Third class passenger ticket P&O SS BORDA London to Sydney departing 5 July 1928
Maker
P&O
(British, founded 1837)
Date1928
Object number00046618
NameTicket
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 289 x 190 x 1 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Ernest Pask
DescriptionThis third class passenger's contract ticket for P&O liner SS BORDA was issued to Mr Alfred Pask, Mrs Edith Pask and Ernest Pask for travel from London to Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope on 5 July 1928.HistoryAlfred Pask (35), his wife Edith (34) and son Ernest (3) migrated from England to Australia in 1928. They were accompanied by Mrs Pask's mother Susan Platts (63) and younger sister Doris Platts (21). The family was joining one of Mrs Pask's sisters, who had migrated to Australia with her husband in 1927.
The group sailed on the P&O liner SS BORDA, which was built by Caird & Co at Greenock, Scotland in 1913. BORDA was the last of five ships built to revitalise the Blue Anchor Line, which had been acquired by P&O in 1910. P&O managed the line separately as the P&O Branch Line, operating single class emigrant services from Britain to Australia via South Africa. BORDA accommodated 350 permanent third class passengers, and 750 passengers in temporary quarters which could be dismantled to provide more cargo space on the return voyage.
BORDA embarked on its maiden voyage in April 1914, before being requisitioned as a troopship just four months later. It returned to the passenger trade after World War I, and was broken up in Japan in 1930.
The Pask family sailed from London on 5 July 1928, travelling via the Cape of Good Hope before disembarking in Sydney. In Sydney Mr Pask obtained a job as a milkman, which had been his profession in London. By 1929 Mr Pask became unemployed, along with many thousands of others during the years of the Great Depression. It was a difficult time for the family, who were settling into a new country with no work and no income. Mr and Mrs Pask managed by taking boarders into their home. Ernest Pask recalls having a happy childhood growing up in Sydney, despite the desperate times. He says, "I have always been most grateful that my parents brought me to Australia when they did and I am proud to belong to this wonderful country."SignificanceThe passenger contract ticket is a memento from the voyage of the Pask family, who migrated from England to Australia on SS BORDA in 1928. Operating single class services via South Africa, the P&O liner BORDA carried thousands of British migrants to Australia during the early 20th century.
