Steerage Passengers Contract Ticket for John Turner 1883

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Transport tickets
Date: 1883
Place: London, England; Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Materials: Paper
Collection: Turner and Valentine Families collection
Accession number: 1997.0045.0022

Description

A "Steerage Passengers' Contract Ticket" paid for by the Queensland Government for John Turner (aged 25) on the ship 'Jerusalem', from London to Brisbane on 18th of July 1883, with an envelope inscribed "'Jerusalem' Dad's Sailing Ticket".

John Turner left Scotland aged 25 in 1883, at a time when many working people were emigrating to places such as Canada and Australia following economic instability and the notorious 'clearances'. He paid five pounds for steerage passage on the steamship Jerusalem from London to Brisbane. State-assisted schemes encouraged emigration and in Turner's case the Queensland government paid a further ten pounds to cover the costs. The journey around the 'Great Circle' via the Cape of Good Hope took 105 days between July and October. Turner found little work in Brisbane, but worked as a builder in regional areas before moving to Sydney and contributing to the Pitt St extension of the General Post Office. He settled in Arncliffe, NSW and died in 1940 aged 82.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:13:15 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-07-18. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.