Diary Entry #1 Back in Italy:

It was 1948 and the world was still recovering from The Second World War. My family, Mom, Dad, Brother and I we’re very poor as the rest of the population. We had millions if not billions of Euros and yet they were all worth a trip to the market. The country was starving and the economy was dying. There was nothing left for us in Italy and we needed a way out. One day my brother and I were walking around the streets of our town and as we walked by our local notice board I saw a poster that looked new and undamaged to the rest. It read “Populate or Perish” “WE WANT YOU! Are you looking for a new start at life? In a undamaged, free country that promises work, land and shelter? Do you want to live by the beach? And not worry about anything but how to enjoy yourself? Well if this sounds like a lifestyle for you sail across the ocean to Australia where all our questions are answered. And why not bring the family? The more the merrier” Come to think about it, these posters actually filled the streets and were quite popular among our community. Seems like a lot of the locals felt like there was nothing left for them. Anyway, I went home and took it to my parents. “Mom, I have an idea” I said handing her the paper. “Australia!” She seemed sceptical at first but when she asked my father and they spoke for a bit it seemed like there was a high chance of us moving to the land down under. 2 Weeks later and my parents had packed everything and we were on our way to the docks.

Diary Entry #2 The Transit:

I must admit I was very nervous about leaving Italy. I’ve never been overseas, on a boat, migrating, leaving so much of myself behind. However the main thing was that now at least we have each other in a safer country, better economical country, with jobs… or at least that’s what the poster said. The ship we stayed in was quite big and quite nice. Well at least in comparison to our lives before, where there were craters in the roads, houses obliterated to dust, no food, hard beds and just all round depression in our lives. The first few days we were all sea sick, vomiting and nauseous. I was starting to re-think if giving that poster was a good idea but after about the first week we were generally better. But something that poster didn’t advertise was the journey. It was amazing to wake up to a sunrise and go to sleep after the sunset under the stars with the waves calmly crashing against the hull in a calm silence. It was a great experience for all of us. No stress for my parents in particular, not having to worry about feeding us or bombs going off or anything to dangerous happening. However with that being said it did get boring for my brother and I on the boat. So we would go exploring around the boat. Gong to restricted areas and looking around. We made friends as well but my brother and I were close so we mainly stayed together.

 The days seemed to bleed into each other, weeks passed and finally after 4-5 months later, 4 Major Storms, countless memories, new friends made and old ones lost we arrived in Australia. Our new home. Which was very different to Italy. Very different.

Diary Entry #3 The Land Down Under:

As we stepped off the ship for the last time as it had stopped off on the African Coast for refuelling and supplies we were greeted by a sea of busses. We found our way onto one and soon enough we were entering an Army barracks that were reserved for us as the new inhabitants. This wasn’t anything close to what was advertised I panicked. “Mom what’s happening!?’ “Don’t worry Sweetheart, we are all okay.” She ever so calmly replied. “They’re just keeping us here for a short time while they find us jobs, land, and check our records.”

The busses parked and let us collect our belongings and then they allocated us our half-cylinder, barrack houses. There were about 4-6 families in a single barrack and there were heaps of them. Going for probably a kilometre of barracks. It was amazing to see. But it looked like we would be staying here a while, I mean why let a family unpack everything and keep them in a contained area. However that wasn’t my problem to worry about, all I had to do was make new friends and find out where everything in the base was located. Not such a tough task. Eventually I found some kids my age from Italy too. In fact they were only two suburbs away from my home town so we had a lot in common. From supporting soccer teams, to similar leisure activities and we even had some mutual friends between us. Another group of friends I made wasn’t actually in the camp, they were “Aussies” and they had funny accents but had similar interests to us, which is funny to think as we are the same age but live on other ends of the world. We all hung out every day together collectively after English lessons, where we migrants learned how to speak, read and write English. We also learned the traditions and history of Australia.

Finally after around 3 months we left the camp to Sydney, apparently our camp was in Adelaide and it was a long transit for us to get there but an enjoyable one as we drove for about 5 days, taking our time and enjoying our new homeland, with white beaches, blue skies, and crystal oceans. Incredible.

Diary Entry #4 True Blue Aussie:

Life is great. We have lived in Australia for little over a year now. I attend a high school called St. Allosios with my brother and I have made lots of friends. My parents love their jobs and we live in a suburb called Neutral Bay which is right next to the water overlooking the Opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The icons of our country. Even in our close community we have Italians and what’s great is that even some of my friends from the barracks living close by. This is the happiest any of us have been individually and as a family collectively. It’s so great to see us all like this. Healthy, free, wealthy, happy and loved. I believe it was destiny for me to find that poster back in Italy and lead us here. We had some hardships along the way but it was all worth it in the end. To arrive in such a great country with a real community of people who are here to support everyone from all walks of life, through thick and thin. I thank God every day for the 2^nd chance at life he has given us and I am proud to call myself an Australian, an “Aussie”.

