Earl Grey’s Daughters
Written by Claire Duncan & Jessica Orcsik
Inspired by the
After the Great Hunger decimated the population of Ireland, the Irish workhouses were overcrowded with young women.
In Australia, the colony was facing its own problems: it was a population largely made up of male ex-convicts and severely lacking women.
A unique solution was proposed by Earl, Henry George, Grey, who envisioned sparing these young Irish women from the misery of the workhouses to be transported to Australia as domestic servants to populate and enrich the colony.
This series follows the journey of two sisters Alice and Jane Ball and their life in Northern Ireland before entering the workhouse, their time in the poorhouse and participation in the Earl Grey scheme, the voyage on the ship and their new lives and inevitable struggles in Australia.
