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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Reason for leaving homeland – Family left for work. Jan Hendrik’s father came out to work on building houses for the firm he worked for in the Netherlands
About the Journey – Came on the Johan van Oldenbarneveld.
Impressions on…
Jan Hendrik Wynand Kersbergen, The Netherlands, 1951
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Johannes (John) and Nelly Wagemakers-Hey
John Wagemakers (Born 1917) and Nelly Hey (Born 1922) met shortly after the Second World War. They were both born in Amsterdam (Amsterdamers). At the time John was a soldier in the Dutch Army and Nelly a shop…
Johannes and Nelly Wagemakers, Holland, 1956
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I have to say I was a reluctant migrant at first! My husband at the time had a quarrel with his parents. They had a business together and he wanted to take it over. His parents refused so he said we would emigrate. My name was Jill Cooper then and we had three…
Jill McLatchie, England, 1968
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The story of Wilfred John Jordan
My father Wilfred John Jordan was born in Birmingham England on 14th August 1921. He was the youngest of two children to Wilfred Joseph and Aileen Sarah Jordan. His father was a policeman from the London Constabulary…
Wilfred (my father) Jordan, Birmingham England, 1953
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On the 21st of September 1954, a 26 year old Dutchman named Peter Matthew Cuppens, alighted from a DC3 aircraft onto the chilly tarmac at Essendon Airport. Travelling halfway round the world, he had left behind his parents Petrus, a railway worker,…
Peter Cuppens, Netherlands, 1954
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Edward Kane like his father before him was a tailor living in the south Dublin seaside suburb of Kingstown (since 1920 it has returned to its ancient name of Dun Laoghaire). He married Ellen Ryder (the daughter of a hatter from nearby Stradbrook) in…
Edward Kane, Ireland, 1884
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I met my partner over the internet and migrated to Australia to be together with her. I was 19 and a native of Southern California.
It’s a looooong plane ride from Los Angeles to Sydney! At about the 8 hour mark you start thinking “Ok, I’d…
Catherine Piroli, USA, 1998
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Reason for leaving homeland – My parents wanted my sister and I to have a better life and a better education and they chose Australia because of its promise.
About the Journey – I remember seeing flying fish one day, and nearly falling …
Eilleen Kearney, United Kingdom, 1953
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My Mother & father decided to come to Australia for a better life – they had 5 children and work in Scotland was getting scarce because of the strikes. It was getting bad so this was the reason we came to the lucky country.
Our Journey from …
Gordon O’Brien, Nothern Ireland, 1/1/1971
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I never thought of going to live in another country until I was about 17 years of age. This was sometime after my mother had passed away. At the time we were living at 487E, Block 38, Circuit Road in Singapore- it\’s a government housing block. …
Susan Ng Sai Keow Parry (nee Ng), Singapore, 1967
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I spent most of my youth in Calne, Wiltshire, UK, where I attended primary school on The Green. When I was a teenager I enjoyed hitch-hiking. I hitch-hiked throughout the UK. Often by myself, occasionally with friends if we were going climbing and …
Terry Parry, United Kingdom, 1967
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Harare, Zimbabwe…
From 1997, Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, sponsored a wave of violence against his own citizens Ð his targets were the MDC (the emergent black opposition party) and white Zimbabweans.
‘The white man,’…
Graham Atkins, Zimbabwe, 2001
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Born in Sri Lanka and after a short stay in UK in the late 1970’s and early 80’s during my father’s PhD studies, my family returned to Sri Lanka. Confronted with the conflicts of a civil war that was escalating in Sri Lanka my parents…
Jayanthan Sivapalan, Sri Lanka, 1988
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Reason for leaving homeland – Adventure and a better life
About the Journey – Sailed on a 3 masted ship arrived Port Pirie Adelaide which did not actually exist as such and was a founding father of Adelaide. He was a bootmaker and had a shop…
Robert WOOD, ENGLAND/Scotland, 1836
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Fergus (Scotty) McWhirter, born on the 4 April 1920, third son of James McGeoch McWhirter, tenant farmer, Cairnbowie Farm, Kirkcolm, Scotland, immigrated to Australia in 1939. Cairnbowie Farm eventually purchased by Fergus brother Alexander…
Fergus McWhirter, Kirkcolm, Scotland, 1939
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Oliva Baldo was born in Cavaso, Italy on the 6th May 1903. During her early years she worked in a chocolate factory in Switzerland and then a silk factory in the north of Italy.
She married Alberto Marin by proxy on the 14th October 1933, arriving in Sydney…
Oliva Baldo, Italy, 1934
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Alberto Marin was born in Cavaso, Italy on the 17th june 1903.
As a youngster, he served 5 years in the Carabiniere in Belluno. At the age of 22 he decided to migrate to Australia.
He arrived in Melbourne on the “SS Palermo” on the 3rd February…
Alberto Marin, Italy, 1926
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My brother said it rained too much in Manchester that’s why we came to Australia, but I don’t really know why, but I never regretted it. Mind you, I never had any say in the matter, I was only six when we left England and sailed to Australia…
Marlene Smith, England, 1950
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Reason for leaving homeland – bad economic conditions
About the Journey – As I was only 18 years old it was more of an adventure even if the conditions were not too good. I had two other friends with me and they have remained my friends up …
Rudi Matas, Croatia, 1959
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Reason for leaving homeland – poverty after the war
About the Journey – shocking conditions, poor amenities on the old ship Toscana having to go through monsoon areas.
Impressions on Arrival – Arrived at Bonegilla where we had…
Maria /Renato Petronio, Italy, 1956
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Thomas and his wife Catherine came to Australia to join their sons William and James who had already emigrated to Australia to make a new life for themselves in 1847. Thomas and Catherine departed Plymouth, England on the 19th September 1848 and travelled…
Thomas Prior, Cornwall, England, 1849
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At the age of 17 my father was taken from his home (in a small town in Poland) and from his family by the German army. I don’t know what happened to him during the next 5 yrs but as far as I know he never saw his family again. When the war ended he went to…
Kazimierz Szantyr, Poland, 1948
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Reason for leaving homeland:
The Uruguayan consulate was advising of trips to a far away land called Australia, and that Australia was prepared to pay for immigrants to work , they called it the golden land of opportunity.
It was at the last moment …
Oscar wilman, Mirtha Elizabeth Lemos, Uruguay-Montevideo, 22/08/73
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Thomas Smallacombe left his homeland with his wife and 4 small children to make a better life for himself in Australia. They came out on the ship “Brightman” which according to Lloyd’s Shipping Records was a British ship-rigged…
Thomas Smallacombe, Cornwall, England, 13/12/1840
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I immigrated to Australia with my parents, John Lunn (Jock) and Janet Greig (Nettie) Brown. I have no siblings. We left Scotland to start a new life in Canberra, Australia, joining other relations who had already arrived from Scotland a few years …
Janis Anne Brown, Scotland, 1964
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I was born Maria Dorigo, of Rovigno and this is my story.
It was a cold February day in 1947 when together with my Mamma, a War Widow and my sister Gigliola we left Pola in Istria forever; our Dad had died in 1945.
At the time I was too young to understand why…
Maria Masseni (nee Dorigo), Italy, 1952
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John Ivan age 30yrs & Janet Ella Mills nee Halls age 28yrs arrived at Port Adelaide on the SS Orontes June 1961 with two little girls Jennifer Ann 8yrs & Raewyn Jayne 6 yrs old from Meads Eastbourne. They loved their town, the nice weather,…
John & Janet Mills, England, 1961
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