The Bonegilla Collection at Albury Library Museum

SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT: THE BONEGILLA COLLECTION AT ALBURY LIBRARY MUSEUM

Bruce Pennay

Charles Sturt University, Albury, 2008

CONTENTS

Statement of Significance 2 Social and historic significance Themes

Key Recommendations 4

Context of the collection 6

Character of the Collection Is the Bonegilla Collection rare? Is the Bonegilla Collection representative? What is the comparative value of the Bonegilla Collection? Provenance, integrity, condition and completeness of the Bonegilla Collection Interpretive potential of the Bonegilla Collection

What is the Bonegilla Collection? 10 What is held and why 1. Written memory pieces 2. Photographs 3. Objects 4. Contemporary print materials 5. Contemporary documents 6. Newspaper supplements, articles and news items 7. Images other than photographs 8. Exhibition materials 9. Background materials related to the migrant experience 10. Published material about Bonegilla 11. History of the Site and the Collection 12. Web presence

Materials related to Bonegilla held elsewhere 20

Methodology and acknowledgments 21

Annotated List of Further References 22

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Bonegilla Collection at Albury Library Museum is of national significance.

Bonegilla was the largest and longest operating migrant reception centre in the post- war era. It is of national significance as a place associated with and demonstrating a defining change in Australia’s immigration policy. Most of the migrants and refugees that passed through Bonegilla, while it operated as a reception centre between 1947 and 1971, were drawn from non-English speaking European countries. This post-war shift from prioritising Anglo-Celtic sources transformed political and social expectations of the cultural diversity of Australia.

The memory pieces, photographs, documents, objects and other memorabilia given by former residents of the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre to the Albury Library Museum provide evidence and insights into post-war migration and refugee experiences. The collection illuminates post-war immigration policies and procedures that changed the composition and size of the Australian population. It advances understandings of the post-war migration in transforming the nation economically, socially and culturally. The collection adds significantly to the extensive and much- prized immigration records held at the National Archives of Australia in that it views the arrival and early settlement processes from the vantage points of reception centre residents. The collection adds voices that help with the interpretation of the national heritage listed Block 19, Bonegilla site. Together, the immigration records held at the National Australian Archives, the Block 19 site and the Bonegilla Collection form a triptych that reveals the post-war migrant and refugee experience from differing angles.

The Bonegilla Collection is the principal holding of written and photographic evidence that underpins the collective memory of former residents. The collection is a resource of personal, family and group histories. For the migrants who spent time at the migrant reception and training centre and their descendants, the records in the Bonegilla Collection provide personal first-hand observations on arrival and settlement experiences. For the broader Australian community, the Bonegilla Collection helps represent the role of Australia as the ‘host’ nation. The collection has powerful connections for many people.

2 Historic and social significance The settlement in Australia of large numbers of post-war immigrants transformed the composition and size of the Australian population. Bonegilla was the largest and longest-lasting reception centre and receiving over 300 000 newly arrived people between 1947 and 1971. At its beginnings Bonegilla received Displaced Persons from war-torn Europe. After 1951 it received assisted migrants and other refugees, principally from what were termed ‘non-British sources’ – that is non-English speaking European countries. At Bonegilla the newly arrived were provided with temporary accommodation while they went through migrant administrative processes, had health checks and were allocated employment. Bonegilla was not only a reception centre but also a training centre where migrants were given courses in English and in the Australian way of life to ease their assimilation.

The Bonegilla Collection is the principal holding of the written and photographic evidence that underpins the former residents’ collective memory. As such the collection has strong and special association for the migrants, the refugees and the staff who resided there. They formed the collection to record and share arrival and early settlement experiences with themselves, their families, their descendants and the nation. Through and with the collection they reclaimed Bonegilla as a memory place: for them Bonegilla offered memory a solidity of place - an ‘antidote to rootlessness’; they have used it to share ‘an autobiographical moment’ as their ‘Bon-a-gilla’ rather than the official ‘Bonegilla’ (Glenda Sluga, 1988).

Visitor books from the site and from museum exhibitions attest to the power of the place. Further evidence of the social value of immigration records more generally comes from the National Australian Archives which reports that, after war service records, immigration records are its most commonly accessed holdings.

The Bonegilla Collection, then, is primarily a memory bank established by former residents to record their perceptions of arrival and settlement processes. It provides evidence that helps humanise histories of immigration, making it possible for collection users to reflect on the feelings and thinking of newly arrived individuals. The collection reveals recurrent group preoccupations. It indicates perceptions of the character of the centre - its natural and cultural settings. It describes and explains the facilities and reception processes from the point of view of migrants. It indicates a variety of migrant and refugee experiences related to differences in background, time of arrival, age and gender. It contains stories of short-term transients and longer-term worker residents. It reveals perceptions of the host community and host community perceptions of immigrants.

Themes The Bonegilla Collection explicates the theme post-war migrant and refugee experiences of arrival and settlement within the broader theme of ‘Peopling Australia’.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS The following checklist addresses further work on research and education, acquisition, cataloguing, conservation and digitisation, interpretation, presentation and audience development. The new Albury LibraryMuseum is still adjusting to its new building and its new cross-facility converged management structures. Some of the recommendations suggested below are already being worked on. Other recommendations may help shape those changes. These recommendations include:

 Further use of the collection for research and education purposes is to be encouraged. 1. Prepare educational resources for primary school, secondary school as well as an educational resource for the general public. 2. Provide computer access to the Bonegilla Collection through the AlburyCity collection catalogue system (In magic program). 3. Provide appropriate provision for researcher space and for ready access to the Bonegilla collection through upgrades to storage systems and the provision of a workbench in the Albury LibraryMuseum collection store.

