New South Wales
Wilhelm Kirchner
Karl Ludwig Wilhelm Kirchner
Karl Ludwig Wilhelm Kirchner arrived in Sydney on 20th July 1839 on the Mary. In a few short years he became a successful businessman. His house in Sydney became something of a meeting place for Germans in the colony, including the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.[1] He was a financial supporter of Leichhardt's expedition to Port Essington, and Leichhardt named after Kirchner a mountain range 80 km west-south-west of Chillagoe in far north Queensland.
Kirchner returned to Germany in 1848 to work there for a few years as immigration agent for the NSW government. He based himself at his mother's house in Frankfurt am Main, arranged the publication and distribution of his promotional booklet Australien und seine Vortheile für Auswanderer, and put up advertisements and posters in towns and villages all over the Rhine regions. There was a big shortage of labour in NSW at the time; convict transportation had finished in 1841. The NSW government authorised him to offer subsidised tickets to migrants. They would be contracted to work for a set number of years for land owners who had given commitments to Kirchner.
Detail from "Map of Kennedy District, Northern Queensland, Shewing Surveyed Roads & Bush Tracks" by Thomas Ham, Government Engraving Office, Brisbane, 1868. The map shows the short mountain range 'Kirchner Range'.
Title page of Australien und seine Vortheile für Auswanderer
Kirchner's work as immigration agent was very successful for NSW, and he returned to Australia in 1851, where he was appointed Sydney Consul for Hamburg and for Prussia, and his businesses flourished.
♦ Notes:
1. Cloos & Tampke (1993), p.6
Thank you to Ian Hutchings of the Queensland Department of Natural Resources for the Kennedy map.
♦ References:
Cloos, Patricia & Jürgen Tampke (editors). (1993). 'Greetings from the Land where Milk and Honey flows' - the German Emigration to NSW 1838-1858. Canberra: Southern Highlands Publishers. pp.3-8, 14-16
Tampke, Jürgen and Colin Doxford. (1990). Australia, Willkommen. Kensington (NSW): New South Wales University Press. pp.108-109