Immigration Stories
Throughout history stories have been used to illuminate, to educate, to recount, to challenge and to engage. Every individual’s life experience is unique and dynamic, particularly for those of us who have journeyed far from our homes to establish new lives in foreign countries.
Australia’s migrant history has enabled us to develop into the strong nation we are today. Personal stories and anecdotes are an important opportunity to enrich the public record and to embellish our history. Immigration Place Australia encourages the collection of immigrant stories. By giving a voice to our immigrants, we hope to record significant experiences with increased depth and nuance. We envision an opportunity to connect generations and to build community via a comprehensive record of the distinctive immigration footprint of Australia.
IPA’s mission is to continue to collect stories until completion of the construction of Immigration Place in Canberra. At that time, subject to the agreement of the National Archives of Australia those stories will be transferred to their website – Destination Australia.
We encourage you to record your stories or those of your ancestors.
All Stories
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We left England to start a new life with our two children and start work as a Buyer for Ford Motor Company.
Our journey was by plane arriving in Tullamarine Airport in June 1974.
We were met by a representative from Ford Motor Company and taken to a flat…
Anthony Costigan, England, 1974
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Elise Paroz was the first of the children of Isaac Paroz and Suzanne Lardon of Saicourt, Switzerland, to emigrate to Australia in 1871. Her older brother, Ulysse, and his family followed her in 1874.
Elise was born on 2 February 1836 in Monter, Berne,…
Frederich and Elise Juillerat, Switzerland, 1871
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Johan left his homeland to make a better life for himself in another country, and he chose Australia. Times were harsh in Europe and the people heard stories of streets paved with gold in faraway places such as America and Australia.
The journey was…
Johan Carlson, Sweden, 1873
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Family circumstances
I was born into a middle class landlord family, my father was a public servant and my mother was a housewife. When two years old, my father died and when four years old, my mother died, so I was raised by grandparents. In 1950, I married…
Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad, India, 1971
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What were the circumstances of the family you were born into?
The family into which I was born was an extended family in which my uncles and my grandmother of my father’s side lived all together in a big house in India. At first we lived all together,…
Jamal Ara Ahmad, India, 1971
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The George Tramountanas & Lydia Vosper story
George Tramountanas was born in Greece in 1822 and lived with his family on the Isle of Limnos, he also had family ties with Salonika.
When he arrived at Pt.Adelaide in 1842 with his brother Theodore,…
Lydia Vosper, England, 1855
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The George Tramountanas & Lydia Vosper story
George Tramountanas was born in Greece in 1822 and lived with his family on the Isle of Limnos, he also had family ties with Salonika.
When he arrived at Pt.Adelaide in 1842 with his brother Theodore,…
George Tramountanas, Greece, 1842
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My family come from the small Italian village of Via Guazzi, near Abano Terme. Olga’s husband, Vittorio was captured in WWII in North Africa by the Australians. As a POW he was sent to India, where conditions in the camp were so bad that he wouldn’t…
Olga Paccagnella, Italy, 1950
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OUR JOURNEY.
Here we are, memorised on this Bridge, fifty years after we came Down Under !
We met as teenagers in 1940 at the start of WW2, when our country, The Netherlands, was occupied by Germany. Five years later we came out unscathed and started …
Alexis and Clary van Noppen, Netherlands, 1986
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Reason for leaving homeland – No prospects for young marrieds and no accommodation.
About the Journey – Married 6 days before embarking on the Ormonde at Tilbury docks. The women and men were separated so the ship could carry more people.…
Pat & Vic Noyce, England, 1950
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My father came to Mackay Qld. Aust. to work on the Sugar Farms with his uncle and due to the depression they had to walk out off their farm. My father was a young man so he returned to Malta and then married my mother. He always loved Australia and seeing …
STELLA (MARIA) VOOLSTRA nee MUSCAT, MALTA, 1958
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I am a daughter of the Manse and really didn’t want to come to Australia as I am very family oriented and I was happy being a teacher in Canada. But I was working for NATO as a teacher of Canadian servicemen’s children and had established …
mary ellen macdonald, canada, 1970
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Australia was seeking tradesmen to migrate to Australia with the prospect of a better life, I came to Australia to help build up the Nation after World War II. My trade is Carpentry and Patternmaker.
