Arriving In Australia

From The Film Australia Collection. Made by The Commonwealth Film Unit 1963. Designed to assist immigrants on their day of arrival in Australia - medical examinations, registration, customs, passports, banking and baggage are among items discussed. The newcomers are also told how to avail themselves of the assistance offered by the Good Neighbour Council.

[@josephdegrazia6816]

my family are in this video arriving on the fairsea. they are the family in the van leaving bonegilla!

[@NFSAFilms]

Thanks for letting us know.

[@gillianbrookwell1678]

I came out from Yorkshire with my family in 1963, and I remember how great the voyage was but landing in Adelaide was a shock to the system. We were put in hostels and I remember how isolated we felt. We were lucky because we didn't remain in the hostel for long as we had finance from our house in the U K. Others weren't that lucky and ended up in these awful places for 2 years in some cases. Its better to immigrate as a young child. My brother and I were teenagers and found it very hard. I've been here over 50 years and I still miss England.

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

much empathy. stategic relocation. the satanists love to keep real families running. water at rest always forms a level surace. yep every time.

[@purewater3292]

@@RobertGeordieGibb lol a kebab shop where u get stabbed for reason waiting in line lol

[@thomaselliott573]

You really dragged in some wierdos with that comment. However, your sentimental attachment to England seems way over the top. Time to grow up.

[@Prieze868]

Would you return I'm English is on Australian anglo-english but born in Australia and the 60s but would you return to England's would you recommend it if that's quite small

[@krisbrand354]

Go home then! Bye.

[@carinemunro1077]

lol i remember when we first came in 66 as a 7 year old..it was sunday and we couldnt disembark as everything was closed in Perth..it says on here australians wee helpful to new australians..and its true ..we were well looked after and they helped us to have a place to live and work for my dad..we settled in Melbourne..I have had a good life here and am grateful my parents came here. We went to Bonegilla too..i liked it thereif you were hungry as kid they always treated you with something..fruit was wonderful there..Dad wanted to live around there but mum preferred to move closer to the city..gosh this brings back so many memories..

[@marknacouzi6369]

Amazing video !! Love it especially it shows the generosity of Australian people in supporting the migrants

[@HRnajbolje]

Thanks for releasing. Great insight into my parents entry into oz.

[@royphillips4751]

Lived there with my parents and sister in 1952 and remember swimming in the dam Then on to East Hills Migrant camp in Sydney and eventually to Adelaide where both my parents passed away after a good life.I will always admire their resolution about immigration.

[@pmcm-ih1ep]

Ah I remember it well. The riches of migrant centre life in Brooklyn Victoria. Living in spruced up army barracks, and in the dining hall a whole small ceramic bowl for just one little curl of butter. Tasty steaming casseroles or fat sausages. Jelly and ice cream for dessert most nights. Still daylight at seven pm. How decadent that all was to us Glaswegian kids who were used to empty cupboards.

[@Robby334]

So nice to watch - My family emigrated to OZ 1957 on a £10 pommy pass on the FairSky Great place.

[@Paul-010]

Fascinating piece of history.

[@thedude9024]

As an army bloke, I trained at Latchford Barracks only just across the road from the Bonegilla refugee camp. Was a real insight to see the post WW2 living conditions.

[@SimonHoning]

Love the diesel pulling the carriages directly from Station Pier past the old ship.Couldnt do anything like that now, havent been able to get near there by railway for many years.

[@Mariazellerbahn]

The things they didn't tell the assisted migrants included the fact that any male who landed between the age of 18 and 30 were automatically sent to Vietnam. Many families went halfway around the world to lose their husbands and eldest in a strange land. This is the TRUTH but it never gets mentioned mainstream.

[@georgebronte840]

They didn't. Only 20 year old males who drew lots in a ballot that drew approx 50 dates from 365. To put it in perspective, my name was drawn along with only one more from about 20 of my 20 y/o workmates. 10%. University students were exempt. An interesting aspect was that as a 20 y/o you still hadn't reached voting age, therefore you were considered mature enough to die for your country but not old enough to have a say on who runs the country.

[@yurilemming4130]

I was in Bonegilla 1949 with mum & dad for a short period, we then went to Maribyrnong camp in Vic for 2 years as parents were indentured to work in specified industries Olympic Tyres, Austral Cables & Smorgon Meats, in 1951 we moved to a farm in Red Hill as my fathers English was excellent he was free to follow his own path, later we finished in Black Rock & Beaumaris proving we had actually succeeded.

[@yurilemming4130]

David Dou Yes Estonian father, Belarusian mother, perceptive.

[@petergraves2085]

@@yurilemming4130 A belated welcome to Australia from that part of war-torn Europe.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

Quarantine were slack with my father in-laws baggage as he had an olive tree with him and the proof is still growing in Prahran in Victoria. He did not understand the risk at all.

[@pittassavvas7512]

I'm feel safer with an olive tree from Greece or Italy than the crap out of Asia that arrives at our stores daily. Look after the tree dude, its the link to the old world for your in-laws.

[@jaiess540]

I cant stop laughing at this comment. With my family it was fig cuttings from an old tree that grew in the village 🤣

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

@@jaiess540 : Reply was deleted. My FIL was from an Hellenic island.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

@@jaiess540 : And, I'm just told now that his grape vine is from his house on the island also.

[@peterstephentrinh257]

Someone told me his nonno brought in a suitcase full of drugs and steroids.

[@OlafGodredsson]

Ah, the good old days...

[@cloughajack2102]

The film description mentions it being made in 1963, but there's a bit describing "Our New Decimal Coins". Decimal currency was introduced on the fourteenth of February, 1966.

[@NFSAFilms]

Yes this section added at a later date to update the film.

[@neilforbes416]

The copyright date at the beginning of this film shows 1963 yet at 4:58 shows post-14th February, 1966 decimal currency being handed to new arrivals in exchange for their old homeland's currency.

[@NFSAFilms]

Thanks Neil. The original production date is correct - for most of the film! As this was an information film it was updated at a later date to include new information - like the currency change. Many of the Film Unit films were regularly updated in this way if they were still being used years after they were originally produced.

[@fernald10]

Decimal currency wasn't introduced until February 1966. The section about currency, showing decimal coins and notes, was obviously spliced into the earlier 1963 footage.

[@NFSAFilms]

fernald10 +Pete Ward That is a very likely explanation. The film units were frequently updating and re-editing their films for many reasons.

[@thesorrentosmoon4693]

It was introduced on the 14th February 1966. Surely you would remember the dancing Dollar man singing it? We had only been back in Australia 3 years, on the year of my birth, my Father ( Army MP) and my Mother and l went to Malaya for the Malaysian Emergency. We lived there until early November 1963, l saw TV for the very first time and then was rushed out of the room. It was the Assassination of JFK.

[@leonotarianni2604]

@@NFSAFilms I think so too.... Cleverly done

[@KingFahtah]

They definitely spliced that in 1966 because they had the round 50c coins!

[@jamdigital9530]

These films are a really nice resource

[@dodgeboy9052]

... BUT 1968 ... MV Flavia from Southampton to Sydney..five weeks at sea for a kid from Nottingham .. who had never had a holiday . within three weeks I was sailing thought the Panama Canal... I couldn't believe it... by myself and it was just magic... like a movie ..when I left home mom said your breakfast is on the stove and went out .. Never said Goodbye ... then after 53 years on my sister told me why .... Sorry MOM.... still here on the Gold Coast .. 55years now with two Aussie son n daughter living in London ....so much water under the Bridge....

