During the mid-1800s four families of Dellers were assisted by the Royston Poor Law Union to migrate from Cambridgeshire to Australia:

- James & his family from Melbourn arrived July 19, 1848 aboard the Palmira.
- John and his family from Bassingbourn arrived August 20, 1851 aboard the Sea.
- Brothers James, Charles, Arthur and their families from Barrington arrived
July 23, 1854 aboard the Maria Hay, and
- Edmund and his family from Cambridge arrived September 2, 1857 aboard the Hornet.

In general the Dellers (or Dellars, Dellows, Dallors etc as they were variously spelt) were agricultural labourers. Given the uncertainties of employment in agriculture during this period members of the families moved relatively frequently in search of jobs. Almost all the family groups moved up from Hertfordshire or Essex at the end of the 17th century or in the 18th century. This constant movement has made tracing them relatively complex.

Pressures on the job market at the time included the failure of the potato crop (not just an Irish problem), frequent flooding of agricultural land because of poor maintenance of the drainage systems implemented in the 1600s and continuing automation of agricultural work.

These factors, as well as a rapidly growing population, meant that there was significant poverty in the region. This led to some movement into the major cities - you will see that a number of Dellers moved into Cambridge to become bricklayers or tailors - as well as a pressure to accept the offers of the Poor Law Unions to assist emmigration to Australia. The lure of this option became stronger as reports of the conditions and opportunities in Australia started to feed back from the initial migrants.

Conditions were certainly attractive - Charles Deller would have been making about 6 shillings a week in Cambridgeshire if he had a job, whereas he was to receive 122 pounds per year when he emigrated - nearly eight times as much! So you can see that the argument for accepting an assisted passage was very compelling. This may account for the fact that nearly 100 Dellers, Dellars and Dellows out of a total population of just under 1,000 in England at the time decided to uproot their families and migrate - mostly to Victoria, but also to New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Canada and the United States. For details of these migrants see the Migrants section.