Bendler family in Colombo

Date1956

Object number00055347

NamePhotograph

Mediumpaper

DimensionsOverall: 57 × 85 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection gift from Frederika Kelly

Terms

DescriptionThis photograph depicts German immigrant Hans Hermann Bendler (right) with his son Ulrich and an unidentified local man during a port visit to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), in 1956.HistoryHans Hermann Bendler (1911–2011) and his wife Inge Johanna Bendler (1922–2000) migrated from Berlin, Germany, to Australia in 1956 with their two children, Friederike (Frederika) (b 1945) and Hans Ulrich (b 1950). They travelled on the Skaugen liner SKAUBRYN, which caught fire and sank on a subsequent voyage to Australia in 1958. The Bendler family departed Bremerhaven in late February 1956 and stopped at Valletta, Port Said, Colombo, Fremantle and Melbourne. After arrival in Australia they were taken to the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre in Wodonga, where they stayed for two weeks. They were then transferred to the Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney, where they spent the next two years. The Bendler family eventually settled in the nearby suburb of Carramar, in a house built by Mr Bendler.SignificanceThis is part of a collection of photographs that illustrates a successful migrant voyage from Germany to Australia on the Skaugen liner SKAUBRYN in 1956. Just two years later, the Norwegian migrant ship became the only vessel to be lost at sea during the era of post-war migration to Australia, when it caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean.