Between Fear and Hope.
The Emigration from the present-day LubuskaLand to Australia in the 19th century

The wave of emigration which started at the end of 18th century and took more than 150 years covering almost the whole area of Europe also affected Prussia. And though the main direction the settlers from Europe were heading was North and South America, the emigrants were also leaving for South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The emigration movement especially affected the Prussian provinces in the east - the border area of Brandenburg, Schlesien and Posen  (the area of the contemporary Lubuskie). The first years were characterized by two reasons for emigration - the religious and the economical one.
The first reason was caused by the need to avoid the religion prosecutions of Lutherans at the reign of Frederick Wilhelm III (1797-1840) who since 1817 had been taking measures to create a single state church - the Lutheran-Calvinist Union. The Lutherans did not want to comply with the Kong's orders assuming that he is not authorized to make decisions in the issue of their faith and conscience. The answer to the lack of subordination was the increase of pressure on the ministers and the members of congregations - for the participation in illegal services the rebels were punished with high fines and property confiscation. The ministers were imposed a ban on teaching and administering sacraments and they were even imprisoned. In spite of the numerous petitions, the attempts to attenuate the conflict appeared to be a vain pursuit, and the religious prosecutions led to a decision of leaving the country.
The first  and ,at the same time, the biggest organized group of emigrants was the Kavel's People (mainly from Klępsk and the neighbourhood) who in 1838 together with their Pastor August  Ludwig Kavel left Hamburg to South Australia on the chartered ships the Prince George, the Catharina and the Zebra. In the following years, they were followed by the inhabitants of the remaining places in the Zülichau district, as well as the Lutherans from the Grünberg district under the guidance of  Pastor Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche, and the inhabitants of  Bomst, Meseritz and Crossen.
With the time passing the religious argument was only a pretext used to facilitate the emigration formalities. Since the forties of the 19th century (when the Lutherans prosecutions finished) this argument lost its significance as the hope for improving the standards of living became the real reason for emigration. Europe was becoming too small for the growing population - only in the first half of the 19th century the number of Europeans increased by 43% what caused the perceptible deficit of soil. There appeared the problem of feeding the inhabitants deepened by the wars and natural disasters. The outbreak of the Crimean war in 1853 caused the ban of Russian grain export and thereby   the enormous increase of the food prices on the whole continent. The potatoes crop in Europe was being destroyed by the disease during a number of years and in the summer of 1854 massive flooding over wide areas affected Silesia destroying the crop. Famine was becoming a real threat.
In Prussia another common motive for emigration was the desire to escape the conscription into the Prussian army well-known in the whole Europe for its discipline. After the 1848 revolution the number of political refugees increased significantly. Later, there appeared the phenomenon of the chain emigration, meaning that one or a few members of family already settled in Australia helped to bring out family or friends. The significant change was also the fact that it then was mainly individual and family emigration, not the community emigration as it was the case before.
In the 19th century the area of the current Lubuskie was the frontier of the Prussian provinces: Silesia, Brandenburg and Posen. The highest number of emigrants left the country from the following districts:  Zülichau, Crossen, Grünberg, Sorau, Sagan, Freistadt, Meseritz and Bomst. The map shows the places from which the emigrants came.

