The Migration Experience, in Art

Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England

Australia has always been a country of migrants. This was true from the very beginning of European migration when, apart from the in­dig­enous population, the only other people were convicts (involuntary migrants), colonial staff and some free settlers. During the first half of the 19th century, the source of migration was largely Britain and Ireland. And the gold rush brought another 600,000 new citizens.

As you would expect, British and Australian art in the 19th cent­ury was very involved in the migration experience. There were many paintings that reflected the tragedy of saying goodbye to parents and siblings, realising that they would most likely nev­er been seen again. Perhaps the most heartbreaking of all were images of life at sea.

John Dollman, The Immigrants’ Ship

Ford Madox Brown painted The Last of England in 1855. Now in Birm­ingham, the image depicted a lovely young couple who made the brave decision to sail 15,000 ks for a better life, risking storms and isolation. Three elements increased the sense of misery: the grey atmosphere; the dangling cabbages on the side of the boat, suggesting a long long trip ahead and the hopelessness of the title.

John Charles Dollman painted The Immigrants’ Ship in 1884, now in the Art Gallery of South Australia. It was not clear whether, for the adults, life on board was exhausting, boring or despondent about the future. At least the small children were keeping themselves amused. Tom Roberts travelled aboard the Lusitania in 1885 and paint­ed Coming South in 1886. Some of the passengers looked as if they were in mourning, presumably for the life that had irreversibly left behind. However some of Robert’s passengers seemed to have been socialising nicely.

Tom Roberts, Coming South

Contact with home was entirely by mail, taking weeks and even months to arrive at its final destination. William Strutt paint­ed Gold Digger’s Letter from Home in c1860, showing how every letter had been retained by the digger, to be read and reread over time. The digger’s mate was there to either share the pleasure or comfort the pain.

William Strutt, Gold Digger's Letter

When WW2 ended, the government took an entirely new approach to migration. The near invasion of Australia by the Japanese caused a complete rethink of ideal population numbers. Prime Minister Ben Chifley noted “a powerful enemy looked hungrily toward Aus­tralia. In tomorrow's gun flash, that threat could come again. We must populate Australia as rapidly as we can before someone else decides to populate it for us.”

When WW2 ended, the government took an entirely new approach to migration. The near invasion of Australia by the Japanese caused a complete rethink of ideal population numbers. Prime Minister Ben Chifley noted “a powerful enemy looked hungrily toward Aus­tralia. In tomorrow's gun flash, that threat could come again. We must populate Australia as rapidly as we can before someone else decides to populate it for us.”

Most migrants arrived by ship, disembarking first in Frem­antle then in the major cities of the Eastern States, Sydney and Melbourne. In the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, Austral­ians greeted incoming migrant ships, waiting to see if any European family members had survived the war. My own husband remembered arriving on the SS Misr in 1952, with his clothes sewn into pillow slips because the family couldn’t afford suitcases.

By 2006 25% of the Australian population was born overseas, and a further 20% are children born IN Australia to migrant parents. No other country has anything like as large a proportion of its pop­ul­ation being foreign born (except of course Israel, whose unique Law of Return mandates that nation to accept as a new citizen anyone fearful of opp­res­sion in their own homeland). In recent censuses, people born in Britain and New Zealand accounted for 33% of all overseas-born persons in Aust­ralia's population, foll­owed by Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Lebanese, Chin­ese, Vietnamese and other nationals.

The migration experience is now faster and safer, but it still requires a brave soul to leave their homeland for a strange country. I am delighted that many blogs are set up to make the experience easier:
[1] Australia immigration - is it 4 u ?
[2] The Immigration Game - A Pom 'Down Under
[3] African Refugees  and
[4] 3GK 2008 Blog 

With the 1918 peace after WW1, there was a revival of assisted mig­rat­ion schemes. In the interwar period, increasing numbers of young men from Greece and Italy paid their own way to Australia. Their wives and children presumably travelled months or years later, once the breadwinner was at least stably settled.With the 1918 peace after WW1, there was a revival of assisted mig­rat­ion schemes. In the interwar period, increasing numbers of young men from Greece and Italy paid their own way to Australia. Their wives and children presumably travelled months or years later, once the breadwinner was at least stably settled.

The blog British Paintings has publicised an exhibition at the Tate in London called Migrations Journeys into British Art (Jan–August 2012). It looks wonderful.

Post WW2 migrants arriving, on the Stratheden