 Further acquisition of materials can be expected as former residents continue to visit the site and the collection and proffer memories and materials. Because the collection is based on living memory, it will continue to grow. 4. Actively seek recollections from former residents ‘to help us tell the stories of Bonegilla’. The former residents are now ageing and the recording of both written and oral histories are recommended. 5. Acquire additional published materials for the collection (see annotated list of further references).

 Further resources are needed for cataloguing the collection. 6. Address the considerable backlog of uncatalogued items within the Bonegilla Collection that impedes access.

 Further work is needed with digitisation to conserve and provide access to photograph and paper-based records. 7. Digitalise the photographs and paper based objects within the Bonegilla Collection onto the In Magic program. 8. Make the In Magic program accessible for public use.

 Further interpretation work is required. Interpretation should be interesting, engaging, enjoyable, informative and entertaining. However, Tilden’s fourth principle of interpretation was that ‘the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation’. 9. Employ a researcher to work with the Bonegilla Collection and AlburyCity collection staff to identify the most significant objects and information within the Bonegilla collection. 10. Engage a Curator to work with the Bonegilla Collection and researcher to identify the themes within the Collection. The choice of display items and techniques should address key interpretation questions

4 within the theme of post-war migrant and refugee experiences of arrival and settlement (see additional information).

 Further work is required to present the Bonegilla collection to LibraryMuseum visitors and to people beyond the LibraryMuseum. 11. Employ an exhibition designer to work with the Bonegilla Collection and AlburyCity collection staff to generate an interactive, engaging exhibition display in the info-zone area. 12. Explore opportunities for temporary and or travelling exhibition development as resources to complement the collection. 13. Generate wider audiences by expanding the web presence and/or embedding additional links from the AlburyCity and LibraryMuseum website. 14. Generate a public information folder containing published migrant stories and background information. This information provides background and orientation material, as at the Discovery Centre within the Immigration Museum Melbourne (see annotated further reference list).

 Further work on audience development is required to reach our diverse audiences. 15. Work in partnership with the Bonegilla migrant community. The considerable work undertaken on audience development should ensure the needs and expectations of multicultural audiences are tapped and, where possible, met. There is potential for gathering and harnessing the energies of people of diverse cultural backgrounds in helping to husband the collection. 16. Finalise the draft memorandum of understanding between the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre site and the AlburyCity based Bonegilla Collection to further advance and ensure there is cooperation between the custodians of the site and the collection.

Additional Information for Curator and Exhibition Designer o What challenges does the Bonegilla Collection present to the visitor? Do these challenges morph into similar modern day questions? For example: How did [do] newcomers, especially those who did [do] not speak English, face the challenges of arriving and settling in a new country? How and why were the services and facilities for the ‘non-British’ different from those provided to British immigrants? How did [does] the experience of refugee groups differ from those who were [are] assisted migrants? How did the challenges of arrival and settling vary for the different national groups that arrived at Bonegilla? How did [do] women, teenagers and children cope with the challenges of migration to Australia? What did [does] government see as its role in settling immigrants? How did [does] it try to achieve its aims? What economic and social goals were governments pursuing in encouraging immigration? How did [do] governments try to win favourable public opinion for its immigration program?

5 What was meant by assimilation at Bonegilla? How was it to be advanced? How did [does] the host community respond to the migrant presence?

CONTEXT OF THE COLLECTION Collection and site The Bonegilla Collection was transferred from its former place in the old Albury Regional Museum in Wodonga Place to the new Albury LibraryMuseum building when it opened in 2007. It now sits within Albury LibraryMuseum in a cultural precinct that also includes Albury Regional Art Gallery in central Albury. A common cultural management team provides management and programs for the gallery, library and museum.

The new setting increases access to and use of the Bonegilla Collection. The new facility is of bold modern design. Programs and place have been set for a ‘democratic cultural facility’ that encourages visitation and use from a wide spectrum of people. The Albury LibraryMuseum is attracting about 20 000 visitors per month.

Apposite to the Bonegilla Collection, a foundation stone poem by Bruce Dawe refers to the building and its function as a ‘place where both past and future meet … [a] tribute to our lives and our land that will unite the gifted and the giver’. There is a Bonegilla segment in a permanent local history museum display. There are plans to establish a further semi-permanent display of Bonegilla materials in the library info- zone during 2009.

The site of the Block 19 remnant of the former Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre is on the southern bank of Lake Hume, about 2km upstream from Hume Dam. It is currently approached by a road opposite the entry to Latchford Barracks, about 10km east of Wodonga and 15km distant from the Albury LibraryMuseum. The site is on Crown land managed by Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria. Parklands Albury-Wodonga is the Committee of Management of the reserve which is known as the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Heritage Park.

The site of Block 19 Bonegilla is listed on the National Heritage List. The listing says, ‘Bonegilla and the oral and written records which relate to the place provide valuable evidence and insights into post-war migration and refugee experiences.’

The historic and social significance of the site are explained in state and national heritage listings:  Australian Heritage Database, Register of the National Estate, Place ID 16157, Place File no.2/08/246/0004 (1991);  Heritage Register, Heritage Victoria VHR no.H1835, File no.607175 (2002); and  National Heritage List, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S257 (Friday 7 December 2007).

A draft Memorandum of Understanding between Parklands and Albury City Council guides cooperative endeavours for the custodians of the site and the collection.

6 Outline history of the Bonegilla Collection Bonegilla Army Camp was built then occupied by the Army in 1940. It served as an initial, then specialist military training centre during the Second World War. The Army used parts of it again to train troops for the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1972. However, after the Second World War the camp was principally used as the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre, taking in over 300 000 people, principally from non- English speaking European countries between 1947 and 1971. Troops in training and migrants were co-located at the site between 1965 and 1971.

