Amity (brig)

The Amity was a 148-ton brig used in several notable voyages of exploration and settlement in Australia in the early nineteenth century.

She was built in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1816 and for several years was used as a merchant trading vessel between America and Britain.

In 1823 she was purchased by the Scottish Ralston Family to be fitted out for their emigration to Van Diemen's Land. Under the command of Captain McMeckan she departed from Stranraer in southern Scotland on 15 November 1823, travelling via Dublin, across the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro and arriving in Hobart exactly five months later on 15 April 1824. Twenty-one passengers made the journey, including Robert Ralston, his wife Elizabeth, two sons and six daughters, as well as cargo and livestock including two bulls and four cows from Scotland.

Ralston later sold the brig to the Government of New South Wales in Sydney where she was used for exploration and supply voyages.

The brig carried the first European settlers to Queensland after Redcliffe had been recommended as a suitable location for a penal colony by John Oxley in 1823. Lieutenant Henry Miller led a group of about 70 people including soldiers of the 40th Foot Regiment, 29 convicts, explorers and their families to Moreton Bay on 14 September 1824.

The locality of Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane, Queensland is named after the ship. The locality includes a Brig Street.

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