Talk:Post-war immigration to Australia

Merger

Can we merge this somewhere? RJFJR (talk) 16:15, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

• Could of course be merged to Immigration history of Australia#Postwar immigration. I did have in mind to expand at some stage but haven't got to it yet.--Matilda ^talk 20:28, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Start to collect sources and ideas

• No article yet on Bonegilla, Victoria - need section on migrant camps such as this one. There was also a camp near Greta, New South Wales near Newcastle. There was also the Chullora Railway and Migrant Camp in Sydney and the Uranquinty Camp in New South Wales. Northam or Holden Camp in Western Australia has a Web page, which points out that the Camp is significant as one of only two intact camp precincts remaining in Australia.
  • Useful ref for Bonegilla - http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/vic/Bonegilla/BonegillaMigrantCentre-CampBlock19/14944
• Possible source is http://www.fifthfleet.net/index.html?0.8405937949414688 covering ships which, chartered by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), brought about 164,100 Displaced Persons from Germany to Australia after World War II, between 1947 and 1951.

Need to add info on Snowy Mountain scheme --Matilda ^talk 11:14, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Using "2914.0.55.002 2006 Census Ethnic Media Package" (Excel download). Census Dictionary, 2006 (cat.no 2901.0). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2008-07-14. we can give pre 1979 arrivals for most major groups who are still living - eg Italians, Germans, ... and talk about proportion aged over 60 - ie some context about the impact of demography on the present. --Matilda ^talk 01:36, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Although I am using a timeline at present - I have no difficulty with alternative article structure!--Matilda ^talk 01:49, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Struck through things I have incorporated into the article --Matilda ^talk 20:54, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

• Google books result on the policy --Matilda ^talk 02:00, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

remove data on arrivals by 5 year periods; Bonegilla articlemissing; rename

I have removed the data:

Period (5 years)	Number of total Migrant Arrivals in Australia
1945-1949	195,671
1949-1954	650,999
1954-1959	602,084
1959-1965	664,344
1965-1970	781,012
1970-1975	611,990
1975-1980	344,779
1980-1985	468,052
1985-1990	616,140
1990-1995	462,605
1995-2000	438,633

because it was unreferenced and the five year periods were not clear - possibly financial year breaks but not certain. As the article develops, similar information iof not the same will be added back in but with a source. --Matilda ^talk 20:45, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

It would be nice to get that table back in (or similar stats) once referenced because it shows the post-war immigration pattern quite nicely. Is it truly possible that we don't have an article on Bonegilla?? Re the title of this article - I'm not sure if it has been discussed before, but something like: "Post war immigration to Australia" looks and reads that little bit better. πιππίνυ δ - (dica) 02:33, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Any data that is included should be referenced and this data wasn't. Also the year range wasn't clear. I have no difficulty with using numbers and think it owuld be useful - I am only making slow progress at present.

I can't find an article on Bonegilla! It definitely needs to be written.

I am happy with the proposed rename and will action. I must say it was something that was bugging me but not quite enough to action. However, I think the change suggested is a good idea.--Matilda ^talk 04:01, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

• Here is a source for the table and it confirms financial years are being used: Questions and Answers about Migrants & Multiculturalism published by Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) They got their info from DIMIA, Immigration: Federation to Century's End 1901-2000, Table 5: Country of birth of settler arrivals, pages 26-27. Note that 1959-65 represents 6 financial years instead of 5. That publication is available at http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/federation/index.htm Matilda ^talk 04:28, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
• Added a bit more, happy to look at the above site tonight. I have to admit that the opening sentence of this article doesn't quite grab me - I'm sure we can do better - wouldn't mind tossing ideas around on that point. πιππίνυ δ - (dica) 08:28, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Bathurst

I noticed the absence of Bathurst, which was an important Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre for many Eastern European "DPs" around 1949. Both my parents went there, as well as many other Ukrainians, Poles etc. The immigrants were usually whisked off straight from the ship (in my father's case it was the Castelbianco) and loaded onto special trains which went direct to Bathurst. I think if there is a more in-depth article on the various camps, then some mention of the tough and not very pleasant conditions could be mentioned. See Bathurst DP Camp.

For a list of other rarely mentioned migrant reception centres see: Migrant accomodation. Almost 40 accommodation centres were established in New South Wales, often in old army barracks (Reference: Belongings).

Personally, I don't think it is useful to relate the dates of these camps to Post office dates — many of these camps already existed as ex-Army camps. As well, I don't think the camp (which was a long way away from the town of Bathurst) actually had a post office. This is true with other camps as well, eg. Chullora. --- Pkravchenko (talk) 23:44, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Other points

I think it very important to mention the following points in this article:

• Displaced Persons Scheme - this needs emphasising as this was a significant immigrant intake after WW2 and these people were an important contribution to the labour force, including agricultural workers, and large-scale construction work like the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
• Why they came — many thousands of people who had been brought to Germany from occupied countries to labour in German industry were unable or unwilling to return to their homelands because of the Soviet occupations (Poland, the Baltic countries - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - as well as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, etc.).
• 2-year contract — All applicants within the worker age limits under this scheme undertook to remain in the employment found for them by the Commonwealth for a period of two years from the date of their arrival, and their continued residence in the Commonwealth was subject to their observing this undertaking. At the end of this period, these migrants could be granted indefinite admission to the Commonwealth.
• Inaccurate Place of Birth statistics - these are not very useful - due to the fact that the majority of Ukrainians and many other ex-Soviet citizens who became DPs falsely stated that they were born in Poland. The reason for this was the shameful policy by Britain and America to forcefully hand over ex-Soviet citizen DPs (whether they were prisoners of war, or were Ukrainian civilians enslaved by the Germans to work in Germany) to the Russians. Most of these people knew the fate of being handed over to the Soviet Russian 'liberators' — immediate execution or the Gulag. See Operation Keelhaul for the background to this. For this reason, they claimed they were ex-Polish citizens born in the Ukrainian territories that were in Polish control before the war. This explains the very large 'Polish' intake to Australia compared to other nationalities in the immediate post-war period.

--- Pkravchenko (talk) 23:44, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Compulsory work

Can someone research more about the compulsory work for the Australian government that many migrants had to do after arrival (usually for 2 years) like Snowy Mountains Project etc. The conditions were terrible and I heard from some old migrants that for example accommodation was worse than German POW camps during the WWII and the Aussies were very racist, treated migrants like second class citizens and predominantly discriminated non-Anglo migrants. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.129.10.10 (talk) 04:56, 12 July 2009 (UTC)