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Everything you want to know about Ten Pound Poms and Australia's immigration history, from Assisted Passage, Bonegilla and Constellation.
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| ABS |
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been Australia's national statistical agency since 1905. The ABS publishes statistics on a wide range of subject matter, including migration to Australia.
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| Advertising campaigns |
 Posters and leaflets were used extensively after the Second World War to advertise the benefits of migration to Australia. Paul Hogan, Lara Bingle and Baz Luhrmann have been used more recently to lure tourists to Australia.
But nothing beats Australia for Ten Pounds! Click here to see a real old Ten Pound Pom TV ad on YouTube.
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| Barbara Porritt |
 Barbara Porritt was the millionth migrant to arrive in Australia. She was only 21 years old and had recently married... an advertiser's dream. |
| Beautiful Balts |
Arthur Calwell liked the cameras to focus on the attractive fair-haired migrants from the Baltic states. The Beautiful Balts helped to sell European migration to the Australian nation. |
| Boomerang Migrants |
 A boomerang migrant is the term for a migrant who returned home and then changed their mind and came back to Australia. Around a quarter of a million post-war migrants (25%) returned to the UK and around half of these then decided to return to Australia.
The boomerang went full circle in the late 2000's when the Credit Crunch caused an economic slowdown in the UK and forced thousands of Australians to return home. |
| Bring Out A Briton |
New assisted passage campaign launched by Athol Townley (Australian Immigration Minister) in 1957, encouraging Australian families to sponsor British migrants.
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| Calwell, Arthur |
 Arthur Calwell served as Minister for Information during World War II. In 1945 he was made Minister for Immigration and was the chief architect of Australia's post-war immigration recruitment campaign which was promoted under the slogan 'Populate or Perish'. While Calwell opened Australia's doors to a new migrant population he was a staunch advocate of the White Australia Policy.
Click here to see Arthur Calwell on YouTube.
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| Constellation |
After the War, Qantas introduced the propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation, operating a weekly service to London on their Kangaroo Route (via the Middle East). The first flight departed Sydney on 1st December 1947. Constellations carried 29 passengers and 11 crew. The journey to London took four days (55 hours of flying time), with a total of 6 stops made in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. |
| Dictation Test |
In 1901 the Immigration Restriction Act was introduced with the intention of keeping out anyone that Australia did not want to admit. A feature of this Act was the notorious Dictation Test that could be administered to anyone trying to enter the country. It required the person to be able to write correctly at least 50 words dictated by the Customs officer... in any language of the officer's choosing!
Click here to see if you can pass the test. |
| Dreadnought Scheme |
A government-assisted migration scheme, similar to the Big Brother Movement. The Dreadnought Scheme ran between 1911 and 1939 and brought an estimated 7,500 boys to Australia to work on farms. |
| Emigrant |
A person who relocates from one country to another. |
| Expat |
An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of his/her upbringing or legal residence. |
| Famous Ten Pound Poms |
 Famous Ten Pound Poms include The Bee Gees, Julia Gillard, Kylie Minogue's mother and Hugh Jackman's parents. Click here to view more. |
| Good Neighbour Movement |
Good Neighbour Councils were set up in each State and Territory. They  enlisted the support of community agencies and thousands of Good Neighbour volunteers to assist in migrant integration and influence the Australian public to accept the immigration programme. |
| Guilt |
The feeling an Australian immigrant sometimes get when they think about leaving their family behind. |
| Holding Centres |
Holding centres were used to house non-working dependants, when the pressure of arrival numbers on the reception centres was too great to keep families together. |
| Homesickness |
 Ten Pound Poms and other migrants often feel homesick, especially during the first year or so when they arrive in Australia. Homesickness caused around a quarter of a million Ten Pound Poms to return back to Britain (see Boomerang Migrants).
