Vlasta Blazkova aboard the CASTEL BIANCO
Date1949-1954
Object numberANMS1453[065]
NamePhotograph
Mediumphotographic print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 218 × 154 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection
DescriptionBlack and white image of Vlasta Blazkova aboard the CASTEL BIANCO.
Paper slip attached to the back of the photograph reads ‘Daily News Copyright Picture June 28. Mate was Czechmate. Pretty 23-year-old blonde Vlasta Blazkova was one of the most disappointed passengers in the CASTEL BIANCO today when a reporter told her that Albany was not a suburb of Perth, but was 340 miles ‘way down South’. She had expected her husband, who is employed in roadmaking near Albany, waiting for her on the wharf. A Czech, she will go on to Sydney but as soon as she is permitted, she will return to WA to join her husband, who she has not seen for 18 months.’
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.
1963