Photographs of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst in the National Archives of Australia (Part 2)

A continuation of my earlier post of the camp and its residents in 1950 and 1951. In the first post you will find the images I have labeled as 1-6. A brief discussion is found in the first post.

Image 7: Portrait in progress, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/33; barcode: 7427682)

Image 8: Paintings & art work (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/25; barcode: 7427674)

Image 9: Crèche storytelling with Aboriginal mural, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/27; barcode: 7427676)

Image 10: Ukraine woman displays clothing at New Australian's Handicrafts exhibition at Bathurst - CU1247-5, 1950 (NAA A8139, Volume 8, CU1247-5; barcode: 8286606)

Image 11: New Australians stage Tosca at Bathurst migrant centre - CU1250-1, 1950 (NAA A8139, Volume 8, CU1250-1; barcode: 8286616)

Image 12: Bathurst Camp Post Office, 1951 (NAA C4076, C4076/1, HN6013 part B; Barcode: 3037290)

Image 13: Bathurst Camp Post Office, 1951 (NAA C4076, C4076/1, HN6013 part A; barcode: 3037289)

For details of NAA series A12111 (see, part 1 of this post). The originals photographs for images 10 and 11 are from NAA series A8139, Photograph albums of prints in 'L' series and 'CU' series [produced by the Australian News and Information Bureau, Canberra]. The originals for images 12 and 13 are in NAA series C4076, Photographic negatives, single number series with HN (Historical, New South Wales) prefix [produced by the Postmaster-General's Department, State Administration, New South Wales].

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 1950 and 1951.

Photographs of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst in the National Archives of Australia (Part 1)

Constant Reader, I am attempting, as I have said several times, to locate evidence of my dad through the trail of records; to that end I have been interrogating the records database at the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I am looking for any and all records of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst and I have found a series of photographs (part of NAA series A8139, A12111 & C4076) of the camp and its residents from 1950 and 1951.

The photographs, which are quite formal, were most likely taken for publicity purposes and give some indication of the spartan nature of the place (the site and all the buildings were ex-Army and so were light on creature comforts) and of the life there for the "New Australians" as they were often called at the time. Its also useful to remember that a person's stay here was always intended to be short - long enough to learn basic Australian English, some basic skills, and to acclimatise to the new country and its people.

Image 1: Children at gate, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/26; barcode: 7427675).

Image 2: Family room, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/29; barcode: 7427678).

Image 3: English class, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/34; barcode: 7427683)

Image 4: Carpenters at work, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/32; barcode: 7427681)

Image 5: Children at play in front of Centre, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/31; barcode: 7427680)

Image 6: Family walk, accommodation in back, 1951 (NAA A12111, 1/1951/22/30; barcode: 7427679)

These image and associated information are viewable through the NAA database,see the link at the top of this post. The image captions are taken from the NAA record for the photograph. The originals are part of NAA series A12111, Immigration Photographic Archive 1946 - Today.

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 1950 and 1951.

The remains of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst

This afternoon I drove out to the the site of the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst. This was my father's first place of residence in Australia in late 1949 and for some of 1950. The Australian army also had a camp at the same location from 1940 to 1947. The migrant camp as I mentioned in an earlier post is long gone (it closed in 1952) and the place is now occupied by the Bathurst Sheep and Cattle Drome (i.e. aerodrome) and other than a memorial by the entry road there was nothing above ground I could see. The above photo shows a general view of the Drome from the entry road (click on the image to enlarge).

The site is surrounded by farming land in all directions, with the town of Bathurst 8 kms to the north west, and in that regard the basic look is not much different from the time the camps (Immigration and Army) were here.

In a future post I will have more to say, once I finish, my reading and current research, that is!

Above, a relic, possibly a wool dray (used to transport bales of raw wool until the 1930's) with an iron/steel plow? dumped on top.

Lost in the records labyrinth

For the last two weeks, during the spare hour here and there I have been continuing my search for my dad by following the paper trail. Being a librarian and priding myself on my search and re-search skills I had thought that the road would be tough but that I would find some breadcrumbs of information. Well Constant Reader, pride goeth before a fall; other than my initial finds l have located nothing new. Two paths have been followed, the National Archives of Australia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and I have found many records at the NAA and have had nothing from the UNHCR (in fact the UNHCR does not reply to my emails even to tell me that they can't help me).

At the NAA there is a bewildering number of records of current and former Commonwealth agencies that could have or would have assisted my father, at last count I found four major bodies (e.g Department of Immigration, Central Office) and fifteen minor bodies on the virtual paths, tracks and secondary roads as represented by the NAA database. In truth I don't what I am doing and don't know enough about how a displaced person like my father progressed through the system, or anything about the agencies or their records. He may well appear in the records, however, it is likely as a name within a record and not as the subject of the record, in this manner he appears in the nominal roll of the ship Goya (see Voyage of the Goya, September-October, 1949 in this blog). As such he will not appear in the record indexes. Knowing the administrative process would help as it would lead me to some of the right doors to knock on (in a virtual sense).

The local public library, in its local history collection has some general information about the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst which will help me visualise the place my father lived in when I visit the site. The file told me that other than a memorial not much is left. My fear is that not much is left of my father in the records of the various government agencies (national and international) and he may be impossible to track. Dear Constant Reader you are no doubt thinking I should have talked to him while he was with us, but he often didn't want to talk about the past or simply said he did not remember, and I didn't want to press or pester him, and that, I suspect is a common problem in researching family history. And there is my mother, as a source of information about my father. None the less I will solider on, hopeful that if I keep at this I will eventually find information about him.


Images: Dad by the sea in Italy, and with a group (fellow displaced persons/immigrants?), dated 23/26 June, 1949.