Hamburg and Bremen were the most important German sea harbours in the 19th century, which were the emigration ports not only for inhabitants of Germany, but also Eastern and Central Europe. Although, since the the second half of the 19th century, the rail was the most often used means of transportation in Prussia to Hamburg and Bremen, the emigrants used the water route and traveled by ships from Tschischerzig sailing down the rivers Oder, Spree, Havel and  Elbe and the connecting canals to the North sea ports.
The emigrants traveled to Australia on tall sailing ships and at the end of the century by steamers. The most often route was around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The journey which took three, four months was extremely exhausting for the emigrants traveling under board. There were many cases of death during the journey. Dysentery and numerous infections were common and especially the children were becoming their victims. There were a few babies being born during the journey. The ports of entry were Port Misery in the South Australia and Hobson Bay in Victoria.
The emigrants from the contemporary Lubuskie in majority started with the establishment of a settlement in South Australia, Victoria as well as New South Wales. They were integrating into the existing colonies but also they found their own colonies naming them  after the places of their origin (Klemzig, Langmeil, Grueneberg) or naming them in tribute to people who played significant role in the emigrants communities (Hahndorf after Captain Dirk Hahn of the ship Zebra).
The first years of settlement were extremely difficult. The poor peasants and craftsmen who had sold all their properties to pay the expenses of the journey, had to start their life from scratches - constructing their houses, building their tools, preparing soil for cultivation, raising the churches and setting up schools. The German settlers, who initially were involved  in farming, were trying to organize the community life similarly to what they had been familiar with in their father land - the new parishes, schools, clubs and associations were being set up. A significant role in the German communities was played by the Church. The settlers from Lubuskie were in fact the founders of the Lutheran Church in Australia. Since the sixties of the 19th century, part of the settlers from the South Australia affected by the gold rush or looking for cheaper land moved to Victoria or New South Wales. The devotion and determination of the first generations of settlers opened the new possibilities of development for the successive generations. The contemporary descendants of emigrants live in different states of Australia, Great Britain and The United States.
The development of the Australian wine making was influenced to a large extent by the emergence of wealthy middle class in the times of gold rush due to which the demand for wine was growing. The success of Australian wine was shaped by the favorable climate, as well as the German winemakers who transferred the tradition of vines cultivating winemaking to the new continent. Very often the settlers had a different profession back in their father land, and only in Australia they managed to set up vineyards noticing the favorable climate and soil conditions. The significant areas of vineyards appeared in New South Wales, Victoria and world famous for the magnificent wine South Australia. The majority of the first growers and viticulturists in the South Australia in the 19th century were German. The South Australia's premier wine regions are Barossa Valley, Clare Valley and Coonwarra. The Barossa Valley is the home to the oldest vineyards where the grapes still grow, as this the place where the emigrants from Lubuskie started growing vine.
The first Poles from the area being discussed arrived in Australia in 1844 on board of the George Washington . They came  from Dąbrówka Wielkopolska and settled in the Barossa region. It was a small group of 30 people, who left for economical reasons. . A bigger group of 130 people, also from Dąbrówka and the neighborhood came a few years later on the board of August. The Poles settled mainly in Clare Valley. The very significant personality for the Polish community was the Polish priest - Father Leon Rogalski who arrived in Sevenhill in 1870 to start his pastoral work among the Polish community. Due to his efforts, the Poles in Hill River built Saint  Stanislaus Kostka Church and the school with the instruction in Polish and English. With the time passing, the inhabitants of these places were moving to other regions of Australia and lost their distinct national identity. The Hill River school was closed in 1924 and the church was deconsecrated in 1950.  Due to the efforts of the Australian Polish community the church and school were renovated in the seventies and the Polish Hill River Church Museum devoted to the first settlers was set up.
The materials presented at the exhibition come from various Polish, German and Australian archives, libraries and museums (i.e. Archiwum Jezuitów Prowincji Małopolskiej in Cracow, Archiwum Diecezjalne in Zielona Góra, Archiwum Państwowe in Zielona Góra z/s w Starym Kisielinie, Barossa Historical Museum in Tanunda, Centralne Muzeum Morskie in Gdańsk, Książnica Pomorska in Szczecinie, Lutheran Archive in Adelaide, Muzeum Lubuskie im. J. Dekerta in Gorzów, Muzeum Miejskie in Nowa Sól, Muzeum Regionalne in Świebodzin, National Archives of Australia in Canberra, Parafia Rzymsko-Katolicka in Dąbrówka Wielkopolska, Staatsarchiv in Hamburgu, State Library of South Australia in Adelaide and others) and from the private collections of the emigrants' descendant families in Australia.

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