Post-war immigration to Australia deals with
migration to Australia in the decades immediately following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and in particular refers to the predominantly
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an wave of immigration which occurred between 1945 and the end of the
White Australia policy in 1973. In the immediate aftermath of World War II,
Ben Chifley,
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
(1945–1949), established the federal
Department of Immigration
The Department of Immigration was an Australian government department that existed between July 1945 and June 1974.
Scope
Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administ ...
to administer a large-scale immigration program. Chifley commissioned a report on the subject which found that Australia was in urgent need of a larger population for the purposes of defence and development and it recommended a 1% annual increase in population through increased immigration.
The first
Minister for Immigration,
Arthur Calwell, promoted mass immigration with the slogan "populate or perish".
Calwell coined the term "
New Australians
New Australians were non-British migrants to Australia who arrived in the wave of Post-war immigration to Australia, immigration following World War II. The term initially referred to newly arrived immigrants, generally refugees, who were expecte ...
" in an effort to supplant such terms as
pommy (Englishman) and
wog
''Wog'' is a racial slur in Australian English and British English applied to people from the Mediterranean region such as Southern Europeans and North Africans. In British English, it more typically refers to people from the Indian subcontinen ...
.
The 1% target remained a part of government policy until the
Whitlam Government (1972–1975), when immigration numbers were substantially cut back, only to be restored by the
Fraser Government (1975–1982).
[
Some 4.2 million immigrants arrived between 1945 and 1985, about 40 percent of whom came from Britain and Ireland. 182,159 people were sponsored by the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) from the end of ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
up to the end of 1954 to resettle in Australia from Europe—more than the number of convicts transported to Australia
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...
in the first 80 years after European settlement.
"Populate or perish" policy
The Chifley years
Following the attacks on Darwin and the associated fear of Imperial Japanese invasion in World War II, the Chifley Government commissioned a report on the subject which found that Australia was in urgent need of a larger population for the purposes of defence and development and it recommended a 1% annual increase in population through increased immigration. In 1945, the government established the federal Department of Immigration
The Department of Immigration was an Australian government department that existed between July 1945 and June 1974.
Scope
Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administ ...
to administer the new immigration program. The first Minister for Immigration was Arthur Calwell. An Assisted Passage Migration Scheme
Ten Pound Poms (or Ten Pound tourists) is a colloquial term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War. The Government of Australia initiated the Assisted ...
was also established in 1945 to encourage Britons to migrate to Australia. The government's objective was summarised in the slogan "populate or perish". Calwell stated in 1947, to critics of mass immigration from non-British Europe: "We have 25 years at most to populate this country before the yellow races are down on us."
The post-war immigration program of the Chifley Government gave them preference to migrants from Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, and initially an ambitious target was set of nine British out of ten immigrants.[ However, it was soon apparent that even with assisted passage the government target would be impossible to achieve given that Britain's shipping capacity was quite diminished from pre-war levels. As a consequence, the government looked further afield to maintain overall immigration numbers, and this meant relying on the IRO refugees from Eastern Europe, with the ]USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
providing the necessary shipping.[ Many Eastern Europeans were refugees from the ]Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
and thus mostly anti-Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and so politically acceptable.
Menzies years
The 1% target survived a change of government in 1949, when the Menzies Government succeeded Chifley's. The new Minister of Immigration was Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party.
Holt was born in S ...
(1949–56).
The British component remained the largest component of the migrant intake until 1953.[ Between 1953 and late 1956, migrants from ]Southern Europe
Southern Europe is the southern regions of Europe, region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countrie ...
outnumbered the British, and this caused some alarm in the Australian government, causing it to place restrictions on Southern Europeans sponsoring newcomers and to commence the "Bring out a Briton" campaign. With the increase in financial assistance to British settlers provided during the 1960s, the British component was able to return to the top position in the overall number of new settlers.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Europeans migrated to Australia and over 1,000,000 Britons immigrated with financial assistance. The migration assistance scheme initially targeted citizens of Commonwealth countries; but it was gradually extended to other countries such as the Netherlands
)
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, image_map =
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, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
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and Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. The qualifications were straightforward: migrants needed to be in sound health and under the age of 45 years. There were initially no skill requirements, although under the White Australia policy, people from mixed-race backgrounds found it very difficult to take advantage of the scheme.