In 1984 former reception centre residents formed a Bonegilla Immigration Museum Committee which gathered memorabilia for a museum. A reunion and festival in 1987 attracted a large number of visitors and national attention. Albury Regional Museum, under the direction of Martyn Paxton, mounted an exhibition ‘Bonegilla: The Migrant Experience’. In 1990 the Australian Heritage Commission added the Block 19 remnant of the former reception centre to the Register of the National Estate. However, the local museum group failed to gather sufficient public support for its museum endeavours and was disbanded in 1991. It sent the materials it had gathered to Adelaide’s Migration and Settlement Museum.

The Albury Regional Museum took up the challenge of commemorating the reception centre and asked for the return of the artefacts. Guided by Glenda Sluga’s history of 1988, the Albury Regional Museum staged an exhibition in 1991, ‘Bon-Ne-Gil-La in Transit’. The exhibition tried to move beyond the happy official photographs of the people at Bonegilla. It suggested ‘wider pictures of separated families, the boredom of waiting for a job, the uninteresting diet, the frustration of qualified people classed universally as labourers and domestics’. The exhibition was arranged around the themes – the Great South Land, Passing Through, First Home.

Under the management of a succession of directors, first, Vicki Northey, then, Elizabeth Close and, later, Helen Pithie the Albury Regional Museum established a segment on Bonegilla in the permanent exhibition and directed energy into expanding the Bonegilla Collection. Under Elizabeth Close in particular between 1993 and 1999, it actively sought and gathered photographs and written records for a data bank, and gave generous space to a permanent exhibition. It billed itself as ‘Albury Regional Museum: The Home of the Bonegilla Collection’ and launched a plan to develop a national travelling exhibition. The data bank grew considerably with contributions from visitors especially before during and after a ten-day festival in 1997. It grew again with another festival in 1999.

In 2000 the Albury Regional Museum launched a national travelling exhibition From the Steps of Bonegilla which took memories of Bonegilla to Melbourne, Canberra and several large regional centres in Western Australian, Queensland and New South Wales. The photographs of life in the camp and the artefacts associated with migration and resettlement were intended to evoke understanding of ‘the migrant experience. The transitional nature of Bonegilla was suggested in an exhibit of two suitcases – one contained the kind of things the migrants might have brought to Bonegilla, the other had the things that they might have taken from Bonegilla.

In 2006 an interpretive centre focusing on ‘The Migrant Experience’ was opened at the Block 19 site, which became known as the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Heritage

7 Park. In 2007 the Australian Heritage Council added the site to the National Heritage List.

Is the Bonegilla Collection rare? The collection is rare in that it is focused on resident experiences of a single migrant accommodation centre. This is an uncommon focus. No other migrant accommodation centre was large enough or as long-lived to attract similar contemporary or retrospective attention.

Is the Bonegilla Collection representative? The collection is representative in that it indicates a variety of post-war migrant and refugee experiences revealing differences in background, time of arrival, age and gender. It contains stories of short-term transients and longer-term worker residents. It reveals contemporary perceptions of the host community and host community perceptions of immigrants. Bonegilla was in the words used on the plaque supplied by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts announcing its place on the National Heritage List- ‘A symbol of the post-war migration which transformed Australia’s economy, society and culture’.

What is the comparative value of the Bonegilla Collection? There is no similar collection elsewhere. No other collection located at or near a former migrant accommodation centre or in a capital city has similar dimensions or scope.

The Bonegilla Collection is not the only collection of post-war migrant and refugee memorabilia in Australia or of memorabilia from the Bonegilla Reception Centre. However, no other museum or archive in Australia has evidence of post-war migrant and refugee experiences as wide-ranging as that in the Bonegilla Collection.  The National Museum of Australia has a large remit to explore land, nation and people. It addresses, amongst other things, social history since European settlement. It has one object related to Bonegilla.  The National Australian Archives holds extensive immigration records and both administrative records and government publicity photographs.  The National Library of Australia has some oral history recordings of post-war migrants reflecting on their experiences.  The State Library of Victoria has a large bank of photographs and memorabilia related to post-war immigration in Victoria.  The Immigration Museum Melbourne addresses all the waves of immigration into the state of Victoria and has been collecting objects related to post-war migration.  The Migration Museum Adelaide explores the migrant experience in South Australia. Some migrants were sent from Bonegilla to South Australia. The web-site of the collection has two written stories that refer to Bonegilla.  Some former Bonegilla residents and some residents of other migrant accommodation places have lodged memory pieces and memorabilia with immigration museums in capital cities, with ethnic organisations and with local history museums. Some have posted their stories on the web or had them printed in newspapers.

8 The Bonegilla Collection is the biggest mass of memory pieces and memorabilia addressing the arrival and early settlement processes and experiences. See sections below - Web Sources and Materials related to Bonegilla held elsewhere.

The Bonegilla Collection compares more widely with collections of migrant and refugee memories and materials at other international migration centres: Ellis Island Immigration Museum, USA; Pier 21, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada; and the new Emigration Museum, Bremerhaven, Germany.

Provenance, integrity, condition and completeness Albury Regional Museum (the precursor of Albury LibraryMuseum) was guided by a formal acquisition policy. Materials are accompanied by documented donor agreements. The chain of ownership of individual items in the memory bank is well established with names and addresses of donors. Although the collection has grown serendipitously on the basis of voluntary donations, there have been concerted efforts to gather material involving, for example, with donation request letters from the Department of Immigration to ethnic organisations in 1996. The integrity of memory fragments volunteered by unknown people is always open to question, but attempt has been made to verify the connection contributors had with the centre.

