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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 21 - 30) 249 items
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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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Streamer - Paper, Black, 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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Streamers - Paper, Various Colours, circa 1950s
Collection of paper streamers. They are part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. Margaret recall ...
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Document Folder - SS Orsova, Orient Line, circa 1950s
Document Folder from the SS Orsova, it was collected by Margaret Wood, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Depart ...
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Menu Holder - Orient Line, circa 1953
Menu holder, made for the Orient Line circa 1953. 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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Bags - Sanitary Pad, circa 1950s
Two Brown paper bags for sanitary pads printed German, English and French, they were found tucked into Skaugen Shipping Line Menu. They are part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs c ...
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Booklet - Athol Townley, 'Australia Unlimited, Immigration Builds the Nation', Department ...
Booklet 'Australia Unlimited: Immigration Builds the Nation', by Athol Townley the Minister for Immigration, published by the Department of Immigration in 1957. The Australia Unlimited ...
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Booklet - Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council, 'Australia Needs All These People', C ...
Booklet 'Australia Needs All These People', written by the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council, 1958. The booklet contains information about the British migration program. It is p ...
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Parlour Game - 'Chook-Chook', circa 1930
Alternative Name(s): Card Game Parlour game titled 'Chook-Chook, based on the production and marketing of eggs. The game comprises a deck of 49 cards, instructions, monthly price list, ...
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Newsletter - The Good Neighbour, Department of Immigration, No 58, Nov 1958
Newsletter 'The Good Neighbour' No.58 November 1958, issued by the Department of Immigration. It is part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in t ...
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