Some more details as promised:
“Rockhampton” departed Liverpool 18 Jun 1863, Arrived 13 Oct 1863
In the files “Index to Ships”- related to the Rockhampton are many cards including:
Crew list
List of ships arriving in Qld under the Land Orders System
Table showing various details of the voyage
Bond of ships
Letter re dispatch of vessel
Health Officer’s reports
Police magistrate’s report
Passenger list
Letter re arrival in Brisbane instead of Northern ports
Reassurance of crown solicitor if necessary to prosecute Captain
Land orders
Statement of Surgeon
Water police report: record of drunkenness and disorderly conduct by crew
Report on ship
Water police report: record of crewmen deserting
Report of infant mortality on board
Files relating to this voyage appear to continue up until 1864. I did note that the “Rockhampton” made another voyage in 1866 and some of the cards, (presumably those dated 1866) relate to this voyage. The records of the 1866 voyage were destroyed by flood according to a note written in the immigration book, so I’m not sure what is on the cards relating to the 1866 voyage.
Each of the above cards has details of where to locate the information. Some are indexed in books, some on film etc. I didn’t have time to check everything (which would probably take a full day) but I did check a few things.
Also, the title on card can promise more than it delivers .
As an example I checked DUP COL/12 p644 “Details of the voyage” which is in a book on the shelf, because I knew you were interested in the route the ship travelled. This was just a simple table with many names of ships and some really basic information – there were 460 passengers and 135 of them were “Cotton co-operatives” (I don’t know what this would be), the tonnage of the ship was 1059 and there were “nil” ports of call on the journey.
COL/A45 63/2488 is on film and is the Health Officer’s Report (a preprinted sheet with answers to standard questions). Some Q and A’s:
Q. What ports have you X( sorry I can’t read my own writing) on your passage?
A. off Moreton Bay
Q. Any persons suffered from sickness, how many etc?
A. Measles since 2 days after leaving Liverpool, 50 afflicted, several children died. Diptheria – 5 have died. Diarrhoea. Most recent death – infant 6 mths old died of convulsion induced by teething. 6 still sick on board – diarrhoea and catarrh.
The Bowdens were listed in the Assisted Immigrants book. I looked them up on the film:
IMM/112 page 169 film Z1957 (virtually no details, just a list of names):
Disembarked Rockhampton
BOWDEN
Samuel age 34
Anne 22
Samuel B dead
Emigrants embarked: 467
Deaths: 29
Births: 4
Landed: 323
(The book was one printed up for Pacific Islander's immigration asking for details such as ”native language” and “English” but with all these headings crossed out)
Crew List COL/A43; 63/1877 [film Z5669] (John’s details are in a crease in the page so a bit difficult to read)
John Halliday (no middle name)
age 32 or 22 place of birth Wigton
“seaman”
Anyway, that should help you a bit, but it would probably be worthwhile you making a day of it yourself as there are more files to look up. Some may have loads of information, and others virtually nothing. You may like to take a USB to copy some of this information onto. You can also print out copies from anything on film such as immigration records, so take plenty of change.