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| Immigrant |
An immigrant is a person who comes to a country where they were not born in order to settle there. |
| International Refugee Organization (IRO) |
The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was founded on April 20, 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. |
| Invisible Migrants |
Emigrating to another country is a big challenge, especially for those who do not speak the native language. When Ten Pound Poms arrived in Australia they had the advantage of being able to speak English and this generally made it more straightforward for them to settle and assimilate. Regarded as relatively problem-free settlers they were termed the 'Invisible Migrants'. |
| Jetliners |
Qantas introduced Jetliners (Boeing 707-138s) on the Sydney-London route  in 1959. Early jetliners were propelled by turbojets which were noisy and fuel inefficient. The introduction of the turbofan in the 1960s reduced engine noise and increased the efficiency and cruising speed of jetliners. Most commercial jets continue to this day to be fitted with turbofans. |
| Kangaroo Route |
Qantas launched the Kangaroo Route on 1 December 1947. The Kangaroo  Route, between Sydney and London, travelled through countries in the Eastern Hemisphere. Initially six stopovers were made in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli, with overnight stays made in Singapore and Cairo. |
| Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme |
Kiewa is an aboriginal word meaning Sweet Water. The Kiewa Valley became  the site of the first major hydro-electric power development in the Victorian Alps (around 200km from Melbourne). The Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme was completed in 1961 and is the second largest scheme in mainland Australia after the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It took 26 years to complete and at its peak employed more than 4,000 workers, many of whom were European migrants. |
| Lockheed Constellation |
 After the War, Qantas introduced the propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation, operating a weekly service to London on their Kangaroo Route (via the Middle East). The first flight departed Sydney on 1st December 1947. Constellations carried 29 passengers and 11 crew. The journey to London took four days (55 hours of flying time), with a total of 6 stops made in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. |
| Migrant |
People who migrate are called migrants. They can also be called emigrants, immigrants or settlers. The International Organization for Migration estimates that the total number of international migrants has increased over the last decade from an estimated 150 million in 2000 to 214 million in 2010. Since 1950, around one million people have migrated to Australia every decade. |
| Migration |
Human migration is movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances (e.g. UK to Australia). Migration can be short term (e.g. travel or tourism) or long term (e.g. pack up and move to Australia). |
| Neptune's Journey |
 This was a party held for all passengers on board ships to Australia to celebrate crossing the Equator; it took the name because one of the passengers led the revels dressed up as Neptune, god of the sea. |
| Nest Egg Scheme |
 The Nest Egg Scheme was launched in 1959 and offered assisted passage to Britons who had more than £500 and were prepared to make their own accommodation arrangements in Australia. Many English families created their nest egg by selling their family home. |
| Nissen Hut |
 The Nissen hut was originally designed by Major Peter Nissen in 1917 as accommodation for soldiers. It was made of prefabricated steel that could be quickly erected. The use of such huts was subsequently adopted on a large scale to house the majority of immigrants to arrive in Australia. Click here to read more.
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| O'Keefe Case |
In 1949 the Australian Immigration Department ruled that an Indonesian woman, Mrs Annie O’Keefe, and her children should be forcibly repatriated even though, after the death of her Indonesian husband, she had married an Australian national. After much public and media outcry the ruling was overturned by the high court. The case was the first legal challenge to the White Australia Policy. |
| Orient Line |
This was a British shipping line whose ships transported thousands of British immigrants to Australia. In the 1960s the line became part of the P&O shipping line with which it had had a close association since the beginning of the 20th century. All of the Orient Line’s ships were given names beginning with ‘O’ such as the Oronsay, Orcades and the Orsova that were able to make the journey from the UK to Australia in 28 days, and later the Oriana that reduced the journey time to 21 days. These names will doubtless ring bells in the ears of many a Ten Pound Pom. |
| Panama Canal |
The Panama canal, whose construction was completed in 1914, is a 77 km ship canal in Panama that provides a short cut shipping route through the narrow neck of land dividing North from South America and the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean. Doing away with the need for the lengthy journey round South America it became a great boon to maritime travel and international trade and was extensively used to transport migrants to Australia when the Suez Canal was closed in the late 1960s.
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| Ping Pong Poms |
 Ping Pong Poms are Poms who are even more unsettled than Boomerang Poms, who flit multiple times between Australia and home.
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| Pom, Pommy, Pommie |
 The English started to be called Poms by the Australians before WW1. It is suggested that the name came from ‘pomegranate’ by way of crude rhyming slang, ie Pommy Grant (pomegranate) – immigrant. |
| Pommy Bashing |
 A slang term for deriding or teasing the English. |
| Populate or Perish |
The Japanese advance in 1942 brought home to Australia how vulnerable to attack its sparse population made it. It realised that it must take urgent measures to increase its population by attracting mass immigration. |
| Prince's Pier |
 Originally named ‘New Railway Pier’ when built between 1912-15, Prince’s Pier on Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, was renamed after a visit by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII who visited Melbourne in 1920. |
| Qantas |
Qantas, whose name stands for ‘Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services’, is Australia’s national airline and the largest airline in the land. It is the oldest continuously operating airline in the world and has played a major role in migration.
