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
GreeceMy parents travelled independently from Greece to Australia from the same region of Greece.
GermanyAustralia accepted us as emigrants in 1948 and we left Deggendorf in mid-winter.
AustraliaIt was not smooth sailing for all migrants that arrived in Australia after WWII.
AustraliaVarious programs were run for the children of migrants, particularly via hostels and community or
LuxembourgSydney 2 getting work On the way to the employment office, the predominant question in the back
IndonesiaBas Wie was an orphan who had survived the Japanese occupation of Timor during World War II.
MaltaMy husband and I had never travelled overseas before we migrated to Australia.
GermanyAfter a few weeks in Bonegilla we moved to Beechworth in Victoria.
United KingdomTom & Millie Wilkinson, with their young family - Gordon and Rosemary - arrived in Melbourne,
NetherlandsIt all began when I was at secondary school where I had to do a project on one of the continents.
NetherlandsAfter a half a year my friend decided to move to another place and I had to decide what to do, st
LuxembourgWe were loaded into Buses, it took more than two hours to arrive in Villawood hostel, some houses
GermanyNo longer young at 44, Father finally made good his lifelong dream of migration.
ItalyDad met us at the wharf in Sydney and took us to our new home on a market-garden farm in St Ives.
ItalyEarly October 1973, a few of Mum's siblings picked up Dad and Mum and headed to Tullamarine Airpo
HungaryHungarian Laszlo Makay arrived at Bonegilla in November 1951 after six years in a displaced perso
GermanyThey sailed on 9.12.54 on the SS Skaubryn and Christmas was celebrated on the Red Sea.
United Kingdom(Mitchell Librarian 1993-2001, Associate Director State Records NSW 2001-2008 and Director State