The donors of some text materials have baulked at transferring copyright. Australian Copyright Council advice (Information Sheet G34, July 2006) is that ‘If the quote you propose to use is not an extract from a longer work, but “stands alone” as a short phrase, it may be too small or unoriginal to be a “work”, and thus not protected by copyright … a pithy off-the-cuff remark may not be a “work”. In the absence of specific agreement to permit publication of text memory pieces drawn, for example from the personal history data bank, it is prudent to adopt the procedure or withholding identification of the author while indicating the source, unless permission has been obtained. Some photographs have been drawn from NAA. They carry cautions against reproduction and the need to seek permission and give appropriate acknowledgment.

The records are in good condition with paper and material items held in environmentally controlled areas. The records are extensive rather than complete in that they have been volunteered by former residents of the reception centre.

Interpretive potential The collection’s location in Albury-Wodonga provides opportunities for exploring related issues on site and in the immediate host community. By working in conjunction with the managers of the site, the library museum managers can draw and expand interest. The Bonegilla Collection is still growing. Fresh acquisitions of objects and memory pieces occur frequently. The Bonegilla Collection adds resident personal experiences and observations to the administrative records in the national archives. It grounds interpretation of the otherwise mute huts that remain at the site.

The potential for gathering and harnessing the energies of people with diverse cultural backgrounds to help interpret and husband the collection could be explored further. AMOL has developed cultural diversity guidelines or providing services to multicultural audiences that touch on engaging communities and communicating through ethnic media so as to help empower groups and individuals to explore their

9 heritage. The Australia Council has reported the findings of cultural diversity visitor studies.

10 WHAT IS THE BONEGILLA COLLECTION? What is held and why This description of the collection is intended to be an indicative rather than a comprehensive list of items in the Bonegilla Collection. It indicates the nature of the collection rather than all of its contents. It suggests the value of different parts of the collection. It provides sufficient information to enable collection management priorities to be established.

The Bonegilla Collection is primarily a memory bank established by former residents of the Bonegilla Reception Centre, carefully husbanded and added to by the Albury Regional Museum since 1991. The memory bank consists principally of written memory pieces, photographs, objects, print materials, and documents donated by former residents. The collection also contains published recollections of and observations on migrant experiences related to Bonegilla. There are, in addition, former exhibition materials, background materials (such as shipping lists), files related to the history of the collection and other administrative files.

1. Written memory pieces Why held? Memory pieces are prized as eyewitness accounts that carry the authenticity of the direct witness. They are the raw materials that help humanise histories of immigration. They make it possible to tap or reflect on the feelings and thinking of the newly arrived. Together they point to recurrent group preoccupations. They indicate perceptions of the character of the centre - its natural and cultural settings. They explain facilities and reception processes from the point of view of migrants. They indicate a variety of migrant experiences related to different backgrounds, times of arrival age and gender. They contain stories of short-term transients and longer-term worker residents. Many depict responses to a new country in sensuous terms. They reveal, in some instances, perceptions of the host community.

The evidence of direct witnesses is, however, always contestable. ‘Historians … are at once the custodians of memory – the retrievers and preservers of the stories by which people have imagined their personal and civic lives – and the devoted critics of those stories’ (Inga Clendinnen, ‘The History Question: Who Owns the Past?’, Quarterly Essay, 22, 2006, p.43). However prized, first-hand memory accounts require some reckoning. The context in which the account was gathered, the how/ why/ when in which it was offered, has to be established. Witness accounts of events and processes vary from each other. Time and circumstances change. Perceptions vary. The memory accounts have to be matched with each other and against other evidence. The collection provides guidance on provenance and some additional background evidence.

What is held? Most of the memories are recorded as brief comments of a few lines or, at most, a few paragraphs. There are also a few more sustained narratives, some in manuscript or typescript and some published. Some memories have been recorded digitally.

The Bonegilla Collection is still growing. It is based on events within living memory. People come as visitors to tell as well as to hear stories.

11 1.1 Sustained accounts appear in books, chapters, articles, web pages and in manuscript or typescript documents within the collection. They include the following: Inara Kalnins (Latvia 1949); Inga Krain (Germany 1950); Dorothy Watt (Great Britain 1951); Michael Cigler (Czechoslovakia 1950); Zacharis Vogiazopoulos (Greece 1953); Heidilona Bierbaumer-Albiers, (Netherlands 1957); Ingrid (Silns) Spedding, (Latvia, 1958); Eduard van den Bergen, (1959); Lois Carrington (Australian-born English language instructor, late 1940s-early 1950s); Mara Ronald (Latvia). There are interview reports with Pat Smith, an administrator; Bill Frankel, a block supervisor; August (Germany 1950); Frank (Netherlands 1949); B King, a social worker (1951/ 1954) and others in Glenda Sluga, Bonegilla: ‘A Place of No Hope’. There are also lengthy interviews in some newspaper clippings.

