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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Lieutenant William Francis Weston and his wife Elizabeth and their infant son John arrived in Sydney, Australia on HMS Larkin, a free settler in 1817. In 1818 Governor Macquarie gave him a grant of 500 acres at Dapto which he called “West Horsley”…
William Weston, England, 1817
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Robert Northey was born in Gwennap, Cornwell 1821. Very little is known about his early life; he was a Protestant, he could read and write, and worked in the mines. He married Peternal Whitford Tremberth on 24 November 1838. Looking for a better life,…
Robert Northey, England, 1863
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My father was married with three young children and Malta was not a place to be after the war. As all his friends leaving for overseas he decided to go to Australia- Canberra infact , leaving his family behind in summer 1947
The ship left Malta –…
emmanuel psaila, malta, 1947
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Papa` was a partisan in World War II & was traumatised by the atrocities he witnessed.
He came to Australia via boat, to start a new life. He arrived in Sydney and intially settled in Katoomba.
Later, he settled in Dubbo, N.S.W. & married …
Giuseppe DeMarco, Voltago,Italy, 1952
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John always thought he would like to live his adult life in another country. My (Valerie) brother emigrated when I was 13 years old. When John and I decided to marry, John started corresponding with my brother. The rest is history.
We came by areoplane.…
John & Valerie Duffy, England, 1975
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I was born in 1934, in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Two historical events took place that year. Adolf Hitler consolidated his power in Germany & King of Yugoslavia was assassinated, in Marseille, France. Both…
Vladimir Orsag, Croatia, 1959
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Anna-Maria Svensson-Linde was born in 1858 to Hedda Nystršm of Jšnkšping (Sweden). Very little is known about her life in Sweden except that she and most of her siblings were born out of wedlock and she used the surname Svensson-Linde because …
Anna-Marie Adelskšld, Sweden, 1886
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My name is Egidio, the eldest son of Decimo and Lina Ossato.
Dad was born and grew up in the province of Vicenza, Italy. After receiving a letter from his cousin who was working as a logger in Australia, Dad emigrated in 1955 and initially landed a job …
Decimo Ossato, ITALIA, 1955
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When I was eight years old my parents decided to migrate to Australia after my mother’s brother, who had migrated several years earlier had written to my father to say what a wonderful country Australia was, with plenty of opportunity to reward…
Despina Tramoundanis, Greece, 1964
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The story of the Bryants of Mutton Falls begins with their arrival in Sydney, after a passage of 107 days, on the ship the ‘Earl Grey’. The date of departure from England is given as 9th March, 1841, and the date of arrival as 24th June, 1841.…
Walter Bryant, Cornwall, 6/1/1841
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Reasons for leaving Ire;land – To travel – first to USA, Canada, UK, then Australia
[About the Journey] By ship SS Himalaya, 10 pound migrant, with Wife Julia, Michael, David. Julia 7 months pregnant. Tiring journey looking after children…
Michael(Stan) Cronin, Ireland, 1959
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My wife and I could not see a bright future for our son Steven and daughter Lisa (4yrs and 2yrs). in England, so amid an industrial strike that was causing much unrest all over the country we completed the appropriate forms and sent them off to Australia…
Ann and Michael Broom, England, 1972
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My father, a New Zealander, joined the RAAF as a pilot and met my mother on a train in the UK. Dad returned to Australia in 1946 and mum and I followed him soon after on the Stirling Castle.
My only memories are seeing flying fish and having the England cricket…
Alastair Bridges, Scotland, 1946
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I migrated to Australia with my parents and younger brother, from Holland on the M V Johan van Olden Barneveldt on 23 January 1952, arriving in Sydney on March 6 after an extended stop-over in Fremantle WA due to industrial trouble.
My father had a small…
Theodora Brakel (Me), Holland, 1952
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I was 5 and my brother was 2 and a bit, my parents wanted to start a new life, my father secured a job in England with Anthony Squires as a tailor. They were young and the war had finished and they wanted to come to this land of opportunity. My parents were …
Sandra Hand, England, 1952
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My father Alan, with his wife Pat and their infant son Michael, left England in 1951, after six years WWII service, for further adventure in Australia.
My father had obtained work as a surveyor/engineer with the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority…
Michael F Macnamara, England, 1951
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My late husband Herbert Nitsche left Germany in 1958 to seek a better life in Australia- he had been told by fellow work colleagues in Stuttgart that you could make a lot of money in Australia and that the climate was so much better – a lot had come…
Herbert Nitsche, Germany, 1958
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Decided to leave England on the last assisted passage, with a young family of six children, due mainly to the cost of living at home, the population increases in Sussex, the stresses of the National Health Service on Harry’s professional practice,…
Harry and Eileen Savery, England, 1975
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Taken as an army cadet as prisoner-of-war to the Arctic Circle by the Russians in October 39. Released by Russians in 1941. However with many other Polish prisoners they were required to fight for Russia which was being threatened by German army, …
Czeslaw Stanilewicz, Poland, 1948
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Travel to Australia for better employment opportunities. John Absolom Stephenson was born in Liverpool and was the youngest of 19 children to parents Absolom and Maria (nee Wetherley) Stephenson.
John Absolom Stephenson travelled to Australia…
John Absolom Stephenson, England, c1854
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I left France in search of warmer weather, wide open spaces and adventure.
On the long plane trip here, I was looking forward to actually experience what I had already heard and read about Australia.
My first impression of Australia was of the heat.…
Michel Police, France, 1982
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My Great Grandfather, Edward Bourke immigrated to Austrlalia in 1858 on the vessel Fitzjames.
The “potato famine” was the reason Edward left Ireland.
Edward was accompanied by his brother Michael, who was fifteen years older. I am…
Edward Bourke, Ireland, 1857
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An adventure and opportunities for a young family. We decided as a family that moving to Australia would be a breath of adventure and provide opportunities for our three children. It has not disapointed. We spent eight years in Adelaide and the rest…
Patrick Hill, Republic of Ireland, 1972
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In supplying my details for this application, I had to think twice when I came to the question ‘Country of origin’. I decided to enter Hong Kong because I was born in Hong Kong, and I came from Hong Kong to go to boarding school in Sydney. …
Aert Driessen, Hong Kong, 1952
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I married an Australian whom I had met while on exchange teaching in Australia in 1969. We met in Wagga Wagga, NSW and corresponded for 3 years before Larry came to England in 1972 where we were married in December of that year. We left England in October…
Valerie Lacey, England, 1973
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A young 24 year old single male with some trade skills as a carpenter Walter Bruce Skinner was obviously in search of adventure. News filtering back to Scotland from the fledgling colony of New South Wales must have appealed to him as he sought &…
Walter B SKINNER, Scotland, 1839
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A young pastoralist recruited by the Australian Agricultural Company to farm in an area north of Sydney known as the Liverpool Plains in the fledgling colony of New South Wales. His decision to migrate was encouraged by a relative namely Henry Dangar…
Charles William Button, Cornwall, 1837