[@brucepayne7837]

another fact about the ten pound poms was that a lot of the very young went on to contribute to the australian music industry some of them were bon scott angus young malcolm young george young doc neeson john paul young and no doubt there was probably a lot of others

[@stuartpryke6184]

Free accommodation and adult education as well as an allowance until you find work. I wonder if we still do all this these days and if we did would the whole system not work better? Great archival footage and a look at how different (for better and worse) our society was back then.

[@ExRhodesian]

@@happychick94 Australia is not a 1st world country by any definition.

[@darioburatovich2240]

@@ExRhodesian ....you'r right, first world countries don't have kangaroos...

[@lifelongbachelor3651]

@@ExRhodesian according to you...

[@ExRhodesian]

@@lifelongbachelor3651 A country reliant on raw material exports with little or no manufacturing sector is more akin to a 3rd world dump than a first world country. No run along champ I am busy.

[@lifelongbachelor3651]

@@ExRhodesian yeah... you type really well using just the one hand. still far and away more advanced than african manufacturing, which, today, comprises sifting through piles of obsolete, broken first world computers looking for precious metals.

[@david-lt9wj]

Not a spinner suitcase ,or a computer in sight..

[@perpetualgrin5804]

My father had the choice of the US Australia or Holland. Australia got the vote as it was closer.

[@margaretbott4926]

I travelled on the Patris from Australia to Greece in 1961 for a cost of 10 pounds, a special for youth between 18-24. I would like to know who sponsored such a voyage.

[@lorrainereeves4466]

In 1969 aged 18 I used my lunch break to go to Australia House, Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham. I completed a simple form there and then, and went back to work. A couple of months later my mum rang me at work to say I had telegram. It said there was a Quantas flight for me if I could make it. No interview. No medical. No nothing. Mum and Dad said no. How I wish I had gone. Things could have been oh so different. Still hope to visit some day.

[@littlerelief5029]

15:52 ... mmmm yes, wonder if that was from one of those 'books suitable for children'

[@mayena]

Trivia imforaton tne post World War ii (1939-1945) immigration to Australia was 2 million (1945-1965), 4.2 million (1945-1985). Officially the number of British immigrants to Australia (10 pound Poms) was 1 million (1945-1972).

[@stephen9863]

1963 Film ? see 5.04 .... On 14 February 1966, Australia converted to decimal currency

[@NFSAFilms]

Yes - that scene is a later insert / update as the film was still being used post 1966. Well spotted.

[@Aymiikeeganmelb]

Wow .. Just wow ..

[@hifives2]

We arrived at Villawood , it was horrible

[@mauricedebnam4515]

The present day freeloaders get free housing, phones everything!!!!

[@gillianbrookwell1678]

We arrived in Adelaide in 1963, and my father thought he'd stepped into the 1940's.

[@trishloiacono8524]

Yes so did we in 1972

[@KingFahtah]

@@gillianbrookwell1678 Come to Queensland and relive the 80s.

[@peterstephentrinh257]

The convicts didn't like it either, they built the roads you walk on. No air conditioning.

[@christinejackson3922]

My dad arrived in Australia in 1950 as a 15 year old Scottish boy.Four years later he got 2 years in jail for armed robbery lucky for me he didn’t get deported .In 2006 he received his Australian Citizenship.How times have changed

[@willsmovies8330]

How ironic. He came here to a country colonised by Convicts as a free man and became a Convict and nearly returned to good old England / Scotland as a Convict. The circle of life.

[@jennivincent8347]

My mother and her family came to Australia from England in 1948 on the "Asutrias". They were filmed and photographed in Fremantle and Perth. Do you know where I could find any of these images please?

[@Mariazellerbahn]

1:40 one reason for this is to single out males between the ages of 18 and 30 for immediate draft to Vietnam. The migrants were blissfully unaware until setting foot at their destination.

[@lcflcf1]

Awesome organisation for immigration

[@007JHS]

Crikey....after a long voyage migrants to Melbourne were stuck miles from anywhere out at Bonegilla!

