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White Australia Policy
Immigration Restriction Act was aimed to excluding non-white migrants. Other restrictions included a dictation test, used to exclude certain applicants by requiring them to pass a written test in a language, with which they were not necessarily familiar with, nominated by an immigration officer. With these severe measures the implementation of the 'White Australia' policy was warmly applauded in most sections of the community. -
Huge Snowy Mountain Scheme
In 1949 many migrants with engineering or construction skills and experience in working alpine conditions were targeted for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Dams, power stations and tunnels were built so that the water from the Snowy River could be used to provide power. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is the most complex, multi-purpose, multi-reservoir hydro scheme in the world with 80 kilometres of aqueducts,140 kilometres of tunnels, 16 large dams and seven power stations. -
10 pound poms
Arthur Calwell was the Minister of Immigration in 1945. He was a staunch advocate of the White Australia Policy and was responsible for implementing the Ten Pound Pom assisted passage scheme. He was responsible for hatching a plan to bring a batch of ‘Beautiful Balts’ to Australia, young immigrants from the Baltic States, with fair hair and blue eyes. -
Second world war migration
World war 2 resulted in a sense Australia needed to increase its population in order to be able to adequately defend the country-the concept of 'populate or perish'. Attracting skilled workers was an important migration goal. British settlers in particular were given special incentives and privelages to migrate, but the post-war period also saw an influx of immagrants from across Europe, including large numbers of displaced persons.