Media: BOOK - paperback, 256 pages
Author: P. McIntyre & E. Rushen
Year: 2010
ISBN: 9780980335439
Other: colour photos, appendixes, bibliog, index
Publisher: Anchor Books Australia

Young women as fair game? In 1832, the British government sent 400 young single women to Sydney and Hobart to balance the male-dominated societies. The two ships were the 'Red Rover' from Cork and the 'Princess Royal' from London. Viewed as colourful butterflies alighting on the antipodean shores, the women were 'fair game' for employers and potential husbands.

This book analyses how this migration was allowed to happen while telling the women's stories, describing who netted them in the hiring scramble and how they ultimately spread their wings.

Contents:
Abbreviations
An Offer of Marriage
To a Certain Vain Young Gentleman
Introduction
1. Formation of Emigration Commission
2. Departure of the 'Red Rover'
3. Arrival of 'The Reformers'
4. Most fortunate beings
5. A consideration of respectability
6. Good servants and valuable wives
7. Beyond their most sanguine expectations
8. Legacy of the Emigration Commission
Endnotes
Appendix 1. The 'Princess women
Appendix 2. The lives of the 'Red Rover' women
Select bibloography
Index