Free settlers began coming to Australia in the 1800s. However, the numbers were very small compared to the large numbers of emigrants going to Canada and the USA. The British empire gave these people opportunities for a new life. On the other hand, many of them felt that British rule at home had failed them and forced them to leave their homes and families.
Several factors increased the numbers of emigrants from the 1830s onwards. One key factor was hunger and misery in Ireland. Ireland was plagued by overpopulation and poverty, and then by a terrible famine in the 1840s. The government and local officials in Ireland put together a range of schemes to help poor Irish farmers emigrate to America and Australia. Throughout the 1840s emigration to Australia was running at about 15,000 per year. Not all of the arrivals were Irish. Large numbers of the English poor also emigrated, especially in the later 1800s.