This great grandfather of mine brought my name to Australia, through his grandson, my father, Joe Healy. Daniel Healy was his name.
I first heard his story when I was very young … heard it with pride I must admit. My great grandfather was Irish through and through, Irish with a great resentment of the British. Dan married Mary Kelly a fair skinned Irish girl who came from County Clare as he did. She wore wide brimmed hats and a chiffon veil; she was said to be a relative of the Kelly Gang.
My father told me that on the night before Ned Kelly was to be hanged, the Kellys and the Healys met in the small single fronted Healy house not more than a half mile from Spencer Street Station. They planned a coup. They would march together past the station, across the Yarra, up the hill to Government House, then claim Victoria as a republic and free Ned from prison. The police, so the story goes, disbanded them right in front of Spencer Street station. ‘Such is life’, said Ned.
I look at a photo taken in the back yard of that little house and see that Mary Kelly’s daughters and my Healy aunts, Mary’s granddaughters, all have a fragile Irish look. They were advised to shield themselves from Australian sun. There is a story that Mary, after rearing eight children, died of what is now diagnosed as skin cancer.
Dan lived a long life and served our railways well. Each of Dan’s sons worked on the railways. One had his hand badly injured when caught between two shunting trains. He was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, but they could not repair the hand.
If there was one matter that annoyed Dan greatly it was British Royalty. Royal Melbourne! Dan was furious. Royal and not helpful at all! Dan vowed to never speak English again. Irish only. I’m not sure whether he ever did, he died before I was born.
Dan’s other pronouncement was that our name Healy has only one e. Anyone who claims a name with two, does not belong to us.
Dan came from County Clare to Australia on a ship called the Royal Dane. There goes that word Royal for the first time. We have searched for convincing evidence seeking to find the voyage, among many Royal Dane voyages to Australia, that brought Daniel here. The Royal Dane docked in Melbourne in 1869, the year that we believed Dan landed in Melbourne. There is a passenger list; Dan is not on it. More frequently the Royal Dane and other ships of this line carried Irish passengers directly to Queensland, not to Melbourne. Many years ago, our Uncle Jack Healy told us that Dan was employed on the railways in Ipswich.
This is the lead I am now following. So here is my take on the story of Daniel Healy as a young man.
The Royal Dane was one of a fleet of ships that sailed under the banner of the Black Bull Line. It carried, assisted migrants without charge. These were Irish men and women who, on arrival, would be obliged to serve the needs of the new colony of Queensland; the women would work as domestics the men would develop a railway network.
The Black Bull Line would be paid, per head, for workers to supply this new colony’s needs. Payment was only for those delivered alive. Despite the incentive to keep passengers alive many died. It was a brutal passage. Some passenger lists from those years have gone missing.
When the conditions of this deal, and the treatment of the passengers became known, this scheme with the Black Bull Line was subject to a Queensland Inquiry. As a result, all contracts with the Black Bull Line were cancelled. These days we would call those voyages modern slavery.
I read an article in the Brisbane Courier written as the Royal Dane docked in Keppel Bay in 1865. Could Dan have embarked on this ship in Gravesend in Ireland on April 23rd? We have heard stories that Dan was about nineteen years old when he set out for Australia. This fits his age, but for lack of records I cannot prove that Daniel Healy came on this vessel.
The Royal Dane crossed the equator on the 30th day of the voyage and reached the Cape of Good Hope on the 50th day. Beyond the Cape of Good Hope those on board suffered a succession of Westerly Gales as far as Cape Northumberland. A packed vessel travelling fast. Eventually they sailed east through Bass Strait, then up the coast to reach Keppel Bay docking on July 21st It is noted that those who survived this journey ensured that their relatives and friends did not attempt it. Four hundred and eighty passengers disembarked.
In 1868 Queensland ‘went broke’ and postponed any further expansion of a rail system. Dan could have taken this opportunity to head south to Melbourne.
There is a record of Daniel Healy age 23 born 1846 arriving in Melbourne from Sydney 6/1/1869 on the City of Adelaide, travelling in steerage. On the same voyage was a Patrick Healy age 27, who may have been a cousin. Dan wasted no time in heading to Bendigo. Before the year was over, he married the lovely Mary Kelly from County Clare.
Dan seems to have worked for a few years as a digger at the Bendigo Goldfields. Most of my ancestors of that time gave gold panning a try. None struck it rich.
Eventually, perhaps reluctantly, Dan and all his surviving sons worked on the railways. Many other careers were labelled ‘Catholics need not Apply’.
Mary died in 1908
Daniel lived on in Munroe Street Brunswick, .and reached the age of 75. He died in 2021.
Stories and Musings 