The journey was with the ship Fairsea, we left Trieste…
Walter Reif, Austria, 1955
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As I sit in my comfortable home office and look up at a framed photograph of myself in my mothers arms among many other people, filled with hope and expectation about to disembark from the ‘General Black’ I cannot help but wonder how many…
Robert and Laimdotta and Valdis Bukmanis, Latvia, 1950
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In 1971 awarded Churchill Fellowship to study Preservation of Library and Archival Material at
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney and National Library of Australia, Canberra.
After our return to Dunedin, I was contracted to my employer for 12 months; they…
Murray & Kathleen Millar, New Zealand, May-77
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Sarah Jane White was one of fourteen children born to Margaret and Thomas White in Brandon, County Durham in England. Thomas was a miner and as times in England were very poor, they sent Sarah aged 15 years and Margaret ages 18 years to Australia to be…
Sarah Jane White (m. Hayes), England, 1926
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My Opa whose name is Berend decided to emigrate to Australia from Holland in 1953 at the age of 19. World War 2 had decimated Holland and even though rebuilding the country was happening, times were hard. His father and elder brother had just returned…
Berend Lok, The Netherlands, 1953
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I was born in a little village in North Holland called Wognum, the youngest of 12 children, 7 girls and 5 boys. My father had decided to seek a better life and more opportunities for his large family in the post war years when the depression had made work…
Mary Appelman, Netherlands, 1953
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Becoming redundant from the British Naval Dockyard in 1964 when I was about to get married made me make the big decision to migrate to Australia with my new wife to start a new life for ourselves and the family.
We arrived on a Qantas plane on the 8th July…
Anthony BUGEJA, MALTA, 1964
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At the age of 16, Diego Novella had to support his mother and six siblings after the death of his father. Work was scarce in southern Italy and after moving to the northern regions, and work becoming scarce there too, he decided to make the journey to …
Diego Novella, Italy, 1952
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Dad (Neville) was a doctor working in a private practice in Sri Lanka. We were better off than most but had little chances for education and training. On my first birthday the JVP uprising (1971) saw rioting and mass violence. Then the oportunity to…
Neville and Lorna Fernando, Sri Lanka, 1976
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In 1852 Hugh Mountjoy, his wife Sarah (formerly Chope) and their children, Mary (17), Maria (16), Hugh (15), and Sarah (8), left England to make a new home in Australia. Both Sarah and Hugh came from land-owning families in Hartland, North Devon Ð…
Sarah Mountjoy, England, 1853
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Dad emigrated to Australia as there was lack of work in Mo I Rana, Norway, where we lived.
We came out on the S.S.Southern Cross, leaving via the Panama Canal. We had Christmas on the boat, and they put on a special party for the kids and a separate one for…
Rolf Ingvaldsen, Norway, 1960
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a quick aside re this family. Augie Knop is one of my forebears, I am of the Eaton family originating from Lower Longley. My line of family is maternal Haigh (Moggeridge), paternal Eaton, maternal grandmother Julia Cohen (ex Colebrook), maternal…
augustine knop, prussia, 1/1/2001
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Robert Forrester was tried at Justice Hall at the Old Bailey in London at the sessions which commenced on Wednesday 30 April 1783 before Mr. Justice Nares and the Second Middlesex Jury. Robert Forrester and Richard McDale were indicted for feloniously…
Robert Forrester, England, 1788
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Arlette Kate Patterson was born into an upper class expatriate British family living in Cairo, Egypt, on 22 January 1922. Known as Kay, she was the second of three children born to William Joseph Patterson and Beatrice Eugenia Della Torre, also descended…
Arlette Calver, Egypt, 1952
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John Henry Calver was born into a working class family in Ipswich, England, on 25 February 1915. He was the 7th of an eventual 13 children born to Frederick and Emma Calver, descendants of labouring stock. In his mid-teens he fell foul of the law on what…
John Calver, England, 1952
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