NAA: A1, 1909/13882
Semel, Ada Wilhelmina
Digital copy - 5672
| Occupation as written | Home duties |
| Standardised occupation | DS00: Domestic service - Domestic duties |
| Application received | 17 Nov 1909 |
| Application status |
Approved |
| Official | |
| Date of approval or denial | 3 Dec 1909 |
| If rejected, why? | |
| Birthplace as written | Berlin, Germany |
| Modern country | Germany |
| Age on application | 67 |
| Age on arrival in Australia | 8 |
| Port of Departure | Germany |
| Port of Arrival | Adelaide |
| Date of arrival | 7 Aug 1849 |
| Name of ship | Princess Louisa |
| Voyage | Princess Louisa (1849-08-01) |
| Address in Australia | William Street, Adelaide |
| Address State | South Australia |
| Time at address | 60 years, 3 months |
| Name of reference | Frederick Charles Kahn |
| Occupation of reference | Justice of the Peace (South Australia) |
| Marginalia description | |
| Police report attached | No |
| Link to other applicant | |
| Literate | Yes |
| Reason | N/A |
| Other information | |
from The South Australian REGISTER (dated Wednesday August 8, 1849). The story of the PRINCESS LOUISE began in Berlin in the late 1840s, during a period of revolution. At that time, Europe, spurrred by the earlier French Revolution, was facing a period of change, revolt, and uprising. In Berlin, in 1848, Richard Schomburgk, a gardener who had established a reputation as a botantist, and his physician brother, Otto, saw that there was little hope of their dream of democracy being achieved and, by 1849, a period of repression began. ... The brothers formed a migration group, calling it the Berlin Emigration Society and made plans to leave the Fatherland for a new start in Australia...So, in March, 1849, the Society chartered the PRINCESS LOUISE and set sail for Adelaide with a new wave of refugees, arriving in Port Adelaide on 7 August 1849. The Society was largely comprised of professional men, businessmen and skilled artisans, and has been called "the single most important group of German intellectuals to come to Adelaide". Otto Schomburgk, a third very talented brother, was...arrested for his political activities and incarcerated in a fortress. Otto was soon free again after Humboldt intervened at the Prussian court. With a letter of recommendation Humboldt had also supported the publication of a travel journal written by Richard Schomburgk, who had accompanied his brother Robert Hermann on a journey to British Guayana from 1840 to 1844.[2] And finally, Humboldt and his friend, the geologist Leopold von Buch, had helped to secure financial backing for the costly voyage to Australia of two of the Schomburgk brothers.... Together with their wives, Otto and Richard Schomburgk arrived in Port Adelaide on August 6th 1849....These two brothers, received their scientific training and promotion in the circle surrounding Alexander von Humboldt. They did not come to South Australia as explorers though. They were immigrants seekingn a new livelihood for themselves and their families. But their endeavor to report on the newly settled continent in a scientific manner was not at all diminished by this fact. From the very beginning the brothers had to meet two challenges. They had to survive as gardeners and farmers under largely unfamiliar conditions and they had to live up to the expectations of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, which had supported them financially.