Threads of migration
26 Jan 2019
Textiles are an evocative symbol of migration, memory and cultural identity. Our new roof projection, Threads of migration, illuminates the museum’s rooftop with a rich patchwork of immigrant stories.
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Celebrating 20 years of the Welcome Wall
24 Jan 2019
On 24 January 1999, the first 3,000 names were officially unveiled on the museum’s Welcome Wall. Today the Welcome Wall features nearly 30,000 names representing more than 100 countries.
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Anatolia to Australia
23 Jan 2019
Turkish migrant¸ Sükran Adasal was just 19 years old when she and her husband Halit embarked on a belated honeymoon to an island continent on the other side of the world. Travelling under the Australia–Turkey Migration Agreement, the young couple’s thoughts were filled with hope for a new future.
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The case of Mrs O’Keefe
22 Jan 2019
In the 1940s, a Dutch East Indies family who had been evacuated to Australia during World War II found themselves under threat of deportation. The infamous court case that ensued was an important step towards overturning controversial legislation banning non-European immigrants.
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The Gocks of Middle Mountain
21 Jan 2019
Paul Kwok belongs to the 25th generation of a family that can trace its ancestry back to the early 13th century, before the Mongolian leader Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty and conquered China. Paul registered his grandfather, Gock Quay, on the Welcome Wall to honour the first member of his family to set foot in Australia in 1890.
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The Barnardo boy from Liverpool
20 Jan 2019
During the 20th century, thousands of unaccompanied British children were sent to far-flung parts of the Commonwealth as part of government-sponsored child migration schemes. One of these was Jim Stone, whose childhood hardships in a farm training institution did not prevent him from coming to love his adopted country.
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To Australia via the Cape
19 Jan 2019
Teenaged sweethearts Klaas and Aafke Woldring have been together for more than 60 years, with their union taking them from the Netherlands to Australia via South Africa and Zambia.
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As far from Europe as possible
17 Jan 2019
In the aftermath of World War II, many displaced Europeans migrated to far-flung nations, including Australia, in search of a better future. The Talmet family feld Soviet rule to settle in Adelaide, building a new life from very little.
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La Cella Venezia
16 Jan 2019
Long before the era of mass migration in the 1950s and 60s, a pioneering group of farmers from northern Italy sought a better life in the South Pacific. This is the story of the ill-fated Marquis de Rays expedition in 1880, which would lead to the creation of a prosperous Italian community out of misfortune and adversity.
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