Emanuel Cleal

The first of our Cleal ancestors to arrive in Australia was Emanuel. He sailed from Plymouth and arrived in Queensland in 1862 on the immigrant ship "Utopia". This ship was the first ship to sail directly from England to Queensland without stopping in any of the other Australian colonies. According to newspapers of the time, the immigrants on this ship were handpicked to work on properties in the Rockhampton area, and apparently there was great excitement in the town when the ship arrived. The "Utopia" arrived in Keppel Bay (Yeppoon) on 6 November 1862. The ship sailed from Plymoouth, travelled down the western coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean and then up the Australian coast to Queensland. The Fitzroy River, on which Rockhampton is situated, was too shallow for the "Utopia" to navigate, so passengers were transferred to another boat, the "Boomerang" to travel up the river. According to a story related by immigrants at a reunion in 1912, three of the passengers decided not to stay in Rockhampton, but travelled back to the "Utopia" and continued onto Brisbane. Was Emanuel one of these immigrants that continued onto Brisbane? We don't know, but it is possible, as the next time Emanuel's name is recorded in official documents is his marriage to Johannah McIvor in Inverell NSW in 1866.