Image Not Available

The Daly family aboard the FAIRSKY on arrival in Sydney

Publisher Fairfax Publications, Sydney Morning Herald

Date1961

Object numberANMS1453[031]

NamePhotograph

Mediumphotographic print on paper

DimensionsOverall: 212 × 298 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionA black and white image of Christopher and Carmela Daly and nine of their children on the deck of the FAIRSKY. A newspaper clipping attached to the back of the photograph reads ‘A migrant couple with nine of their children reached Sydney yesterday in the Sitmar liner, FAIRSKY. They are Mr Christopher Daly, a baker, his wife Carmela, and their children Patrick, 16, Margaret, 14, Jean, 13, twins Michael and Robert, 9, William, 8, Marlien, 6, James, 4, and Frederick, 2. They were the largest family in the liner which arrived from Britain with 600 migrants. Mr Daly said his eldest daughter, Mary, 20, her husband, and the Daly’s eldest son, John, 19, would come to Australia next year. The family has paid £1000 deposit on a four bedroomed house at Albion Park, near Wollongong. “We decided to migrate to Australia because there was a better future here for our children” Mr Daly said. Picture shows (back row) Patrick, Mrs Daly, Mr Daly holding Fredrick, (middle row) Jean, William, Robert and Michael, Margaret, (front row), James and Marlien.’ ‘Immigrants – British’, ‘Family, [?] p.4’, ‘U/80/3/12-28’ and ‘6131’ handwritten at the back of the photograph. 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.