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Italian Migration

31 January, 2009

Question: My parents migrated from Italy fifty years ago this year. They would like to collate information about their migration journey to share with the family. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: In the first instance, you may like to obtain a copy of the official documentation of your parents’ journey from Italy to Australia. The National Archives of Australia is the central repository for Australian Commonwealth Government records, including immigration documents. The original passenger lists for your parents’ journey to Australia would include information such as their names, ages and other information about their migration circumstances.

Castel Felice passing down Port Phillip Bay towards the Heads from Queenscliff to Sorrento

The Castel Felice ventured to Australia as an immigrant ship on a total of 101 voyages between 1952 and 1970, carrying over 100,000 immigrants to Australia and New Zealand. She was commanded by an Italian crew and carried passengers from many different countries including Italy, Germany and Britain.
Photographer: Mayor Dennis. Source: State Library of Victoria.

Your parents may like to discuss and share stories about their physical journey to Australia. In particular, the book Australian Migrant Ships 1946 – 1977 by Peter Plowman contains information on a number of different immigrant ships including some voyage information and pictures. The website Journeys to Australia contains more general information about shipping routes, the distance travelled and conditions of travel in different migration periods.

You may be interested to consider your parents’ migration stories within the broader role that migrants have played in shaping Australian society since World War Two. A perfect starting place for information on Italian migration to Australia is the book The Australian People by James Jupp. A brief overview of Italian Immigration history is also accessible through the Museum Victoria website Origins: Immigrant Communities in Victoria.

Your parents may like to compare their own migration stories with those of other Italians who have migrated to Australia post World War Two. The Migration Heritage Centre of New South Wales, has developed an online exhibition website entitled Belongings, where migrants share their different stories and experiences of settling in Australia.

It may also be a good idea to contact the Australian Italian Historical Society, CO.AS.IT. The mission of the Society is to “collect, preserve and promote the history of Italian immigration to Australia”. They hold many records and stories of Italian immigration which may encourage your parents to share and recollect their experience more broadly with their family.

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Comments (23)

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this is great,i really liked it.

this was such a wonderful and helpful source, thanks you very much! :D

this was great

I havent read the info but acording to the comments it sound pritty good :)

great information to tell many what they need to look for but not very much information on italian migration to Australia facts.

not the information i am looking for. im looking for information that tells me their experiences(jobs, recreation, Discrimination and housing) but thanks any way.

Hi Amilia. Naturally, there would be many famous Italian immigrants but it’s a matter of knowing how to find them! MP Franca Arena comes to mind, as does the author Nino Randazzo, poet Rosa Cappiello, journalist Paolo Totaro, and the Melburnian builders and businessmen Bruno and Nino Grollo. For further names, your first port of call might be Co.As.It and their Italian Historical Society. It might also be useful to go through some of the staple secondary texts, such as: Castles, S et al. (eds) 1992, Australia’s Italians: culture and community in a changing society; and Gianfranco Cresciani, 2003, Italians in Australia.

I need to find out Famous person who immigrated to Australia from Italy

Im confused about this info

nice information guys

Very Good information but it doesnt tell me what I am looking for

this is great information :)

Amazing adventures for these immigrants during those years.

One of my fav school sorces!

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Really Helped Loads Of Info Thanks

Hi Boo Boo, the Italian Historical Society COASIT published a book in 2005 title “Per L’Australia”, which makes reference to some of the immigrant ships used during the 1950’s. Using the ship name Neptunia, we searched Trove and found an advertisement in the Argus newspaper dated Monday, 7 March 1955, for Lloyd Triestino’s “three big white sisterships, Australia – Oceania – Neptunia.” The route is listed as Fremantle, Djakarta, Columbo, Aden, Port Said, Naples and Genoa. The article can be found at the following link: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/71637168?searchTerm=Neptunia 1957&searchLimits=

Thank you very much for this information!!! Very useful.

Great information and the links helped for my research assignment on migrants, I chose Italian Migrants as my group to research and so this was very helpful. It would be nice if I could find a website with all the information I needed such as the time the group migrated, the cities of origin and arrival into etc. But this and it's links were extremely useful and I got an A according to my teacher's early check of it as we were not supposed to hand it in yet. Thank you!

Hi Emily,

That’s a very complex question, and might be better answered by another link. We suggest you consult our Origins website for facts on why separate ethnic groups and nationalities have (and continue to) migrate to Victoria: http://museumvictoria.com.au/origins/

As you can see, today people migrate to Australia for a number of reasons, depending on their personal circumstances: to escape persecution, for economic reasons, or family reunion.

while this was interesting, it didnt give me the information i needed. why do people migrate to australia today?

What route did the Italian migraters use?

Hi my great grand fathers Giuseppe & Antonio migrated from Sorrento, near Napoli to israel, so i would like to gather more informations about them,thank's

Hello George,

The following websites might be useful in your research.

Israel State Archives

National Library of Israel

Israel genealogical Society

National Archives of Australia