[@neilforbes416]

And the narrator mispronounced Bonegilla by saying Bone Gilla! It's actually Bon-e-gilla, the 'e' is *not* silent! 8:30.

[@conmane3341]

It's not easy for today migrants. We have to pass a point system and a lot of assessment before gain Skilled Migrant visa. This video shows how easy they were in that time to get into Australia.

[@georgebronte840]

Con Mane yes because now all of Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Arabia etc want to come here. That is far,far too many and their cultures are very different.

[@alphabet_soup123]

Pat Morac Can you imagine if tomorrow 50 million foreigners wanted to come to Australia? We have to prioritise who we take in, and only take in those that show promise & are willing to contribute. Skills visas with point systems are a very good way of prioritising who comes in.

[@7s29]

The migrants of the 40's, 50', and 60's were invited to this country, that's the difference.

[@amritsingh1722]

George Bronte british culture was different to aboriginals culture, did you took their permission to settle in aus ?

[@darioburatovich2240]

@@georgebronte840 .....I guess the British were not a different culture when they "arrived" in Africa, India, the Middle East,etc.......LOL oh the arrogance !!

[@pollybird7827]

Were are the beatniks

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

It can't be made in 1963. Because Mr "Dollar Bill" says this was later than the "fourteenth of February nineteen sixty six" see kzbin.info/www/bejne/faXcf3-tptGdsKs The decimal currency marketing jingle men got it right for once with their ad as more than 50 years later I remember that jingle well. As kids, in the first few days of the new currency we had a trick turning sixpence into six cents (normally sixpence converted to five cents), do it five times and i could buy an icy-pole. Looking back i suspect the shopkeepers knew what we were doing but let us away with it for a few days.

[@saviourfarrugia146]

THIS IS PART OF THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA. THESE MEN WERE PIONEERS. HARD WORKERS. MOST OF THEM EUROPEANS. AMONGST THEM A NUMBER OF MALTESE MEN WHO LEFT THE ISLAND FOR A BETTER FUTURE. THESE MEN HELPED TO BUILD THIS COUNTRY THEY ARE HEROES.🇲🇹🌏🇭🇲🌏🇲🇹🌏🇭🇲

[@nullarborjack]

Does anyone know if migrants were automatically granted 'permanent residence' or did they have to apply for it after the qualifying period???

[@7s29]

My Dad came to Australia in '59. He had to apply to citizenship. My mother came here in' 60, she applied also, all be it ten years after her arrival. So to answer your question, no. They needed to apply.

[@yurilemming4130]

Christopher Joseph Barnes We came in 1949, were granted residency after 2 years of work in prescribed industries or regions such as Snowy River or Tassie timber work, both my parents worked at Olympic cables, Dunlop Tyres & Smorgon smallgoods for Korean war, we lived in migrant camp & were well fed after 2 years we made our own way & integrated as my father worked as station assistant in railways & mother a dress machinist, later we took citizenship.

[@patkennedy6807]

Yes you had permanent residence if you emigrated,but you had to apply for citizenship

[@jeanhodgson8623]

You got permanent resident status, but if you didn't become a citizen, then if you left, you couldn't get back in. I arrived there with my parents in 1954, but we never became citizens. I left in 1972 because they tried to make me join the army and go to Vietnam, a place of which I had never heard until the war started. I was angry, because they didn't say "go into the army or leave the country", even though I was not a citizen. I was a prisoner there. Fortunately, my uncle, who arrived there before we did, was a Freemason and he arranged for me to "fail" the medical exam. I got out of the country soon afterward, and never went back. They were putting lads in jail for refusing to go to Vietnam. In the 70s, the Whitlam government got in and reversed the policy.

