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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 31 - 40) 249 items
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Newsletter - The Good Neighbour, Department of Immigration, No 59, Dec 1958
Newsletter 'The Good Neighbour' No.59 December 1958, issued by the Department of Immigration. It is part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in t ...
Images: 8 -
Newsletter - The Good Neighbour, Department of Immigration, No 31, Jul 1956
Newsletter 'The Good Neighbour' No.31 July 1956, issued by the Department of Immigration. It is part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the D ...
Images: 8 -
Coaster - Royal Insignia, circa 1950s
Coaster from a migrant ship, used circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. A ...
Images: 2 -
Label - Brau Union Österreich AG, Reininghaus, Marzen, circa 1950s
Paper label for Reininghaus Märzen beer, manufactured by Brau Union Österreich AG, circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer i ...
Images: 2 -
Label - Schwechater Lager, circa 1950s
Paper label for Schwechater Larger circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960. ...
Images: 2 -
Baggage Label - Scandinavian Airlines System, Travel Details, circa 1950s
Airline Baggage Label or strap tag used by Scandinavian Airlines System circa 1950s. It is part of a collection of souvenirs collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of I ...
Images: 4 -
Menu - MN Neptunia, Lloyd Triestino Line, Dinner, 3 Jan 1952.
Dinner Menu from the ship MN Neptunia on the Italian Lloyd Triestino Line. The Menu is printed in Italian and English and was used on the 3 January 1952. It is part of a collection of s ...
From: Port Melbourne, Australia Images: 6 -
Leaflet - Sitmar Line, Schedule of Fares & Sailings, 1959
Sitmar line foldout leaflet containing a schedule of fares and sailings for three ships - The Fair Sky, The Castel Felice and Fairsea - to Italy, Holland and Germany. The leaflets were ...
Images: 6 -
Leaflet - TV Castel Felice to Southampton, Sitmar Line, 1959
Sitmar line foldout leaflet containing a schedule of fares and sailings for The Castel Felice to Southampton, printed 1959. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected b ...
Images: 4 -
Leaflet - Northbound Sailing Schedule via Panama, MV Fairsea, Sitmar Line, circa 1959
Sitmar line foldout leaflet containing a northbound sailing schedule via Panama for the MV Fairsea, printed circa 1959. It is part of a collection of shipboard souvenirs collected by Ma ...
Images: 4
