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
Pages
Video portraits
Browse videos- Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Erfan Daliri - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Joseph Assaf - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Sofia Kallos - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Lam Tac Tam - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Maria-Lourdes (Noonee) Doronila - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Seraphin Nyirenda - Series: A Ticket to Paradise? Exhibition
Vera Marek - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Stephanie Brantz, Dutch migrant heritage - Series: Dutch Australia Shared Cultural Heritage
Petronella Wensing, Dutch migrant to Australia
Personal stories
Add Your Own Story
NetherlandsHenk Wolswinkel, the youngest of 13 Wolswinkel children, boarded the Dutch migrant ship Johan van
the people you see at this picture are my uncle and my aunt Bep Bijster and there two children.
GermanyMy parents, Johannes (John) and Elisabeth (Lisa) had applied to emigrate to Venezuela and to Aust
NetherlandsThese photographs show the Hoogenhout family working in their bakery.- AustraliaThe top picture is one of me and a mate walking through C Block Wacol Hostel on the way to starti
United KingdomHi I am but a mere Scot but the real story relates to my two uncles by the names of Magnus and Be
GermanyThe migrant ship MS Nelly carried the first German migrants under the bilateral assisted
AustraliaMany migrants that made the journey to Australia found it hard to adapt to the Australian way of
NetherlandsThere seemed to be no future for me in Australia, so I decided to return to the Netherlands after
HungaryHungarian Laszlo Makay arrived at Bonegilla in November 1951 after six years in a displaced perso
ItalyMy grandfather, Onofio, had come to Sydney, Australia, in 1904 with two of his brothers.
United KingdomWe arrived at South Brisbane on 5 November, 1968, having made the final leg of our long journey b
GreeceBy the 1960s the Australian government began to address the growing gender imbalance by actively
NetherlandsAs promotion for the Australian government’s migration programs, much was made of milestone arriv
NetherlandsIn 1955 at eight years old my parents told me we were going to move to Australia.
IndonesiaBas Wie was an orphan who had survived the Japanese occupation of Timor during World War II.
NetherlandsIn 1960 Cornelis and Adriana Zevenbergen with their sons Kees and Addo moved into their own three
