Publication type

non-fiction

Summary

This is the story of a German peasant who was contracted to serve as a shepherd for a Darling Downs squatter in the mid nineteenth century. John Henry Sommerlad sailed from Hamburg in a small sailing ship directly to Moreton Bay and then trudged behind a bullock waggon over the Great Dividing Range to a sheep run near Warwick. Later he settled in New England and became a successful pioneer farmer.
The story is set in its historical context and the book describes the background of squatter expansion, labour problems during the gold rush and Australian immigration, as well as the life style of the pioneers. Part social history, part local history and part family history. The Migrant Shepherd makes an important and well documented contribution to the record of German settlement in Australia. In a Foreword. Professor Geoffrey Blainey says, "This story of his life, sensitively pieced together from many fragments, is like that of thousands of other Australians of his day. and that's what now makes it so revealing." (Inside Cover)