1.2 Volunteered written memory fragments are in five major groupings:  Personal History Data Base The Personal History Data Base is a large file of approximately 357 two-page data base forms. The forms are usually completed in manuscript but some have been typed or emailed. They are listed alphabetically. The data base form was amended about 2003 to include date of birth. It was amended again in 2008, just prior to this project, to seek agreement for ‘permitted uses’, that is, for research purposes, including database entry, and for exhibition purposes. Some forms have simply a minimum of information – name, perhaps date of arrival. Others have interesting responses to the question ‘What are your most vivid memories?’ eg Doina E__ (Austria, 1949) remembered her family being sent to Uranquinty Holding Centre while her father worked at Bandiana. Then, ‘on money given to him by the Parish Priest, Dad (with the help from friends) built a 1-room house on the Wodonga Flats (Diamond Park)’. For Renate H__ (Germany 1955) there was ‘plenty to eat compared with East Germany’. Barry H__ (UK 1951) remembered the deep-pit latrines as a long line of holes in a wooden bench separating men’s from women’s toilets with a wall made of hessian. As an 18-19 year old girl from the Netherlands in 1962, Margaretha J__ remembered ‘lots of single young men, mainly Germans and Yugoslavs’.  Bonegilla Migrant Experience Register 1994-95 Visitors recorded connection with the site and stories of how they fared after they left Bonegilla. The register entires are often lists of family names and dates of arrival. Contributors appear to have wanted to establish their connection and/ or seek reconnection with others.  Bonegilla Stories, two volumes 1996-2005 Bonegilla Stories have been recorded by museum visitors in A4 bound books. They carry very little personal information, but a lot on the migrant experience of the place. For example, ‘It was very hot when I was there and the one thing that always comes to mind is a truck coming selling watermelon as I never had watermelon before’ Anne H__ (1952); ‘A sense of being in-between – no longer in Italy, not yet part of Australia’ Mauro D__ (Italy 1961); ‘The memory of food was mutton, mutton & mutton and to this day we cannot eat mutton (lamb)’ Maria B-S___ (1952).  Donor envelopes. There are additional memory sheets, photographs and other materials held in 253 donor envelopes. They are stored alphabetically by donor.  Museum visitor books In general, visitors seem to have been encouraged to record their visit and some reaction to the museum as a whole rather than ponder experiences of Bonegilla or migration.

12  Exhibition visitor books Visitors to the travelling From the Steps of Bonegilla were invited to ‘record your stories’ as it toured parts of the country. A cursory analysis was made of 135 stories, about half those contributed. Just over a quarter of the sample said they were at the exhibition trying to recapture their parents’ experiences rather than their own. For quite a few of the young their time at Bonegilla as part of the excitement of migrating: ‘It was part of a big adventure before settling into a stable home again’ (Monika 6 years old, Germany , 1961); ‘ I came looking for adventures’ (Sergio 18 years old, Trieste, 1954). Among the more sober childhood memories were those of family unease caused by father being away looking for work or working elsewhere. Several commented on mother crying frequently, for example, ‘Mother being heart broken’ (Iliana, Italy 1958). Others recall the strangeness of sleeping separated from parents (Kath, c1949). One recalled upset at having her name anglicized: ‘It got confusing being Christoula and Christine at the same time’, (6 years old, Greece 1954). Others recalled fairly common growing up experiences: for example, the first trip to the cinema where they saw ‘Bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the Mummy’ (Eddie, Latvia, 1948); ‘my first boyfriend in Australia. He was German and played the guitar beautifully’ (Sylvie, 15 years old, Holland n.d). Many commented on the health and education services. Those who spent time in hospital with measles, scarlet fever or chicken pox remembered the hospital vividly. Some praised teachers; one found her teacher harsh. Others commented on the accommodation facilities at the Centre – the eating halls, laundry, toilets and ablution blocks. A few remembered the strangeness of having to respond to dinner bells and queuing for meals. One remembered the laundry: ‘Washing was hard – the long troughs of water’ (Rita, Yugoslavia, 1951). About 12 per cent of the sample was impressed with the fierceness of the seasons at Bonegilla. Both the cold of winter and the heat of summer impressed roughly the same number of people. Possums, spiders, blowflies and snakes posed hazards that loomed large in children’s eyes. Some remembered magpies caroling and crows cawing. Others remembered rabbiting. Some remarked on the presence of others in a similar situation. One said Bonegilla was ‘a great equaliser’ (Helena, Holland 1962). Another one told how he moved into Albury but went back to Bonegilla almost weekly to attend church and keep in touch with other Ukrainians (Ihor, Ukraine 1949). Probably the most repeated word in the comments was ‘harsh’, particularly from the visitors who were viewing the exhibition to recapture something of their parents’ first experiences of Australia. The exhibition showed something of what their parents had endured. About 7 per cent of the sample took the opportunity to affirm that they thought they had made the right decision to come to Australia, some elaborating on what they perceived as a ‘successful’ migration. A few were critical of the exhibition. Why did it not mention the British migrants at Bonegilla? Why did it not mention the deep-pit latrines or the ablutions buildings? One expressed disappointment that there was no picture of Arthur Calwell; the Bonegilla experience was presented in a political vacuum. Another from Latvia bemoaned the emphasis on the assisted migrants rather than the first inhabitants – the Displaced Persons. About 7 per cent used the opportunity to make critical comment on current refugee policies.

13 1.3 Interviews The collection provides access to holds the original tapes of 23 structured interviews of migrants who were at Bonegilla on the Belongings website www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au

1.4 Although there were other plans to conduct an oral history project, only one tape recording was made.

2. Photographs Why held? Photographs are the most frequently used part of the collection. Plainly visitors find visual evidence comparatively easy to access and process. They are used to validate or interrogate written records.

The photographs in the Bonegilla Collection differ from those taken by publicists from the Commonwealth’s Department of Information and then the Australian News and Information Bureau that are held in the NAA. They provide unofficial views of the reception centre and its processes rather than views that have been framed for official purposes. They are taken from a resident participant’s vantage point.

For example, a migrant’s image shows two young women toiling fairly grimly in communal laundries whereas a publicist shows a happy group of women talking cheerfully over wash tubs. Written memory pieces held in the Bonegilla Collection add further to interpretation of the laundry experiences of the centre. Lois Carrington (a teacher) remembers the laundries as the places where she learnt ‘DP Deutsch’, the contraction of German that was a lingua franca in the early days. A visitor, Frederikus Kool (Holland, 1958) remembers the verbal fighting of Dutch women for laundry space. A watchful eye had to be kept on clothes drying, as petty theft was not uncommon.

