On 4 August 1852, the double-deck semi-clipper Ticonderoga sailed from Liverpool to Port Phillip with 795 hopeful migrants and 57 crew. When she finally arrived in Hobson's Bay at Williamstown, after 90 days on the high seas and 48 days at the Heads and in quarantine, 168 passengers and a number of crew were dead.

Although illness and death amongst passengers of migrant ships were common, the magnitude of this tragedy finally stung the authorities into action - the building of a proper quarantine station at Point Nepean was at last set in motion, and reviews were initiated into the transport of migrants on overcrowded ships with inadequate facilities.