Dr George Mitchell was the surgeon-superintendent on the typhus-stricken 1850 voyage of the ship Emigrant – the second ship to bring government-sponsored free settlers directly to Moreton Bay. The 25-year-old Irishman is buried near the site of the old quarantine station, alongside his colleague Dr David Keith Ballow and the 26 passengers of the Emigrant who died during their long and harrowing months of quarantine.
Dr Mitchell, Dr Ballow, and most of the men, women and children buried with them were victims of the dreaded disease typhus, which had broken out during the barque’s three-month voyage from Plymouth. had set off on 17 April 1850 with some 276 passengers from England and Ireland – emigrants who had been selected by the government for assisted passage in a bid to boost the population of