Also see attached for further example, migrant photographs of the bare Bonegilla railway platform where migrants left the train in 1948 and a centre name sign in 1947 contrast with official photographs of the main gate entry.

What is held? 2.1 Digitised photographs There are 642 photographs on the In Magic data base of the Albury City Collection. Only 228 have digitised images accompanying the written entry. Plans are to increase the number digitised and to make the data base open to public use within the library.

2.2 Photograph prints There are 613 hard copies of photographs filed into fifteen themes: E.02.02.01 Europe (55 in the file) E.02.02.02 Ships/ Aircraft (20) E.02.02.03 Arrival (21) E.02.02.04 Accommodation (32) E.02.02.05 Government (8) E.02.02.06 Facilities/ Hospital (33) E.02.02.07 School/ Church/ Religion (55) E.02.02.08 Recreation/ Events/ Celebrations (98) E.02.02.09 Families (37)

14 E.02.02.10 Individuals (30) E.02.02.11 Children (42) E.02.02.12 Groups (78) E.02.02.13 Work (59) E.02.02.14 Transport (21) E.02.02.15 Back to Bonegilla (14)

A few of these photographs are drawn from NAA. Where that occurs it is usually acknowledged with a caution against unauthorised reproduction.

2.3 Other collections of photographs within the Bonegilla Collection  A photo album produced about 1953 by R Dawson, Director of the Centre.  A photo album and other miscellaneous photos donated by Laszlo Makay (Hungary), a migrant then long-term resident worker, 1951-1970.  A collection of display photographs from the Melbourne Herald Sun archive, about 1987.  Additional photographs in the 253 donor envelopes. Some have been digitised (eg Vasins collection).

3. Objects Why held? Objects become very powerful when placed in context. For example, a Red Cross soap pack supplied to Displaced Persons become very powerful when coupled with the observations of a young language instructor, Alan Hodge (1947-48) ‘What we saw at Bonegilla was a dispirited group, many of them suffering from the after-effects of malnutrition, gaunt faces, bare ribs and haunted eyes. Most of them had lost all they had ever owned, and the rest of their family as well. They had been fitted out in very correct grey suits and the inevitable Australian street hats for the men and floral dresses for the women. They each had a cheap cardboard suitcase, as well as a bag of toilet articles that had been supplied by the Red Cross on their arrival in Melbourne’.

What is held? There are 87 objects listed on the AlburyCity Collections data base. In general the objects are either artefacts illustrative of life at the centre or illustrative of the luggage that migrants brought with them. They include a Hungarian migrant’s motor cycle goggles, boots and leather coat; a grey blanket; a leather brief case; a pullover; lederhosen; a doll; a Dutch spirit stove and oven; a camp folding bed of the kind used at the centre; and numerous suitcases and travelling trunks.

4. Contemporary Print Materials Why held? Contemporary print materials establish context in which migration took place and give some indication of how the centre functioned within the broader context of national settlement policies and practices. Many of items were intended for either the newly arrived or for prospective immigrants. There are some English language teaching and learning resources; some reports of inquiries related to government migration policies; and some migration promotion materials.

What is held? They include: This is Australia – a book introducing Australia to newcomers; Commonwealth booklets - Your introduction to Australia and English for Newcomers; teaching texts and guides; a pocket German-English Dictionary; and a report into migrant departure rates; and migration promotion materials.

5. Contemporary Documents Why held? Documentation migrants retained reveals the processes they went through when they arrived and settled in Australia. Documentation staff retained reveals ways in which the reception centre functioned.

What is held? Migrants and centre staff have donated personal documentation such as,  papers used to establish identity: passports, baptism/confirmation/marriage certificates, Displaced Persons identity certificates, naturalisation certificates.  documentation related to their journeys to Australia. There are crossing the equator certificates, embarkation and dinner table cards, ship newsletters, inoculation and vaccination certificates, luggage documentation, quarantine inspection cards, and plane tickets.  welcome documents, for example, a letter from Nicholas Proprietary Company welcoming new migrants to Australia and giving them a free packet of Aspro; a letter from Dutch authorities welcoming new Dutch migrants to Australia; and a letter offering a migrant employment at Geelong.  official documents eg a Bonegilla Migrant Information Card; a Certificate of Authority to Remain in Australia for holders of Alien Registration Certificate.  materials related to teaching and learning English eg suggested syllabus for teaching English; an exercise book used in English classes.

6. Newspaper supplements, articles and news items Why held? Contemporary newspaper clippings, particularly from Border Morning Mail carry photographs of the Reception Centre and its residents, but they are often grainy and cannot be reproduced easily. Contemporary news items indicate, amongst other things, the impact of Bonegilla on the local community. It has been suggested that large-scale migration was traumatic for the host society as well as for the immigrants.

What is held? There is no catalogued file or index to contemporary or recent items in the newspapers. There are, however, large folders of unsorted or processed newspaper clippings. Supplements relating to the festivals are most easily locatable, but also remain unsorted. The AlburyCity Collection has complete microfilm of Border Morning Mail during the period 1947-71.

