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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Marcello was born in a small rural community close to Venice, Pezzan d’Istrana. He was the eldest of ten children.
His father farmed leased land in this area and struggled to make ends meet. To escape this poverty and to help support his family…
Marcello Maggiolo, Italy, 1951
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Working in my parents business ever since I was a teenager resulted in developing different opinions between my parents and myself how to plan the future for the business. As I turned 30 this initiated thinking of continuing my career life in another…
Gerd Modlich, Germany, 1982
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Reason for leaving homeland – defected from communist Yugoslavia because of discrimination against Hungarian minorities. First time jailed for trying to escape across Slovenia / Austria border. Second time successfully made it to Germany…
Piroska Odri, Yougoslavia, 1964
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Born 11/7/1936 in Vasto, Italy, Antonio was from a family of 10 brothers and 3 sisters. Antonio’s education consisted of 3 years of schooling and at the age of 8 his father sent him to work at a Brick Works as the family was going through hardship…
Antonio D’Ermilio, Italy, 1954
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WILLIAM HENRY FRY (1790-1885) and SARAH FRY (1805-1868)
William Henry and Sarah were both Irish folk who met when they were mature adults in New South Wales in the early 1840s. Sarah had already been married and widowed by the time she and William Henry…
William Henry & Sarah Martin Fry, Ireland, C1830s
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JOSEPH MARIE LE BRAS C1850-1938
and
MAUD MARION (CONLAN) LE BRAS C1867-1949
Joseph Marie was a Frenchman from St. Brieuc in Brittany who emigrated to Australia about 1877. His parents, had a lace making business which was quite profitable and begrudgingly…
Joseph Marie & Maud Marion Le Bras, France & Ireland, C1877 & C1
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My parents were Displaced Persons after WW2 as they had both been taken by the Germans. Mum was taken to Germany to the labour camps when she was 16. Dad was arrested in 1940 and put into concentration camps – Auschwitchz, Dachau and Buchanwald.…
Helena and Boleslaw Labuda, Poland, 14/03/50
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August Aldur Mattsson was born in Bjorsby, in the municipality of Jomala on Aland Island. Aland is a small Island of 26,000 people located in the Baltic Sea half way between Sweden and Finland. Although Aland is a province of Finland the people of Aland…
August Mattsson, Aland, Finland, 1922
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Salvatore Gambale was born in Paternopoli (80 kms east of Naples) in the province of Avellino on the 22nd of September, 1938. He was the son of Nunzio and Emmanuela Gambale, their 4th child.
Salvatore Gambale was a gifted student and a talented writer.…
Salvatore Gambale, Italy, 1962
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Reason for leaving homeland – Adventure and travel to see a little of the world.
About the Journey – Sailed on the Castel Felice November 1960 and sailed to Melboure arriving there December 1960.
There was a strike in Fremantle so we had…
Klaus Decker, Germany, 1960
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My parents Jutta and Horst Schild both originally from Germany. They left the cold climate for a healthier climate in Johannesburg South Africa, as my father Horst suffers badly from Asthma. They arrived in 1965, with my brother Hagen who was about…
Freya Jobbins (nee Schild), South Africa, 1974
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WALKER Brothers: ARCHIBALD and JOHN
These brothers were born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1821 and 1829. Archibald arrived in Australia at Port Phillip aboard the Midlothian in 1839 after a 3 month journey. Scotland was changing in the years from 1832…
Archibald Walker, Scotland, 1839
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Reason for leaving homeland – I left for security reasons
The journey was good and somehow scary as that was the first time ever I boarded an aeroplane. I was nervous throughout the journey. It was a very long journey. It took us about three days…
Saidu Kamara, Sierra Leone, 2007
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My parents met in Paris where my mother Giselle Fernande Bacques was working and studying. My mother had come from Morocco, where she was born, to Paris to meet a French man. Instead she met my father, a Dutch man, and moved to the Netherlands with him.…
Jan Willem de Jong, The Netherlands, 1965
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We had two young children back in 1972, one of whom is a son who would have automatically, at the age of eighteen, be called up for National Service to fight on the Borders. We did not want him to be sacrificed for a lost cause and felt that the future of the…
Dennis Braddon, South Africa, 1972
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Nancy “Ann” Adams was a convict, convicted of stealing and transported to Tasmania in 1842 on the ship, Hope.…
Nancy “Ann” Adams, Ireland, c1842
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Reason for leaving homeland – Australia had a better future for us as children.
About the Journey – I left France with my parents, older brother, younger sister and went to Italy (Genova) and boarded the ship Sebastiano Caboto 20th June…
Jean-Paul Schneller, France, 7/21/1950
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Andrew Stenhouse SIMPSON was the eldest of three children born to Andrew SIMPSON, coalminer, and Helen YULE. His mother died when he was five years old, so he and his brother, William Yule, went to live with his widowed grandmother, Jane Cunningham,…
Andrew Stenhouse SIMPSON, Scotland, 1911
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My family comes from Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. My first few years were spent by the Tyne River with its rows of Victorian terraced houses, cobblestone streets and endless fog. My father worked as an electrician on the docks and my mother worked…
Angela Hunter, England, 1972
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John Thom(p)son, was the son of John Thomson and his wife, Nancy, who had eloped from Glasgow, Scotland, about 1809, taking up a small plot of land in the townland of Liswatty. The family belonged to the Presbyterian congregation in Ballyrashane,…
John THOMSON, Ireland, 1852
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Reason for leaving homeland – we wished to travel
About the Journey – the train broke down just got the plane we were rushed through airport to catch it
Impressions on Arrival – hot and dry…
tim norris, england, 1976
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My great-grandfather HHV grew up near Hamburg in Holstein duchy (now in state Schleswig-Holstein) in a farming family. We believe he left because of the impending Prussian-Denmark war, for which the local count supported Denmark & forced…
Hans Heinrich VOGT, Germany, 1858 circa
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The American mentality is “Love it or leave it”.
Best advice I ever took.…
Jeffrey S. James, USA, 1971
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Reason for leaving homeland
Paola married Vincenzo Bianchi, who had migrated to Australia in 1913.
About the Journey
The boat trip which took over a month. Paola didn’t take the trip very well being seasick the whole time.
She took the train…
Paola Bianchi, Italy, 1932
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Reason for leaving homeland
Vincenzo wanted to earn his own money and buy land of his own.
About the Journey
Vincenzo came out by boat which took over a month. Conditions were not good, the boat being only a very small
one. On arrival in Australia he and…
Vincenzo Bianchi, Italy, 1913
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Our family plus 3 other Salomons Families and one Otten (related) all lived in in the same village in the province of Drenthe in Nth east Holland.Our fathers were all peat cutters. They had read all the glowing reports about Australia, so they decided…
Klaas Salomons, Holland, 23/08/50
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Jaromir (Jerry) left Czechoslovakia following the installation of a Communist government. Jerry was an only child of professional parents. He had been accepted into the Conservatorium at 16 years of age, but the German occupation closed all tertiary…
Jaromir (Jerry) Simsa, Czechoslovakia, 1952
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