The Paisley Emigration Society
The humidity here in Queensland is nudging 80 per cent and despite being a fourth-generation banana bender, I’m struggling. In an undoubtedly cooler Scottish summer, 156 years ago, my great-great-grandfather sat with other members of the Paisley Emigration Society and debated the relative merits of emigration to Queensland and Canada.
Like many of the members of the society, John Johnstone Higgins was a weaver down on his luck. In the 19th century, the town of Paisley became synonymous with the paisley design and Paisley was, for many