Intro:

World events also continued to influence patterns of immigration to Australia. The aftermath of the world wars, the rise of dictators and the collapse of civil order often determined the country of origin of migrants and the numbers of migrants. While the largest number of refugees accepted into Australia as migrants occurred between 1947 and 1952, a wide range of world political crises have created new groups of refugees and waves of migration. The reason the largest wave of migrants came at 1947-1952 was due to Australia’s “Populate or perish”. During World War II Australians faced air attack and feared a full Japanese invasion. With the end of war came the need to establish a long-term defence strategy was essential. The Australian government realised a larger population was necessary for future economic growth and security. In 1945, the population of Australia was just over seven million and so “Populate or Perish” was advertised. Populate or perish was primarily advertised to white Europeans as the “White Australian Policy” was still in place however later in 1958 it was abolished and they took on anyone. The Australian Government Advertisement guaranteed employment, land, a new start to life which was safer and better. They also expected these migrants to Assimilate and leave their culture and language in the old country so they could adapt to the Australian way of life, learn English, enjoy Australian culture and part take in Australian customs.

 

Source A

 

Source B

“I was born in 1935. My mother Caterina and I were originally from Pola in Istria, then in Italian territory …

After the war there were no prospects for good jobs for me in Italy … we found out there was an International Refugee Organisation that paid the fare for migrants. We were accepted because we were refugees coming from Pola. From Taranto we went to another camp in Bari (Italy) to wait for a ship. After two years in camps, my mother had used up all the money, so we were forced to go anywhere we could

 

As we had been refugees for two years and moved around a lot, so didn’t have a lot of luggage, just one suitcase and a baule (trunk) with our basic things like clothes and some saucepans. My mother also packed her special coffee grinder that she couldn’t live without. Just as well, when she tasted Australian Nescafe she said it tasted like acqua sporca (dirty water), very different to Italian coffee …

In 1951 when I was 16, my mother and I boarded the Castel Bianco in Naples and in one month, in August that same year, we arrived in Melbourne

 

In Melbourne, we got on a train to Bonegilla. It was a bit better than the Italian camps we had stayed in. In Italy, the huts had large rooms divided by military blankets, but in Bonegilla we had a small hut divided by timber frames with metal panelling. My mother and I had a small room to ourselves and that was good. No cooking, we all ate together in the canteen but the food was not a hundred percent …

 

I was one of the first ones to go out to work from the group that came on our ship. I think it was only 10 days after we arrived that I left Bonegilla for my first job at the Chullora railway workshop in south-west Sydney … I had to leave my mother because we had signed an agreement to work and we didn’t want to complain.

After one week, I got a pass to go back to Bonegilla to see my mother but she had also been sent away. No-one knew she had gone. I wasn’t too happy but I knew that I would hear from her soon so I went back to Sydney to work. A week later I got a letter from her to say she was in Coolah, that is in North West of NSW. She was sent to Coolah District Hospital as a maid. I had to wait about a month for a pass to go to see her …”

 

 

Source C

 

 

Source D

 

 

 

 Source E

 

{Access on Google Drive for Table}

 

Source F 

 

{Access on Google Drive for Timeline}

 

 

 

 

OCMAPUR analysis of 2 sources

 

Evaluation of Source A Primary:

The “He’s coming south” poster was a propaganda poster referring to the threat of Japanese invasion in 1942 in particular. A Japanese soldier is striding across the globe towards Australia with the Imperial Japanese flag behind him. He is armed with a submachine gun and is about to stomp on Australia. This work highlights the psychological effect the Japanese advance had upon the Australian population, and the poster was considered so extreme that it was not released in Queensland or Melbourne. This poster was made in 1942 at the peak of the invasion threat toward Australia as it was trying to persuade more men, who weren’t fighting in the pacific to join the army and stop the invasion from occurring on their home land. It was made to scare people however also making them aware of the threat. The illustrator of the poster is unknown however this is a primary source as it was created during the war and was published in 1942.

The reliability of the source’s information is premium as the poster was published and created during the World War II era as well as it being recognised by “The Australian War Memorial” which is a very reliable source itself as it is the National War Information Memorial of Australia of which has all of Australia’s War History.

The usefulness of the Poster was proven to have worked as it didn’t even make the publish in Melbourne and Queensland as it had scared the editors so much so they didn’t publish it, however it was published in the other states and territories and it did make more men sign up for war as the new brand of soldiers appeared called the “Chocolate Solders”. For most of these solders they had propaganda thrown at them all day every day and now that they had either turned the legal age to fight (18+) or had been inspired to fight and defend their country due to this propaganda.