7. Images other than photographs Why held? Maps place the site. Artworks help explain aspects of the migrant experience.

What is held? There are several large line drawings of the camp/ centre layout and maps showing the Reception Centre and its surrounds. Some of the 15 cartoon-styled drawings produced by Nico van Dalen, a professional artist of Dutch descent now living in Australia, portraying aspects of life at the centre as part of the exhibition ‘Where Waters Meet: the Dutch Migrant Experience in Australia’ are in published accounts held in the collection, namely Dirk Eysberste and Marijke Eysbertse, Where Waters Meet, 3rd revised edition, 2007and B Pennay, Never Enough Dutch 2007. There is one artwork – a large portrait in oils of Charles I. The portraits of Tudor kings and queens were commissioned to help celebrate the coronation of Queen

16 Elizabeth II in 1953. They were placed in ‘Tudor Hall’ together with displays of coats-of-arms and other materials that indicate how migrants were expected to become acquainted with the history and heritage of a British-Australia.

8. Exhibition materials Why held? Display materials are expensive to produce and can be reused in future displays.

What is held?  Photo boards and text boards from the exhibitions for festivals in 1987, 1997, 1999 and 2005.  Exhibition materials for From the Steps of Bonegilla travelling exhibition.  Museum promotion materials. There are framed photographs and posters promoting the museum as ‘The Home of the Bonegilla Collection’ showing images drawn from the collection.

9. Background materials related to the migrant experience Why held? Donors plainly see the journey to Australia as an important part of the migrant experience and seem to readily recall not only the date of arrival but the ship on which they travelled. Ship reunions have been held in capital cities.

What is held? 8.1 Passenger lists Castel Bianco April 1950 Oxfordshire February 1950 Fairsea February 1950 Dundack Bay March 1950 Hellenic Prince March 1950 MV Nelly May 1950 New Australia February 1951 MV Nelly May 1952 MS Johan Van Oldernbarnevelt, August 1952 SS Zuirervrius, December 1955

8.2 Other background materials Background studies eg Mark Wyman, Displaced Persons Camps in Europe

10. Published material about Bonegilla Why held? Published materials generally place Bonegilla experiences into broader contexts. Some explore personal lives before and/ or after migration. Others look to experiences of migration more generally and/ or focus on the national or local community stories of migration.

What is held? Some published material is held with the collection and some appears in the Upper Murray Regional catalogue AlburyCity library collection.  Individual memory pieces, eg Stefan Kepiak, The Bonegilla Kid, private publication, 2007.  Collections of migrant memories, for example, Dirk Eysberste and Marijke Eysbertse, Where Waters Meet, 3rd revised edition, 2007; Taking a Punt

17  Analysis of post war migration eg E Kunz, Displaced Persons; Harry Martin, Angels and Arrogant Gods, 1988; John Murphy, Imagining the Fifties, Pluto, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2000.  Related literary works, such as Peter Skrzynecki, Immigrant Chronicle and The Sparrow Garden  Screensound included a Bonegilla segment in the video recording Border Images: Albury-Wodonga 1920s-1970s held in the AlburyCity Collection.

10. Bonegilla Collection Administrative Records Why held? Most of the administrative records appear to have been held by default.

What is held?  Extensive files related to the organisation of the 1997 Festival  Correspondence – inquiries 1997-98  Loan agreements  Miscellaneous (with photograph of a 1996 cheque for $5,000 from the Minister for Immigration, Phillip Ruddock to help with the preparations of the 1997 festival).  Oral history program arrangements permission forms, structured interview sheets  Albury Regional Museum Visitor Books, 1976-2004

11. History of the Site and the Collection Why held? Records showing how the collection came into being and how it has developed are important in establishing provenance.

What is held?  Published accounts. There is an overview of the history of the Bonegilla Reception Centre in Jupp James ed. The Australian People: An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1988. There are overviews of the history of the endeavours to establish a museum in Bruce Pennay, Albury Wodonga’s Bonegilla: A provincial centre’s experience of post-war immigration, Albury Regional Museum, 2001 and Freeman Leeson Architects and Ruth Daniell, Block 19 Bonegilla Conservation Management Plan, (4 volumes), Department of Defence, Canberra, 1996.  Other records. The Bonegilla Collection holds working papers from the Bonegilla Immigration Museum Committee, the minute books of the Hume Public Service Club, 1967-68, correspondence relating to the transfer of museum materials from Adelaide, plans for redevelopment of the collection (eg by Kunexion, 1995).

12. Web presence Why held? Like other library and museums the AlburyCity Collection is increasingly accessed via the web. Web pages provide links with similar materials held elsewhere.

18 What is held? The web site is under review. The LibraryMuseum is currently testing a Federated Search facility made possible through an ArtsNSW grant and funding from AlburyCity. The Search Solver allows the public to search across the traditional Library Collection and the AlburyCity Heritage Collection. http://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/librarymuseum/search2.htm

There are links to the interviews with former Bonegilla residents on the Belongings web site. Albury City partnered with the Migration Heritage Centre to conduct and post these interviews. http://www,migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au

Web Sources Google records 21,300 hits Bonegilla and 539 Bonegilla Memories  Picture Australia. There are 919 images on Picture Australia that feature Bonegilla in the caption. 476 are from NAA; 289 from SLV; 100 from AWM; 36 from Australian Heritage Photo Library (accessed 20 February 2008). The Bonegilla Collection photographs are like those held in the SLV rather than those in the NAA and AWM, in that they have been taken by and donated by the residents. They present views of the Reception Centre that have not been framed for official purposes. The SLV collection and the AWM collection include images of the Bonegilla Camp during the war years. There are few photographs of the war years in the Bonegilla Collection.  NAA RecordSearch has 3,562 record hits on Bonegilla. They include reception centre administrative records and war service records of those who served at the Bonegilla Camp.  The Fairfax News Store has ‘over 200’ archived stories that touch on Bonegilla. These included many individual stories.  Migration Heritage Centre is ‘a virtual heritage centre similar to an online museum’. It has 44 hits Bonegilla and 22 Bonegilla stories in Belongings structured interviews in which interviewees share personal memories through mementos photographs and memories in their own words.  Ethnic organisations such as the Italian Historical Society and the Australian Polish Historical Society have posted material on Bonegilla.  Scholars have posted papers, for example Shirley Martin writing on the Adult Migrant English Program and Patrick Miller’s paper ‘A Little Marvel in Timber and Tin – the Military P1 Hut of the Second World War’.  Church organisations have posted stories related to first priests/ pastors and services eg the Russian Orthodox Church; the Ukrainian Catholic Church; and Ahmed Skaka, an early imam.  Residents of the reception have posted their stories, eg Hieilona Bierbaumer- Albiers, ‘Something about Bonegilla’.

