READ ALL STORIES

The following is a collection of the stories of migration submitted to the site. We invite you to read and gain some idea of the variation of experiences, taking into account the reasons for migration, the hardships and joys of the journey and the adapting to a climate and countryside that was often extremely foreign.

Read them and consider recording your own family's story.

Town/City Murray Bridge SA First name Rowland Surname Nutt Country of Origin England Date of Birth 1832 Year of Arrival in Australia 1849 Story Rowland Nutt was baptized on 30-7-1832 in Upping Ham, Rutland, England. His parents was John Nutt and Mary Anne Grabham, and he was the youngest of eight children. The children in order was Henry Grabham, Hannah Hughes (died), Mary Anne, Hannah Hughes, William Hughes, John Thomas, Emma, and Rowland. Rowland’s mother died on 29-4-1840, aged 42 years in England. His father then married his wife’s sister, Hannah Hughes Ansell (widow) on 25-7-1840. Rowland’s father died on 13-2-1848 aged 62 years in England. Rowland departed London, via Plymouth on 2-6-1849, and arrived at Port Adelaide in South Australia aged seventeen years on 10-9-1849 on the “Casper”. On 22-12-1852, when he was twenty, he married Mary Plummer aged eighteen in “All Saints Church” in Hindmarsh South Australia. They had six children, John Thomas, Rowland George, Mary Jane, Henry Lloyd, Florence Anne, and Alice Emily. Rowland Nutt went to the Victorian Goldfields and was one of the lucky ones. He was a carpenter and contractor by trade, and could read and write. At first Rowland and Mary lived at Brompton, then they moved to Strathalbyn, where he was a farmer and a contractor. Rowland’s major jobs included building the Milane School; the North Parade Bridge; New Ham Burg Bridge; South Para Bridge; the roadway on top of the Currency Creek Viaduct; supplying 25,000 sleepers for the Strathalalbyn to Middleton tramway, establishing a punt at Thompson’s crossing, alterations to the Milane jetty, fences around Saints Andrew’s Church, a road at Mannum. Rowland also won the contract to construct the second valley jetty, but did not sign the contract, because he went fraudulently broke, and was jailed, for nine months in the Yatina jail in 1871. On release from jail, Rowland and his family moved to Yatina, and constructed a sixteen room, two story hotel for his own use, in 1874. Rowland’s wife Mary, died in Orroroo on 28-9-1888, aged 53 years, and was buried in Yatina Cemetery next to her daughter, Mary Jane Oliffe (Nee Nutt) who died on 22-9-1885, aged 26 years. Rowland then married Amy Adamson (widow) on 18-6-1891, in the Holy Trinity Church in Adelaide. They had no children. Amy died on 20-1-1908, aged 72 years, and was buried her first husband Robert Adamson in the Bordertown Cemetery. Rowland Nutt died in Orroroo on 28-2-1914, aged 82 years, and was buried with his first wife Mary, in the Yatina Cemetery. Rowland had 33 grandchildren, (5 Deceased) and 16 great-grandchildren.