle by the ships boats. The first sight we witnessed was a very large whale lying on the sea beach at Fremantle, from which the natives were cutting large pieces and carrying them away on spears. We lodged at Fremantle for a week and then proceeded to Government House where we were entertained by Sir James Stirling and Lady Stirling. It was usual practice at this time for new arrivals to call at Government House on arrival. We stayed at Judge Mackies house for a while (he was the first Judge in the Colony). After this we went to Henley Park, on the Upper Swan, by boat. Major Irwin was landlord at this time. He was Commandant of the troops in W.A. We stayed with him for a week or so then went to the Mission-house on the Middle Swan where we settled. The whole of Perth at this time was all deep sand and scrub. There was no road or railway to Perth. All transport was done by water travel. The banks of the Swan River were a mass of green fields and flowers, with everlastings as far as the eye could see. At the time of arrival, there were only two vessels, the "Shepherd" and the "Britomart" plying between London and Western Australia. When a ship arrived, a cannon was fired to let people know that a vessel had arrived. The people used to ride or row down to Fremantle to get their letters. There were then about seven or eight hundred people settled in W.A. mostly along the banks of the Swan. There was no church in the Colony at this time and the services were conducted in the Courthouse by the Rev. Wittenoom, the first Colonial Chaplain. The natives were held in dread, as they occasionally attacked the settlers. We were surrounded by natives for several months, and Captain Grey (afterwards Governor of New Zealand) used to supply us with rice and sugar to give to the natives to settle quietly and enable my father to learn their lingo. This went quietly until one night one of the Aborigines speared another while he was sleeping. With that the natives cleared out and would not return for a considerable time on account of their fellows spirit worrying them. The whites generally travelled together as they were afraid of the natives giving them a prod with a spear. The Governor and Colonial Secretary used to ride up the Swan and visit all of the houses. The people were very hospitable at this time and used to take sheets off the bed to use as a tablecloth. No boots or shoes were to be obtained and the Governors' children used to go about barefoot like the rest of them. We used to often be for weeks together without any flour to make bread and had to live on rice and salt pork. We used to pay seven and six for a leg of mutton. The only fruit available was had when a vessel used to come from the Cape of Good Hope occasionally with Cape fruit. |
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Read more about this topic: William Mitchell (missionary)