Like many other British families in the 19th century, Joseph and Sarah Mills were destitute as a result of the failure of the silk industry in Coventry. They packed up their five children, said goodbye to their friends and relatives and headed off on the long journey to Australia. One son, John Henry Mills, was fourteen years of age at the time.
After a long and difficult journey, with many deaths due to typhoid, tragedy struck the family just as the ship arrived off Brisbane, thus providing a traumatic start to their new life in Australia.
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