Migration brought large numbers of southern and central Europeans to Australia for the first time. A 1958 government leaflet assured voters that unskilled non-British migrants were needed for "labour on rugged projects ...work which is not generally acceptable to Australians or British workers." The Australian economy stood in sharp contrast to war-ravaged Europe, and newly arrived migrants found employment in a booming manufacturing industry and government assisted programmes such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme. This hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...
and irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...
complex in south-east Australia consisted of sixteen major dams and seven power stations constructed between 1949 and 1974. It remains the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia. Necessitating the employment of 100,000 people from over 30 countries, to many it denotes the birth of multicultural Australia.
In 1955 the one-millionth post-war immigrant arrived in Australia. Australia's population reached 10 million in 1959, up from 7 million in 1945.
End to the White Australia policy
In 1973, Whitlam Government (1972–1975) adopted a completely non-discriminatory immigration policy, effectively putting an end to the White Australia policy. However, the change occurred in the context of a substantial reduction in the overall migrant intake. This ended the post-war wave of predominantly European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
immigration which had started three decades before with the end of the Second World War and would make the beginnings of the contemporary wave of predominantly Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
n Immigration to Australia which continues to the present day.
International agreements
Financial assistance was an important element of the post war immigration program and as such there were a number of agreements in place between the Australian government and various governments and international organisations.
* United Kingdom – free or assisted passages.[ Immigrants under this scheme became known as Ten Pound Poms.
* Assisted passages for ex-servicemen of the ]British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
and the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.[ This scheme was later extended to cover ex-servicemen and members of resistance movements from certain other Allied countries.][
* An agreement with the ]International Refugee Organization
The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was an intergovernmental organization founded on 20 April 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. ...
(IRO) to settle at least 12,000 displaced people a year from camps in Europe.[ Australia accepted a disproportionate share of refugees sponsored by IRO in the late 1940s and early 1950s.]
* Formal migration agreements, often involving the grant of assisted passage, with the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, the Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
.[
* There were also informal migration agreements with a number of other countries including ]Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, and Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
.[
]
Timeline
Settler arrivals by top 10 countries of birth
Migrant reception and training centres
On arrival in Australia, many migrants went to migrant reception and training centres where they learned some English while they looked for a job. The Department of Immigration was responsible for the camps and kept records on camp administration and residents. The migrant reception and training centres were also known as Commonwealth Immigration Camps, migrant hostels, immigration dependants' holding centres, migrant accommodation, or migrant workers' hostels.
Australia's first migrant reception centre opened at Bonegilla, Victoria near Wodonga
Wodonga
(Pallanganmiddang language, Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victoria (Australia), Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of ...
in December 1947. When the camp closed in 1971, some 300,000 migrants had spent time there.[
By 1951, the government had established three migrant reception centres for non-English speaking displaced persons from Europe, and twenty holding centres, principally to house non-working dependants, when the pressure of arrival numbers on the reception centres was too great to keep families together.][ The purpose of reception and training centres was to:
]provide for general medical examination and x-ray of migrants, issue of necessary clothing, payment of social service benefits, interview to determine employment potential, instruction in English and the Australian way of life generally.
The centres were located throughout Australia (dates are those of post office opening and closing.)
Queensland
* Stuart
Stuart may refer to:
Names
* Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile
*Stuart (automobile)
Places
Australia Generally
*Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory
Northe ...
* Wacol
Wacol is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Wacol had a population of 3,761 people.
Geography
Wacol is bounded to the west by the Brisbane River and to the north loosely by Wolston Creek. It is south-west of t ...
* Yungaba Immigration Centre
Yungaba Immigration Centre is a heritage-listed former immigration hostel at 102 Main Street, Kangaroo Point, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, alongside the Brisbane River. It was designed by John James Clark and built by William Pet ...
(known today as Yungaba House)
New South Wales (NSW)
* Bathurst (1948 to 1952)
* Bradfield Park, now Lindfield
* Chullora
Chullora, a suburb in the City of Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. The ...
, a suburb of Sydney (1 August 1949 to 31 October 1967)
* Greta Greta may refer to:
*Greta (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Places
* Greta Bridge, village in County Durham, England
* Greta, New South Wales, town in Australia
** Greta railway station
** Greta Army Camp, form ...
, near Newcastle (1 June 1949 to 15 January 1960)
* Uranquinty
Uranquinty is a small town approximately south of Wagga Wagga, in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The population of the town, often referred to as "Quinty", is 909.