Although this poster preached war the underlying purpose for it, was to get people to think about all the people going to war, all the lives lost and then when the war finished it made people think about how vulnerable Australia was to another attack and how another country could over run us in a heartbeat if we didn’t populate. This underlying tactic worked as seen in Source E we can see the population of Australia growing due to the “Populate or Perish” scheme that was around that time.

 

 

Evaluation of Source E Secondary:

Source E, the table of population was created in 2005 by Brian Hoepper. He’s a modern historian who has taken part in the making of text books and the information that is put into them. The reason for the secondary source table is to show how Australia’s population has grown over the years due to such events as WWII causing the migration of people. The reason for the results being created was for the general public to see the growth of the population and by who exactly was entering the country, from which countries they were migrating from. Brian managed to obtain such documents with the public population through government documents made public.

He in particularly made this table for a history textbook used in schools “Jacaranda” which is proven to be a leading brand in trusted knowledge with history as it obtains knowledge from various sites and sources, compares them, checks them and then publishes them. Creating a highly trusted and reliable source of information.

The usefulness of the table is very high as mentioned before as it clearly shows the population of Australia just after the war, through the 70’s, 80’s and then to the last year of the twentieth century. Also the fact of the table being created in 2005 yet still being relevant is due to the fact that it is reporting on historical fact that can’t be changed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardship:

As we can see in Source B, the hardships of the migrants/ refugees endured coming to Australia we’re few but challenging. They had to not only go through the effort of leaving their home country where their roots were formed but also where they had family and where they knew how everything worked but they had to travel for approximately 4 months on a ship before arriving in Australia where they were put in camps and processed. They had to learn English and the culture of Australia as they were expected to leave their past traditions in their old country. They had a military style of living: Surrounded by a fence, living in barracks, eating in a mess hall, as well as in their barrack. A clear example of this is in Source D, where there is a labelled diagram on the living style these migrants had when they landed in Australia.

Obstacle:

Again the obstacles were few but challenging for the migrants. The main obstacle they had was the whole concept of Assimilation. Learning English. Having to know how to read, write and speak it. Learning the Australian culture like it’s your own, without a say of whether you wanted to or not and having expected to leave yours behind. Learning to like new hobbies and concepts. Having new customs, traditions and foods. These were all very challenging obstacles for these migrants to overcome to fitting in. Another big obstacle these people had to overcome was racial tension. Because of all of these new migrants coming from around the globe and the war just over there was somewhat racism however when the public realised they were all Australian the majority of it stopped and those people accepted each other in the community. Thus Bringing us closer.

Reward:

When the migrants were accepted into the country they had a new life with a great start. They had jobs, family, land, freedom, new friends, a community, shopping centres, multiculturalism, everything we enjoy right now they had. And they were in a great country which wasn’t effected by the war in most states.

Changed Australia:

Australia changed for the better because of these migrants as the plan for what the government had, succeeded over and above what they expected. The population grew, thus allowing us to populate and not perish. We had a strong community of people who were there for each other and with that population growth it meant that Australia had a strong defence force to protect the country from threat in the future. Australia also had a strong economy as there were hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs for everyone to contribute to. And finally another benefit with the population boom was with the multiculturalism that Australia had. It has been the base of Australia that we look back on today as we call ourselves a proud multicultural country. In Source C there is an advert encouraging multiculturalism in the 80’s. And with this multiculturalism we saw the “White Australian Policy’ and the “White Policy” being completely abolished in that era. Australia made friendships with the neighbouring countries and more people from all different ethnic backgrounds were let in. Thus showed on the table in Source E with the number of Australian Citizens having doubled in the 80’s from ’47.

Bibliography:

·       Maureen Anderson. 2014. Migration after WWII. [ONLINE] Available at: http://content.jacplus.com.au/faces/pages/ebookviewer.xhtml?isbn=1118599276&chptr=11470§ionNo=3&pageType=1&view=01&cb=4027707151478. [Accessed 13 May 15].

·       P Peterson. 2014. Propaganda in Australia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_War_Memorial. [Accessed 13 May 15].

·       Keese, I.K., 2015. Retro Active. 2nd ed. NSW: Jacaranda.

·       Wikipedia. 2014. Australian War Memorial. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_War_Memorial. [Accessed 13 May 15].

·       All images from Google Images [ONLINE} Available at https://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&authuser=0&ei=u_tSVdjzCqPEmwXFsYG4CA&ved=0CBIQqi4oAg

·       J. Carrey. 2013. Populate or Perish. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-56_u-490_t-1332_c-5121/TAS/10/Populate-or-perish!/After-World-War-II/Australia-after-1945/SOSE-History/. [Accessed 13 May 15].