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
-
John Anthony Azzopardi was born in Mellieha Malta on 22 July 1920. He attended school for seven years. As well as Maltese he was taught English and also some Italian. John was therefore able to communicate quite well on arriving in Australia. He worked…
John Azzopardi, Malta, 1949
-
James offered himself as free settler to go to New South Wales in answer to a request for voulenteer tradesmen. James Thomas John Bean was a carpenter
James Thomas John Bean Wife & five Children together with other voulenteer settlers sailed…
James Thomas John Bean, England, 3rd May 17
-
James McGee also known as James Dedman McGee, James Magee and James Mac Gee, was transported to Van Dieman’s Land now Tasmania, Australia on the David Lyon which departed London, England on the 2 May 1830 and arrived in Van Dieman’s Land…
James McGee/Magee, United Kingdom, 1830
-
I was born in The Netherlands in a village called Leiderdorp on 23 March 1946. My migration story starts after I completed my National Service in 1968. My reasons for leaving Holland was driven by mixed emotions and desires and the fear of boredom, …
Kees (Cornelis) Zonneveld, Netherlands, 1968
-
Reason for leaving homeland – Having been evacuated from homeland and seeking a better life.
My Journey to Australia began in 1944 from Mrzovic a village in Croatia former Yugoslavia.
There was talk in the village that people of German descent…
Rosa Thimios nee Manier, Croatia former Yugoslavia, 1951
-
Reason for leaving homeland – Joining his Father who was already living in Australia.
Angelo’s Father had been in Australia since 1925 working hard and saving money with plans to bring the family to settle in Australia. In 1937 he went…
Angelo Thimios, Greece, 1937
-
Born Lieselotte KARGL in Wurzburg, Germany and raised in Landshut, Bavaria. Worked as a Certified Clerk doing shorthand, typing and bookkeeping for the Council Chambers. During this time she met and fell in love with my father Siegfried Fischer.…
Lieselotte FISCHER, Germany, 1961
-
Wladyslaw was the son of Lucien Boettcher a Professor of Maths at Lvow University. He was a decorated Polish officer in World War 1 who had to flee when the Russians invaded.
He fled with his two sons Edward & Adam to Germany. In Schramberg he worked…
Wladyslawa Boettcher, Poland, 1950
-
Kirsten had met Jay Zammit in Edinburgh in 1999. Jay was from Geraldton in Western Australia and had recently arrived in Scotland with the aim of travelling around Europe. Instead of travelling, Jay stayed in Edinburgh and started dating Kirsten.…
Kirsten Zammit (nee Ramsay), Scotland, 2001
-
John Cowan, age 42, due to the potato famine in Ireland left Ireland for Australia, settling at Twowells, South Australia, The ship Epaminondas left from Belfast.
The Epaminondas arrived at Outer Harbour, South Australia, in 1852. He was accompanied…
John Cowan, Ireland, 1852
-
I came to this unfamiliar, faraway place I now call home when I was eight years old with my parents Eva and Adelino. My parents left their beloved homeland with a grey and brown suitcase filled with scant belongings but plenty of dreams and hopes for …
Christie Mae Gonzaga, Philippines, 1985
-
Reason for leaving homeland – the biased government.
About the Journey – great, came over on the Canberra.