Uranquinty was used as the railway village when the railw ...
(1 December 1948 to 31 March 1959)
Other hostels in New South Wales included Adamstown Adamstown may refer to:
Locations Australia
* Adamstown, New South Wales, a suburb in New South Wales
Ireland
* Adamstown, Castletownkindalen, a townland in Castletownkindalen civil parish, barony of Moycashel, County Westmeath
* Adamstown, Conr ...
, Balgownie, Bankstown, Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
, Bunnerong, Burwood, Cabramatta, Cronulla, Dundas, East Hills, Ermington, Goulburn, Katoomba, Kingsgrove, Kyeemagh, Leeton, Lithgow, Mascot, Matraville, Mayfield, Meadowbank, Nelson Bay, North Head, Orange, Parkes, Port Stephens, Randwick, St Marys, Scheyville, Schofields, Unanderra, Villawood, Wallerawang and Wallgrove.
Victoria
* Bonegilla
Bonegilla is a bounded rural locality of the City of Wodonga local government area in north-east Victoria, Australia, east of Wodonga, and around north-east of Melbourne. At the , Bonegilla and the surrounding area had a population of 610.
H ...
(December 1947 to 17 March 1971)
* Benalla (9 June 1949 to 30 May 1952)
* Mildura (1950 to 17 July 1953)
* Rushworth (1 June 1949 to 15 June 1953)
* Sale West (1950 to 30 November 1953)
* Somers (18 August 1949 to 14 February 1957)
* Fishermen's Bend, Victoria 1952.
South Australia
* Elder Park
Elder Park is a public open space in the city of Adelaide, South Australia on the southern bank of the River Torrens and that is bordered by the Adelaide Festival Centre and North Terrace.
The park is named after the Elder family who wer ...
* Gepps Cross
Gepps Cross (pronounced 'Jepps Cross') is a suburb and major road intersection in the north of Adelaide, South Australia. Gepps Cross is traditionally seen as the end of the inner suburbs and the start of the outer northern suburbs, as it was hom ...
* Glenelg
* Pennington/Finsbury
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...
* Rosewater
Rose water ( fa, گلاب) is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water. It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. Rose water is also used to flavour ...
* Smithfield
* Willaston
* Elphinstone
* Woodside
Woodside may refer to:
Places and buildings Australia
*Woodside, South Australia, a town
*Woodside, Victoria, a town
Canada
*Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King
*Woodside, Nova Scotia, a neighborho ...
Western Australia
* Northam Holden (15 August 1949 to 30 June 1957)
* Graylands
* Cunderdin
* Point Walter
Breakdown of arrivals by decade
File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 1922 Total Year of arrival 1941 1950.svg , 1941-1950
File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 1923 Total Year of arrival 1951 1960.svg , 1951-1960
File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 1924 Total Year of arrival 1961 1970.svg , 1961-1970
File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 1925 Total Year of arrival 1971 1980.svg , 1971-1980
In the post-war wave of immigration Australia has experienced average arrivals of around one million per decade. The breakdown by decade is as follows:
* 1.6 million between October 1945 and 30 June 1960;
* about 1.3 million in the 1960s; and
* about 960.000 in the 1970s;
The highest number of arrivals during the period was 185,099 in 1969–70 and the lowest was 52,752 in 1975–76.
2006 demographics of post-war period non-English speaking immigrant groups
In the 2006 census, birthplace was enumerated as was date of arrival in Australia for those not born in Australia. For the major post-war period non-English speaking immigrant groups enlarged by the arrival of immigrants to Australia after World War II, they are still major demographic groups in Australia:
Not all of those enumerated would have arrived as post-war migrants, specific statistics as at 2006 are not available.
See also
* Demographics of Australia
* European Australians
European Australians are citizens or residents of Australia whose ancestry originates from the peoples of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group in the country. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Eu ...
* Europeans in Oceania
* Immigration history of Australia
The immigration history of Australia began with the initial human migration to the continent around 80,000 years ago when the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians arrived on the continent via the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea. ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
* (archived website)
* (South Australia)
*
*
*
* Ships and passenger lists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post War Immigration To Australia
Aftermath of World War II
History of immigration to Australia
Aftermath of World War II in Australia