The Welsh Patagonian Connection: A Neglected Chapter in Australian Immigration History

This article is an account of the history of Welsh migrants to Patagonia from 1865 to 1914, their motivations for emigrating, their experiences in Argentina, and the subsequent relocation of several hundred to the British dominions in the early twentieth century.
The focus in the first part of the article is on the nature of those who went from Patagonia to Australia between 1910 and 1915 and the migration of a group of Australians to Paraguay in the 1890s. The second half of the article examines the experiences of the Welsh Patagonians in Australia, their relationships with federal and state governments in the light of the intense rivalry to procure them as settlers, and their involvement in two New South Wales Royal Commissions concerning the operations of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
The article concludes with a discussion on the degree to which a Welsh cultural heritage and identity has been preserved by these settlers in an assimilationist post-Federation Australia. Not only is this a unique double migration experience, but it calls into question immigration encouragement policies and official advertising material during this period, a history which parallels other land settlement schemes of both the pre- and post-war eras in Australia.