Impressions on Arrival – arrived in Fremantle and couldn’t believe how spotless the dockside was. Then carried…
Veronica Casey, South Africa, 1971
-
John Parkes was born in Halesowen, near Dudley, England, in 1768, son of Isaac and Esther Parkes. An ironworker, he was convicted at the Worcester Lent Assizes, 1797, of stealing a Beaver great coat valued at 16/- from shopkeeper John Grimestone …
John Parkes, England, 1798
-
In 1829, a silk-weaver of Bethnal Green, William Dove was convicted, at the Old Bailey, of poaching fowls. After spending 12 months in the hulks, he was transported via “Manlius” to Hobart, Tasmania, leaving behind a wife and child.…
William Dove, England, 1830
-
In September,1827 Henry Cary married 19 year old Isabella Carlton Dawson at St George Hanover Square, London. Isabella was the daughter of George D.L. Dawson, Esq, (who died 1/5/1832) and his wife Elmira, of Sloane St, Chelsea. Isabella’s…
Henry Cary, England, 1849
-
Thomas Fletcher, was the fourth of 8 children of Joseph Fletcher and Elizabeth Wilson. Joseph was a shipowner and merchantman of Hull, Goole and Wapping. At 29, a bookkeeper, Thomas left Antwerp travelling via Ostend to London and, having farewelled…
Thomas Fletcher, England, 1852
-
A foreman in a glove factory, and with a growing family, Elias decided to emigrate to Australia with his wife and young family. The Assisted Immigrants Book 2 1839-1841 p.299 states he was a farm servant.
Elias, his wife , Martha, had seven children…
Elias Helyar, England, 1841
-
Reason for leaving homeland – For a better life & secure future for eight children.
About the Journey – Strange exciting expeirience as we had never travelled in an aircraft. Spain via Germany via India via Singapore.
Impressions…
Maria Puyol, Spain, 1967
-
My mother Adriana Antoniazzi (nee Pedrocchi) passed away July of 2007 at the age of 67. It is with great honour that I recount the story of her arrival to this great nation, Australia.
My mother was born in Rovetta in Bergamo, a picturesque mountain …
Adriana Pedrocchi, Italy, 1958
-
As a young boy I had always wanted to get away from a bad family situation and I was accepted to travel to Australia with the Big Brother Movement in 1967. I was, however, not allowed to leave until I was 18 as I was a Ward Of Court. Four days after my 18th birthday…
Geoff Norman, England, 1969
-
Reason for leaving homeland: Perhaps, at age 20, to escape strict parents and a household of older brothers in a tiny house, his mundane job with the Great Western Railway and dream of finding excitement and a new life at the other side of the world.…
Roy Newcombe, Wales, UK, 1925
-
Reason for leaving homeland – To look for a job change and experience a different way of life with improved weather and job opportunities and travel. We were married on 24th August 1963 and left by ship two weeks later.
We came by Sitmar Line Castel…
Ernie Bird, England, 10/10/1963
-
Robert Watson Hughes AO, MBE (Part 2)
Robert remained with the ABC as Music Arranger/Editor, Music Department, Melbourne until his retirement in 1976. Part of the job entailed arranging and editing scores to fit the MSO. He conducted some rehearsals…
Robert Watson Hughes AO, MBE, Scotland, 1929
-
Robert Watson Hughes AO, MBE (PART 1)
Robert was born in Olive Cottage, Links Road, Leven, Fifeshire, Scotland on March 27 1912, the sixth child, & fourth son of Joseph (a successful fish merchant) & Isabella Hughes. In 1922 the family …
Robert Watson Hughes AO, MBE, Scotland, 1929
-
John Kilgour was born in 1854, in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. His parents were John Melville Kilgour & Margaret Dow. John was a Watchmaker & Jeweller in Glasgow in the eighteen seventies and married Helen Howden, (born: 1858),…
John Kilgour, Scotland, 6/1/1882
-
Frank and Maria with children Margaret and Frank and maternal grandmother Kerner Theresa left Hungary after the war. Spent 2 years in Donanwšrth, Germany leaving Hamburg on the ‘General Hersey’ 1950. Settled in Collie where Gabriel…
Frank & Maria Linczmayer, Hungary, 1950
-
I came to Australia from Reggio Emilia, Italy as a 19 year old. I worked on a farm, then on earthmoving equipment and later in the mining industry in Collie. In 1959 I married Margaret Linczmayer. We have 3 children, Suzanne, Diane and Mark. We retired…
Armando (Ray) Busani, Italy, 1952
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- …
- 61
- Next Page »