First Trieste Emigrants leave for Australia

Images(2)

First Trieste Emigrants leave for Australia

Publisher Fairfax Publications, Sydney Morning Herald

Date1954

Object numberANMS1453[045]

NamePhotograph

Mediumphotographic print on paper

DimensionsOverall: 205 × 152 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionA black and white image of a couple and baby wearing coats and walking along a dock in Trieste to board the CASTEL VERDE. A newspaper clipping attached to the back of the photograph reads ‘Trieste Pioneers. Typical Trieste family hurrying along wharf to catch liner which carried first of 2100 migrants from trouble-torn city to a new life in Australia. More than 650 moved in the first sailing. Many are refugees from Giulia district. Their migration to Australia was arranged under a special agreement. Immigration minister Harold Holt announced the latest figure showed that one in every 12 Australians was a new Australian. ‘First Trieste Emigrants leave for Australia. About 650 emigrants left [?] a few days ago, aboard the Liner SS CASTEL VERDE. They are the first of about 2,100 workers from Trieste and refugees from the Guilia Region, who are leaving their country through a special agreement with the Australian authorities. The emigrants will arrive in Melbourne within 25 days to take up jobs in Agriculture and Industry. Photo Shows. A typical Trieste family hurry to the boat taking them to a new and exciting country. Mar.17.54."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.