Selling Queensland: Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration, 1872–76

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the work of Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration from the United Kingdom to Queensland when he held that role between 1872 and 1876. Daintree designed exhibitions in London to attract emigrants, placed advertisements in newspapers, wrote a guide to Queensland’s resources, liaised with shipping companies for passenger berths, lectured in the provinces to potential emigrants, and cooperated with emigration sub-agents provided by Queensland’s government for Scotland and Ireland. Daintree contended with two main problems during his period as Agent-General. One involved a serious case of fraud discovered in his London office, but he was not responsible for its occurrence. The other was that a change of Queensland premier from Arthur Hunter Palmer, with whom he had worked cordially, to Arthur Macalister, with whom he had fraught relations, adversely affected his work. Overall, however, the article shows that Daintree was successful in increasing net migration to Queensland during his incumbency as Agent-General.