This afternoon I had the pleasure of introducing Peter Plowman at the launch of his new book Migrant Ships to Australia and New Zealand, 1900 to 1939. For a couple of hours, Immigration Museum's theatrette became the site of an old-fashioned slideshow, as vessel after vessel flashed onto the screen to Peter's expert commentary. Masts came and went, funnels grew and diminished, names altered, colours changed - and history charged forward from the start of the century via two World Wars. Who knew that so many ships made the perilous journey from Europe to Australia? Then, in 1914, and again in 1939, they all turned around again.

Photo: W. S. Anderson  Source: Museum Victoria

At the Immigration Discovery Centre we're often visited by people who know a lot about ships - their names, their functions, their histories. Today, a visitor was interested in only one ship, the SS Edina, which ferried people between Melbourne and Geelong in the early decades of the twentieth century. He explained to me that the vessel had carried his favourite uncle, once, during the First World War, on a trip back to camp from the city. So I understood the visitor's preoccupation, and shared his glee as we sourced image after image of the useful and lovely boat. 

Photo of SS Edina by G Mulcahy  Source: Museum Victoria

This morning a migrant from Malta was in the Immigration Discovery Centre, sourcing pictures of the Castel Felice and reminiscing about his island. He explained that his childhood home had been across the road from the sea, with views of the port and its enormous vessels. Later on, he came to my desk, leant across it and whispered: "perhaps one day you'll visit the little island." Hope so. 

Photo of a yacht bearing the Maltese cross. Source: Museum Victoria

The Immigration Discovery Centre does parties. Today, for example, a family group came through as part of the birthday celebrations of one of its members who was born in Australia just months after her family's arrival from India in 1948. We found evidence of this event via the website of the National Archives of Australia, along with some pictures of the vessel Asturias on which they had travelled. It was nice to hear the family talking across its generations. For a while they dispersed throughout the IDC, looking for data about themselves and other people, before regrouping for a tour of the museum.     

Two old friends in the IDC, this morning, delighted to find a record of their voyages from the Netherlands to Australia via the website of the National Archives of Australia, and to pick up a Museum Victoria info-sheet about the ship on which they both travelled, several decades ago, two years apart. "I've got goosebumps now," said one of the women, watching the names of her parents materialise on the screen. Then she told me about how the voyage had been one long social event, and how her father had known "everyone" before boarding...

 
Photo: W. S. Anderson  Source: Musem Victoria