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| Racial Discrimination Act |
The Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 was passed to protect Australians from any discrimination on grounds of race, colour, descent or ethnic origin. In 1995 the Act was extended to also make ‘racial vilification’ illegal. |
| Refugee, Reffo |
A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their home and seek refuge elsewhere. 'Reffo' is a slang and sometimes derogatory term for a European refugee who entered Australia after the second world war looking for a fresh beginning after wartime hardship. Such refugees were attracted to Australia under the assisted passage scheme devised by Australia to increase its population. |
| Seasickness |
Seasickness is nausea, dizziness and vomiting caused by a ship’s motion at sea. Many Australian immigrants suffered severely from it and spent much of their trip incapacitated. It is a feature of the long journey to Australia that is etched most unfavourably on the memory of many a Ten Pound Pom! |
| Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme |
This scheme was designed to utilise water from the snowy mountains to create electricity and provide irrigation to the dry west. It was the largest such project ever undertaken in Australia and was a mammoth feat of engineering. 70% of its work force was made up of newly arrived European immigrants: over 100,000 workers from 30 different countries in Europe. |
| Suez Canal |
This canal opened in 1869 to create a short shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. It greatly reduced the journey time from Europe to Asia and Australia and was an important migration route. Its closure from 1967-75 severely disadvantaged shipping and made the immigrants’ journey far longer as the ships that carried them had to travel round the southern tip of Africa. |
| Temporary Resident |
A visa for temporary residence in Australia can be issued to applicants from other countries who are able to demonstrate that they are of good health and good character and who would benefit their host nation by having skills and qualifications relevant to the employment market, or whose enterprises could enhance cultural, social or international relations. |
| Ten Pound Pom |
 A Ten Pound Pom is a Briton who took part in the Australian Government’s scheme to increase the country’s population by offering passages from the UK to Australia to UK citizens for a payment of only ten pounds. Minimum stay was for a period of two years or the true cost of the passage had to be refunded before a participant could leave. The scheme ran from 1945-1972.
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| Unanderra Hostel |
This hostel was opened in Woolongong to accommodate immigrants who flocked there because of employment opportunities in the coal, steel and iron works in the area. Overcrowding in the hostel led to poor living conditions particularly in the ‘60s. There will be many Ten Pound Poms who have mixed memories of this hostel. |
| Visa |
 A visa is a document that grants permission for a person to enter Australia. Without a visa entry is prohibited. Different categories of visa cover different circumstances. There are visitors’ visas, student visas and visas entitling the holders to reside and work in Australia. Information on visas is available from the Australian Government’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship. |
| Whingeing Pom |
 The term 'Whingeing Poms' was coined after the Second World War when Ten Pound Poms arrived in Australia and were sent to live in migrant hostels. The advertising and propaganda in the UK had portrayed Australia as an idyllic country and had strangely forgotten to draw rnattention to the cockroaches and the dreadful Nissen Huts that migrants were forced to live in.
It must have been a massive disappointment to have spent five weeks sailing half way round the worldrn only to end up being forced to live in converted army barracks. The Ten Pound Poms certainly had plenty to whinge about back then.
Carry on Whingeing!
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| White Australia Policy |
 It was the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 that formed the basis of this policy that stemmed from a determination to keep Australia white and keep out other races. The infamous dictation test was used to exclude people who were regarded as undesirable by making them take the test and then failing them. Anyone who failed the test was not admitted. The Migration Act of 1958 made immigration easier for people of other ethnic origins and the White Australia Policy was officially abolished in 1973. |
| X-Ray |
Immigrants to Australia were given health checks and x rayed to exclude the possibility of disease including TB. Today Australia enjoys some of the best health standards in the world and anyone making a permanent visa application who is over the age of 10 must have a medical examination and x rays to ensure that they are not suffering from any disease. |
| Yallourn Power Station |
This is situated in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria; it is a complex of 6 brown coal fuelled power stations that were built throughout the period from the 1920s to the 1960s. A huge influx of migrant labour contributed to its post war expansion. |
| Zuiderkruis |
 The Zuiderkruis was a Dutch ship that transported many European immigrants to Australia. The name Zuiderkruis means Southern Cross in English. The Southern Cross is a constellation that is only visible in the sky in the Southern Hemisphere. As such it must have made a big impression on the immigrants. Not only a different land but a different sky too! |
