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Transport – British Post World War II Immigration
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At Federation, responsibility for all forms of non British
immigration and naturalisation passed to the Commonwealth. Monitoring immigrant
arrivals, as part of a wider role of monitoring overseas arrivals and
departures, did not become a Commonwealth responsibility until 1924. Lists of
arrivals from 1924 onwards are held by the National
Archives of Australia.
Assisted immigration schemes (British) flourished between
1906 and 1930 and again after World War II. From 1906 to 1923 administration of
assisted British immigration and nomination schemes for Victoria, including
overseas promotion and supervision of selection, continued to be largely a
state responsibility. From 1923 to 1983 such schemes were jointly administered
by the State and Commonwealth governments with the commonwealth taking primary
responsibility. In 1983 the Commonwealth took over the remaining functions
related to administering both assisted and unassisted British sponsorship
schemes and associated services.
During the period 1947 to 1983 substantial numbers of
British migrants were brought to Victoria under the provisions of the various
immigration schemes and agreements. Among the state's responsibilities were
processing personal, employer and state nominations. Records relating to this
function are held by Public Record Office Victoria.
Each entry in the registers contains, as appropriate, the
name, address, age, marital status and present occupation of each nominee, the
relationship of the nominee to the nominator, employment arrangements and
accommodation arrangements in Australia, together with the name, address and
occupation of the nominator. Entries are in nomination number order. The
registers are not indexed.
There appear to be at least two or three separate lists for
many ships. The lists are arranged chronologically by the arrival date of
the ship and on each list the immigrants are listed alphabetically by family
name. For each immigrant, depending on the number of lists, the following
information may be given: nominee's number, name (surname followed by forenames
and initials), name and address of nominator, accommodation, transport on
dispersal, religious denomination and occupation.
The air flight nominal rolls are arranged chronologically by
flight date. They provide advice to the State Immigration Office of migrants
arriving on flights from the United Kingdom. The rolls mostly record full name,
date of birth, religion, profession, destination, date of arrival and flight
number for each migrant. There is occasionally reference to the nominator and
to accommodation arrangements. The amount of information recorded varies
considerably over time.
Cards which are in alphabetical order by family name of the
nominator, give the nominator name and address together with the name of
the individual or family group being nominated for sponsorship.
The cards are arranged alphabetically by the family name of
the individual or family group nominated. For each nominee the full name and
age are given and if the nomination was successful, an arrival date and ship
name or flight number. The name of the nominator is recorded together with the
date of nomination.
These indexes refer to three series of nomination files
which are closed: VPRS 5975, 5976 & 5977. These series contain information
of a personal or private nature about the individuals identified in the
records.