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Margaret Wood Immigration & Shipping Collection
Image: Baggage Label - P&O, Shipping Destination, Melbourne, circa 1950s
Source: Museum Victoria
This collection provides a rare insight into the working life of a young female Immigration Officer. It represents the processing and ongoing management of migrants during one of the great Australian migration booms; the development of policy during this period and the way it was presented to the Australian public; the management of immediate arrival and dispersal of migrants at Station Pier; the parallel operations of immigration officers, customs officers, baggage agents, and aid workers during those hectic first hours upon arrival; and the types and varieties of ships which carried migrants to Australia.
Margaret Wood's collection reveals the context surrounding her work as an immigration officer; the bureaucracy, represented by the forms, form letters, notes, instructions, and reports; the need to comprehend the continuing formulation of migration policy, through the ministerial addresses and policy booklets; the shipboard contact, through the souvenirs and menus; dockside sorting and handling, through the baggage labels, customs tickets, claim tags and receipts; the personal contact, through the handwritten luggage contents list and identified baggage tags.
Her constant contact with the excitement of arrival, departure and sea travel must have influenced her own desire to travel, as well as her connections with such a variety of ships, revealed through her own souveniring of ship line stationery, and the shipping promotional material. Margaret's own story accompanying the collection brings this incredible time to life - the sheer numbers of people from all over the UK and Europe and the challenges in trying to maintain organisational order.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 11 - 20) 249 items
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Menu - TN Sydney, Flotta Lauro Line, Breakfast, 24 Jan 1958
Breakfast Menu from the ship TN Sydney on the Flotta Lauro Line. The Menu is printed in Italian and English and was used 24 January 1958. It is part of a collection of ship menus collec ...
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Program - TN Neptunia, Lloyd Triestino Line, Concert & Dancing, 23 Jan 1952
Program for a concert and dancing on the ship MN Neptunia on the Lloyd Triestino Line. It is printed in Italian and English and was used 23 January 1952. It is part of a collection of s ...
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Swizzle Sticks - Plastic, Red, Blue, Yellow & White, circa 1950s
Set of eight plastic swizzle sticks in red, blue, yellow and white, which are part of a collection of shipboard memorabilia collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Im ...
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Doll - Norah Wellings, Sailor, circa 1950s
Norah Wellings Cloth Sailor Doll, which forms part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. Norah We ...
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Baggage Check Receipt - Issued to Joergen Larsen, Castel Felice, Sitmar Line, circa 1950s
Baggage Check Receipt, no 9556, issued on the Sitmar Line ship the Castel Felice to Joergen Larsen, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret ...
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Baggage Check Receipt - Issued to Jonsegon Nielsen, Castel Felice, Sitmar Line, circa 1950 ...
Baggage Check Receipt, no 9593, issued on the Sitmar Line ship the Castel Felice to Jonsegon Nielsen, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margare ...
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Baggage Check Receipt - Issued to Hermann Noecker, MS Skaubryn, Skaugen Line, circa 1950s
Baggage Check Receipt, no 1795, issued on the Skaugen Line ship the MS Skaubryn to Hermann Noecker, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret ...
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Baggage Check Receipt - Issued to Mathu Benner, MS Skaubryn, Skaugen Line, circa 1950s
Baggage Check Receipt, no 2206, issued on the Skaugen Line ship the MS Skaubryn to Mathu Benner, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Woo ...
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Pen - Arcadia, circa 1950s
Memorabilia pen from the ship 'Arcadia', 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. ...
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Streamer - Paper, White, circa 1950s
Paper streamer, uncoiled. It is part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. Margaret recalls that t ...
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