Amazing black and white photos show excited ‘Ten Pound Poms’ moving from Britain to Australia for just £10 after World War Two
More than 1.5million Brits moved Down Under after the War as a part of a scheme introduced by the Australian government to populate the country and find workers
THESE fascinating images show excited families heading Down Under to start a new life after World War Two for just £10.
More than 1.5million Brits - dubbed Ten Pound Poms after the price of an adult fare - were sold the dream of a new life in Australia.
Australia desperately wanted white Brits to increase its population and boost the country's booming industries such as farming.
Beginning in 1947, it was one of the largest planned mass migrations of the 20th Century.
Like Windrush families who moved from the Caribbean to the UK, these British families travelled mostly by ship.
The Bee Gees and the parents of actor Huge Jackman were among those to take advantage of the offer, which would usually cost £120.
Between 1947 and 1972, more than 1.5million people moved from Britain to Australia as a part of the assisted migration scheme.
It was the chance to escape post-war rationing and a housing shortage.
Some 400,000 Brits made the trip in the first year alone.
The Ten Pound contract meant that migrants had to stay for at least two years or pay back the full fare.
Kathleen Upton, of Hastings, East Sussex, who fled Britain for a better life in 1954 said she couldn't believe the quality of food.
Speaking in 2008, she told the BBC: "We were on rations in London and there was so much and such tropical fruits.
"Our first impression was they weren't very welcoming.
"I think they resented us very, very much.
"This shipload of people coming out from Europe would be taking their jobs."
For some though their new life in Australia did not live up to expectations with jobs not always easy to come by.
Many Australian towns and cities were not as developed as Britain's and those without savings had to live in army barracks.
In total over a quarter of a million migrants who felt homesick or misled headed back home after their two years in Australia.
However almost half of these then ended up going back and became known as "Boomerang Poms".
Unlike Britain which welcomed immigrants from Commonwealth countries such as India, Jamaica and Pakistan, Australia's immigration policy discriminated against those who were not white.
In 1947 the Australian government set a target that nine tenths of immigrants should come from Britain under what was called the White Australia policy.
But this was difficult to maintain and between 1953 and 1956 immigrants from Southern Europe outnumbered Brits.
This led to a new wave of financial assistance to British settlers in the 60s as the government introduced their 'Bring out a Briton' campaign.
Despite this Australia became more reliant on non-British migrant workers with the Snowy Mountains Scheme seeing over 100,000 people from 30 countries work on building dams and power stations.
Eventually in the 1970s the Australian government scrapped the White Australia policy and the Ten Pound Scheme came to an end in 1982.
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