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Transport – British Post World War II Immigration
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This PROVguide outlines the main record series held
at Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) relating to assisted immigration
schemes for British immigrants to Victoria after the Second World War. At
the time of Australian Federation, responsibility for non-British immigration
and naturalisation passed from the colonial governments to the Commonwealth. However,
monitoring immigrant arrivals did not become a Commonwealth responsibility
until 1924. Apart from the records referred to in this PROVguide,
passenger lists created from 1924 onwards are held by the National Archives of Australia.
Assisted immigration schemes for British residents
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 sole responsibility in 1983.
During the period 1947 to 1983 substantial numbers of
British immigrants arrived in Victoria under the provisions of the various
immigration schemes and agreements. Among the state's responsibilities was the
processing of personal, employer and state nominations. For more
information about the history of the administration of 20th century immigration
schemes in Victoria, and related records, see the entries for VF
138 Immigration (Twentieth century), VRG
90 Immigration II and VRG
68 Immigration and Ethnic Affairs on PROV's online catalogue.
Selected series held at PROV
Each entry in the register contains the name, address, age,
marital status and occupation of each nominee at the time of their application.
The register also records 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 register is not indexed.
This series consists of around two or three separate passenger
lists per ship. 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 the following information may be given:
nominee's number and name, the 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 each
migrant's name, date of birth, religion, profession, destination, date of
arrival and flight number. There are occasional references to the nominator and
to accommodation arrangements. The amount of information recorded varies
considerably over time.
The cards are in alphabetical order by family name of the
nominator, and contain 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 their 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.