Share your story, read about other migrants’ memories and explore our photos – to see if you recognise someone you know. Between 1946 and 1999 government photographers snapped 22,000 images of people arriving and living in Australia. You can view them online in the National Archives’ collection.
Explore the collection
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Video portraits
Browse videos- Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Cees, Ina and Erwin Huig, Dutch migrants to Australia - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Gerard and Marretje van Wezel, Dutch migrants to Australia - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Sherry Wright, Dutch migrant to Australia - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Petronella Wensing, Dutch migrant to Australia - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Stephanie Brantz, Dutch migrant heritage - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Vera Marek - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Seraphin Nyirenda - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Maria-Lourdes (Noonee) Doronila - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Lam Tac Tam
Personal stories
Add Your Own Story
NetherlandsThese photographs show the Hoogenhout family working in their bakery.
GermanyAustralia accepted us as emigrants in 1948 and we left Deggendorf in mid-winter.
AustraliaSoon after announcing his search for ships and migrants to fill them, the first Immigration Minis
United Kingdom(Mitchell Librarian 1993-2001, Associate Director State Records NSW 2001-2008 and Director State
GreeceThe selection officer who interviewed Vassiliki Daflou in Athens described her as ‘just an averag
Sri LankaThe Colombo Plan, launched in 1951, was an intergovernmental program designed to strengthen relat
United KingdomLived in the little village of Bempton in Yorshire up untill the age of five, I feel lucky as I h
ItalyMy Mum was a bright and very adventurous little girl.
AustraliaEnglish lessons were granted to all immigrants living in the Capital Hill Barra
ItalyMario Cerasani was born on 9 June 1930 in San Benedetto dei Marsi in the Abruzzo region of Italy.
HungaryBetween 1947 and 1971 the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre accommodated more than
NetherlandsIn 1955 at eight years old my parents told me we were going to move to Australia.
LuxembourgThe main kitchen was huge, next to the kitchen, in a shed was a giant steam producing machine, th
IndonesiaBas Wie was an orphan who had survived the Japanese occupation of Timor during World War II.
NetherlandsWhen Adriana Zevenbergen first thought of coming to Australia with her husband Cornelis in the ea
NetherlandsWhen you’re not sure what to expect when you arrive, 17,000 kilometres is a long way to travel.
LuxembourgFrom Singapore we had an overnight flight to Sydney, dawn came, the first glimpse on our new home
United KingdomAustralia’s post-war immigration publicity campaign was in full swing by 1955.
