The Harding family aboard the CASTEL FELICE

Images(2)

The Harding family aboard the CASTEL FELICE

Publisher Fairfax Publications, Sydney Morning Herald

Date1968

Object numberANMS1453[038]

NamePhotograph

Mediumphotographic print on paper

DimensionsOverall: 216 × 167 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionA black and white image of Peter and Sylvia Harding and 11 of their 13 children posing on a staircase aboard the CASTEL FELICE on its arrival in Fremantle. A newspaper clipping attached to the back of the photograph reads ‘The Harding family of London, was too big to Western Australia, so yesterday the 15 members passed through Fremantle on their way to Adelaide. They were among 1196 British migrants in the liner Castel Felice. In Adelaide, Mr Peter Harding (40), his wife Sylvia (36) and 13 children will go into a house specially prepared for them by South Australian branch of Jaycees. They will not pay rent till Christmas. Mr Harding, a truck driver, has said that he will take any sort of work – light, heavy, clean or dirty – to support his family. He said yesterday that he had applied to come to W.A. two years ago when there were 11 children. The Immigration Department told him they could not migrate without sponsorship because of the family’s size. An appeal he sent to W.A. failed to find a sponsor. Mr Handling said he had come to Australia to seek a better life for his children.’ HistorySince the first Fleet dropped anchor in 1788, more than 10 million people have moved from across the world to start a new life in Australia, arriving in waves, encouraged by the 1850s gold rushes or to escape adverse conditions at home in the social upheavals of C19th Britain's industrial revolution, the turmoil of revolution, two world wars, the aftermath of the Vietnam war in the 1970s and more recent conflicts. With the catchphrase 'populate or perish' ringing through the community, Australia stepped up its immigration in the years after WWII, offering assisted passage to British migrants, encouraging migration from European countries, and finally in the 1970s repealing the restrictive white Australia policy framed after federation in 1901. More than seven million new settlers have now crossed Australia's shores since 1945 and it's estimated that one in four of Australia's population was born overseas.SignificanceThis image is one of a series of photographs taken by Fairfax photographers that provides a unique window into how immigrants were viewed and immigration policy articulated in the popular press in Australia. They represent something of the personal face to Australia's massive post-war immigration push and show immigrants from many European nations, USA and China.