AUSSIES

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Photo of a man wearing a fluorescent orange work shirt standing in front of a series of pillars featuring posters.

What does an Aussie look like?

Since 2016, Australian artist Peter Drew has pasted thousands of his distinctive AUSSIE posters on streets across the country.

The portraits come from a time when successive Commonwealth governments discriminated against ‘non-white’ migration to Australia. The White Australia policy was introduced in 1901, watered down after the Second World War and eventually abolished in 1973.

In the early 1900s the policy cut non-British migration to a trickle and after 1909, to zero, as it empowered immigration officials to force would-be migrants to do a dictation test in any prescribed language. Most of the AUSSIES in Drew’s work were seeking an exemption from the test.

While the policy is long gone, Drew’s work asks the viewer to consider what it is to be Australian – and how Federal policies can change the answer to that question.

Many Australians will have encountered Peter Drew’s distinctive AUSSIE posters on the streets of their cities and towns. Now, see a collection of these works together at the museum and discover the stories of the people behind the portraits.

This free outdoor exhibition is located in front of Wharf 7, near the Pyrmont ferry stop.

Image showing a poster on a white brick wall. The poster shows a man with a red turban and white facial hair.

Image showing a poster on a white brick wall. The poster shows a woman with dark hair and a yellow top in front of a blue background.

Image showing a poster on a white brick wall. The poster shows a black and white image of a man wearing a light orange coloured turban.

About Peter

Peter Drew is an Australian artist whose work explores memory, nationalism, identity, masculinity and mythology. He started the AUSSIE poster series in 2016 as a reaction to what he saw as a rising tide of anti-immigration sentiment.

He revisited the series in 2026.

Did you know?

32% of Australians were born overseas. This is the same as in 1891, but then after decades of the White Australia Policy, it dropped to 9.8% in 1947.

The most common countries of origin are England (3.5%), India (3.5%), China (2.6%), New Zealand (2.3%), the Philippines (1.5%), and Vietnam (1.2%).