Extract from surgeon, Charles Inches' journal of the voyage of the transport ship “Portland” which departed Cork, on 21 February 1833 and arrived in Sydney on the 26th of June 1833 under Master William Ascough.
- "Cholera was rampant in Ireland at the time (1833) and the health of Irish convicts was inferior to that of the English, although the surgeon remarked that the convicts health improved over the course of the voyage. The diet and clothes of the Irish were also of a lesser quality and cloth was worn and thin and in tatters by the time they reached cooler weather in the southern latitudes yet these men arrived in Sydney in good health. Three men on board died of cholera and six people also died from fever and other diseases and according to Charles Inches' journal nine people died. Due to rumours of illness, the despatch of mail was delayed until a medical examination of the vessel had taken place and the ship was pronounced healthy. The convicts were then mustered on board and landed on Saturday 13th July 1833, and the vessel sailed on to Launceston, Tasmania, where it was wrecked in violent seas off George Town Heads."
Galway is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht. Patrick Donohoe and his wife Ellen Burke (1780-1840) lived in Molivia, Co. Galway when in 1833 Patrick and two sons Martin and Michael, were transported to New South Wales for houghing sheep.