[@C02045]

@@7s29 Migrants who were UK born got residency without asking, but not citizenship

[@peteward6727]

Couldn't have been 63 as decimal currency was introduced in 66 or did the film unit have some inside information

[@NFSAFilms]

Hi Pete, that is a very good point and well spotted. The credits on the film are 1963 but this may reflect when the film was commissioned or began production. Or it is a complete mistake, not the first time one of our films has mixed up the date. The film unit did have some knowledge of the impending currency swap though..... Dollar Bill and Australians Keep The Wheels Of Industry Turning

[@stuartpryke6184]

Perth was a few miles inland from Freemantle though...

[@stuartpryke6184]

They had the round 50c pieces too, that was a year later again wasn't it?

[@gillianbrookwell1678]

Exactly, On the 14th February 1966. They even had a song about it.

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

same thing 63 66 666 all satanic. 2018 was a big year for them too. 2020 vision

[@jonglewongle3438]

The Commonwealth Employment Service finding you work. You'd get the basic up and down on what they'd have for you but you'd want to somehow suss out the ground level with any of the options, like what you'd be really getting into. On the other hand, you'd be a free agent, with basically nothing holding you down, no severing of relations except with the other transitees and bugger them, no outstanding obligations, no relocation hassles involving six of one half a dozen of the other, no removalism hassles [ unless you were a sentimentalist with a pile of junk in storage or figuring where to direct your junk to in Australia from back home ]. Your relocation could be conceivably anywhere, if you settled for a given job description card. $ 60.00 per week operating lathes from 7 to 5. Mmmm ! Bye bye Buggeroo, hello Brisbane.

[@david-lt9wj]

I should have gone in 68....but I was worried about Vietnam so I didn't go..

[@joyceproudlock1426]

Music is irritating

[@ThePerson1959]

Ok they need to learn English. How did they understand what was being said in the film? It is in English.

[@jwunico]

same way they would have understood Hollywood films - the films would be subtitled or dubbed after they had been sent to each country.

[@7s29]

Some were taught in their place of birth before hand.

[@jeanhodgson8623]

Ha ha. The coat of arms has an emu and a kangaroo.

[@williamscott2703]

Shocking,,music,,

[@neilforbes416]

9:50 And the second narrator makes the *EXACT SAME MISTAKE* with Bonegilla in pronouncing Bone Gilla when it should be Bon-e-gilla. There's no excuse for this ignorance!

[@peterstephentrinh257]

Everytime I watched these videos, it reminds me of Immigration officials spelling their names wrong in the United States.

[@fredkupper1380]

i remember the food was crap mid fiftees

[@gillianbrookwell1678]

Most of the children got very sick in these hostels. Some of them were horrible places.

[@johannagallon1341]

peanut butter sandwiches for the children's school lunches every day while we were there. Turned me off peanut butter for many years following.

[@andrewdmitrieff5992]

A place that didn't even have Milo and just served mutton , how socialist , even back then , 3 times they went threw customs

[@neilforbes416]

*Poorly produced!* Far too much music that threatens to drown out the narrator! The music should only be heard for 30-to-40 seconds at the beginning and 25 seconds at the end of the presentation.

[@pmcm-ih1ep]

Another one where you're not told what year it is! 1948? 1958? How hard is it to casually insert into the narrative what bloody year it is?

[@NFSAFilms]

Hi pmcm. This film was made in 1963. We put the year of production in every description for our films on KZbin. Along with other relevant information we might have about the film.

[@pmcm-ih1ep]

@@NFSAFilms thanks for that info, I neglected to read the added information under the picture. Yes 1963, we came out on the Fairstar in 65.

[@NFSAFilms]

@@pmcm-ih1ep Great. Glad you enjoyed the film and thanks for sharing your story.

[@duncanyourmate2433]

now ,according to Peter Reith you must through the kids overboard ,and do not forget the stolen english generation ,

[@xtreme_survival7879]

duncan yourmate Um OK old mate you are an Aussie yet you don't know the difference between through and throw. Good Luck. First generation Australian.

[@neilforbes416]

This video deserves 0 likes and 301 dislikes for the utterly *incompetent* narration!

[@neilforbes416]

@@daviddou1408 TROLL!