Function and purpose
This series
comprises the main correspondence files relating to the admission decisions and
policies concerning non-British migrants to Australia (‘Class 3’) between 1940
to 1950. These files were created and maintained
as by the Department of the Interior until the function of migration came under
the portfolio of the Department of Immigration after 1945.
The material
forms part of a set of records as follows:
·
Correspondence
files, Class 2 (Restricted Immigration) 1939-1950 (series A433);
·
Correspondence
files, Class 5 (British Migrants) 1945-1950 (series A436)
This series
forms an important record of the history of Australian migration, particularly
with regard to WWII refugees and displaced persons seeking to migrate to
Australia from Italy, Germany, Malta, Poland, France, Cyprus, Greece and other
European countries.
With respect
to case files, the original business was usually transacted in migrant centres
in European and British countries, with the documents despatched to Central
Office of the Department of Immigration prior to the departure of the migrant
from his/her country of origin.
Hence, the
series contains:
·
immigration
policy decisions;
·
embarkation
lists from various ships; form 40 (‘Application for Admission of Relative or
Friend to Australia’);
·
form 47
(Application to enter Australia);
·
form 47A
(Medical Examination);
·
form 50
(Full time and passport and personal particulars relating to individual cases
of non British European migrants).
Individual case files were recorded in the form of ‘Kernesky, J –
Admission’, for example.
Content
includes, for example:
·
policy
decisions and government reports concerning Polish Jewish Relief Fund and the
migration of children from 1941;
·
formation of
the Australian Slavs Congress in 1944;
·
protests
against the ‘unrestricted influx of Italians and other European aliens into
Northern Queensland’;
·
‘White
Alien’ Migration Ministerial decisions re application for admission from 1945;
·
International
Red Cross;
·
Dutch
migration agreements;
·
the
employment of ‘New Australians’ in Papua New Guinea from 1945;
·
the
evacuation of Jewish people from the Near East; the employment of Displaced
Persons in industry, including sugarcane in Queensland and coal in Victoria from
1948.
In addition, several of the files relate to conditions and
employment at Bonegilla, the migrant centre which housed refugees and displaced
persons during this time.
The subject
index cards for the series (A71) are arranged by subject alphabetically from
Abolition to YMCA. There is no name
index to the series.
An
assortment of files has the nominal roll lists pertaining to CP533/1, Selection
Documents (Displaced Persons Migration Scheme), recorded by the Department of
Immigration between 1948 to 1953.
Related legislation
Immigration Act (1901-1948)
Naturalisation and Citizenship Act (1948)
Migrant Settlement Act (1933)
System of arrangement and control
This multiple number series is arranged by year; class;
item number: for example, 1941/ 3/ 129.
Finding aids
Detailed consignment lists exist for this series. As at 21 July 2004 all items in the series
have been registered onto RecordSearch.