Migrants welcome to Australia - Bonegilla

Bonegilla is a rural area on the western shore of Lake Hume in N.E Victoria. The nearest large township is Wodonga Vic, 9 km to the west and c12 km from Albury NSW, on the southern bank of Murray River, the border between the two states. Bonegilla primary school opened in 1876, a railway connection (1889) to Wodonga, and 2 hotels in 1910.

  huts in Bonegilla Rd, Bonegilla

VHD

Children enjoy the games and the fresh air

Albury City Council

Children in primary school

Albury City Council

In 1940 a large army camp and military hospital were built at Bonegilla and a huge ordnance base was built nearby, the camp being used to train troops during the war. The hospital cared for them and for wounded soldiers returned from the battle fields. The ordnance base stored and supplied military equipment and vehicles. This was a convenient location for such activities because there was a change in the railway-gauge between the two states. 

 During WW2 a military camp was established at Bonegilla for the training of infantry and bomb disposal personnel. Some Italian prisoners-of-war were also held there, and after the war some Australian and American prisoners-of-war from Japanese prisons were brought there. In 1947 the military camp was acquired for a reception centre for migrants, mostly from Europe. There were 24 camp blocks, comprised of 800+ buildings.

It was post-WW2 when millions of war-damaged people seeking peace looked to Australia. An army camp at Bonegilla was transformed into a migrant reception and training centre where new arrivals lived while they were processed and allocated jobs.

Bonegilla Migrant Reception & Training Centre received 300,000+ migrants from 30 nations during 1947-71, opened to provide temporary accommodation for newly arrived migrants. In the years after, more camps or hostels were set up around Australia to meet the demand of increasing numbers. Most migrants stayed in these for 4-6 weeks, although some stayed for months and even years.

So the Bonegilla Army Camp was re-used as a reception and training centre for the first contingents of displaced persons who Australia admitted under an agreement with the International Refugee Organisation, Europeans who couldn’t return to their former countries post-war. My Czech parents-in-law and their children sat in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Austria, until they were accepted in a refugee camp in rural NSW.

Many migrants had not socialised since WW2 started in 1939.

Group activities were greatly enjoyed

Albury City Council

From 1960 it was retitled as the Bonegilla Reception Centre and took in more migrants and refugees, largely from European countries. Altogether to 1971 when it closed, Bonegilla proved to be the largest and longest-lasting reception centre in post-war Australia, at a time when the economy was growing rapidly. These new arrivals changed the face of Australian society; they and their families helped shaped Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Bonegilla is an excellent tour. 

Block 19 today

Big4 Holiday Parks

In May 1990, Block 19 was put on the Victorian Heritage Register. As a registered place of special value to future generations, it is protected from any major change. In 2002, it became a commemorative place and tourism venue. In Dec 2007, it was included on the National Heritage List as a place of outstanding heritage value to the nation. A plaque declared the old reception centre was a symbol of post-war migration which transformed Australia’s economy, society and culture. Block 19 is now a special place which attracts visitors wanting to reflect on the experience of being a migrant; and was recognised as a place with powerful connections for many people here and a symbol of post-war migration which helped change Australia's economy, society and culture.

In the middle of sunny fields and on the banks of Australia's greatest river lies Bonegilla, the reception camp established by the Australian Government for European citizens. The travellers spend their first weeks in their new homeland here in order to become acquainted with its customs and thereby ease their passage into the Australian way of life. (Ad encouraging Displaced Persons to come to Australia).

Between 1947-71 Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was the first home in Australia for the migrants. It was the largest operating migration reception centre. It is of national significance as a place associated with and demonstrating a defining change in Australia's immigration policy following the war.

For years Albury City has been collecting objects owned by former residents of the migrant reception centre; things that people brought from their homeland to give them comfort, photos, kitchen items, toys, books and clothing. Albury actively collects written memories from Bonegilla migrants.

The 1,295 oral, written and pictorial records in the Bonegilla Collection at the Albury Library clarify post-war immigration policies/procedures that changed the national origins and size of Australia’s population. These photographs, documents and memorabilia, provide insights into post-WW2 migration and refugee occurrences. The collection displays immigration policies and procedures that changed the composition and size of the Australian population, and thus transformed the nation economically, socially and culturally. To locate and identify a immigration record, including individual Bonegilla cards held by the National Archives, use the Making Australia Home programme.

In Dec 1987, a Back-to-Bonegilla day was held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the migrant reception centre opening. Another was held in 1997. Numerous published histories and reminiscences followed.

Most of the migrants and refugees who passed through Bonegilla were drawn from non-English speaking European countries but with diverse arrival and settlement experiences. Some migrants recalled arriving lonely, unsure of where they were going and what they'd be doing. Others saw Bonegilla as a place of hope, symbolic of a new start. Even more importantly, the shift from prioritising Anglo-Celtic sources helped change political and social expectations, and thus the cultural diversity of Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience.

The reception centre was temporary home for 320,000+ migrants. Some had short stays, but others remained there for a year or more, often because of non-recognition of their overseas qualifications. Disturbances in 1961, mainly caused by unemployed migrants who expected better food, climate and job prospects 15 years after the war, resulted in police action which fizzled out and migrants were transferred to hostels in metropolitan Melbourne. During that time a primary school (1952-71) managed changing student populations and many languages.

The arrow points to Bonegilla, half way between Sydney and Melbourne

Read Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre by Alexandra Dellios, 2017 revealing the centre's other, more difficult history that included control, deprivation, slow job locating and dismal food.