In the years 1837 to 1840, “the government-sponsored Bounty Scheme brought about 5,200 Scots emigrants, drawn mainly from destitute areas in the Highlands and Islands to Australia”. http://www.keithdash.net/Bountyships.html 

“The 1830s and 1840s were times of poverty, famine and emigration. Around one fifth of the population of Badenoch emigrated to Canada or Australia at that time. A government scheme in the late 1830s provided free passage and by 1840 Kingussie parish had lost more than 300 people.”  https://storyofkingussie.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/boards_small_part3.pdf

“In 1838 the flow to Australia increased, and no fewer than nine ships with 2,161 government bounty emigrants cleared from Scottish ports. In addition, 1,054 ‘private’ bounty emigrants and unassisted emigrants took passage from Scotland, making a total of 3,215 for the year. In 1839, the total number embarking in Scotland was 2,238—a seventh of the total number embarking in Britain for all the Australian settlements, including Van Diemen’s Land, Port Philip, South Australia, and Western Australia.”  http://www.electricscotland.com/history/australia/scotaus3.htm

In 1838 the St George carried 326 passengers, more than a third of these left from Kingussie. Most of the Kingussie contingent were tenants on the Invereshie estate of Sir John MacPherson Grant of Ballindalloch who had raised the rents to such a level as made emigration the only practical option. Rootschat