19 MATERIALS RELATED TO BONEGILLA HELD ELSEWHERE  National Archives of Australia. The NAA notes that the Bonegilla records it holds is its best collection of migrant accommodation centre records. They include comprehensive administrative records as well as individual cards kept for each migrant. The Bonegilla cards usually include a physical description of the person as well as a photograph. Reception Centre administrative records are principally in Canberra, with Bonegilla Army Camp and building records in Melbourne and other miscellaneous records in Sydney.  National Library, Canberra has some tapes of oral histories eg Michael Brent, Michael Cigler, Laszlo Makay and a Polish community project.  National Film and Sound Archive has copy of A world for children that tells of children at the reception centre.  State Library of Victoria has a large collection of photographs and some folders, principally of newspaper cuttings in its local history records. The photographs were mainly collected at the time of From the Steps of Bonegilla exhibition in Melbourne in 2000-2001.  Immigration Museum, Melbourne has some of the exhibition materials that it used to supplement From the Steps of Bonegilla September 2000-February 2001. They include a dress worn at a staff ball and an Italian family’s purchases in Albury. Other materials were lent for the period of the exhibition. The Share a Story data base has 80 Bonegilla hits. Of these 14 make observations about life at the Reception Centre (accessed February 2008). The Discovery Centre has a folder of published materials.  The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney holds some x-ray machines that were used at Bonegilla.  Mitchell Library, Sydney has Bonegilla from the inside: 3 sound cassettes produced by Neil Meaney for the ABC in 1997.  Ethnic organisations like Co-As-It and the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre have collected documentation and migrant memories related to Bonegilla.  Army Museum Bandiana focuses on the Army at Bonegilla, but has a wall frieze showing the layout of the reception centre.  Prime TV has archived some television news footage dealing with the reception centre when it was operating.  Border Mail photographs used in the newspaper since 1997 are available by ordering them from the Albury or Wodonga offices, where they may be viewed on screen if sufficient identification or a date is given. Some archived negatives from the 1948-62 period survived a fire in May 2001.  Bonegilla Community Hall has photographs of the reception centre from the Albury Regional Museum and material on Bonegilla Scouts that sit with other materials on the development of the Bonegilla district.  Murray Arts has a cd ‘Deep Water: a soundscape’ by Raimond de Weert; professionally video recorded interviews at the opening of the interpretation centre in 2006; and video recordings of puppet shows produced and staged for the opening of the interpretative centre in 2006. The themes touched on in the video recorded interviews include: the trip, the arrival at the centre, the sense of adventure holiday for the young; the impact on family – separation, ‘mother was not happy’ – finding a job – securing accommodation; the camp services and facilities – food, leisure, school, hospital. One woman remembered the language difficulties she and her husband had when she gave birth at Albury

20 District Hospital. Several remembered through their senses – the loudspeakers blaring, the silence descending on the train when it arrived and the speaker announcing in German ‘Ausseigen’, the welcome speech translated into German, the dark Club Chocolate with almonds, the salted butter and the copious quantities of white bread and jam. A married couple remembered how they married soon after arrival, in an effort to avoid being sent to different work locations.  Parklands Albury-Wodonga has images of Block 19 in recent years and files on site development.  Department of the Army has within the former Army then Centre theatre at Bonegilla artworks by Paul Chimin (Ukraine 1949) that were placed above the side doors to the theatre.  Other records in the Albury-Wodonga community include headstones at Albury and Wodonga cemeteries and a chaplains’ honour board at St Augustine’s Wodonga

METHODOLOGY AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Principal Reference used in this study: A guide to assessing the significance of cultural heritage objects and collections © Commonwealth of Australia 2001 on behalf of the Heritage Collections Council.

There were several unusual challenges in this project. Because the Albury LibraryMuseum is still getting used to its new building and its staffing structures, I had some difficulty in locating items, even when they were catalogued. I am fairly familiar with the collection and attempted my own listings of the holdings.

I discussed the project several times with Michelle Head and Carina Clement. Bridget Guthrie organised for me to meet with her collections management team. All staff provided helpful feedback and comment. I discussed the project with members of the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Steering Committee. A draft was circulated and then revised a month before the final draft was issued for further comment.

I am grateful for the assistance I received.

Bruce Pennay June 2008.

21 ANNOTATED LIST OF FURTHER REFERENCES The following are not listed on the Upper Murray Regional Library Catalogue. * indicates suitable for as part of an orientation background collection of articles. I am willing to provide copies of the articles not held in the library.

Immigrant experiences * Chub, Dymtro, So this is Australia: the adventures of a Ukrainian migrant in Australia, pp.15-20.

* Galinovic, Maria, Series of article published in the Border Mail 1997.

* Loh, Morag ed, With Courage in their Cases, FILEF, Melbourne, 1950, pp.47-50, 55-56. Giovanni Sgro’s account of the 1952 strike.

* Lowenstein, W and M Loh, The Immigrants, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1977, pp.80-87. ‘Gordana’’s account of life at Bonegilla.

Morris, Sherry, Uranquinty Remembers: A Migrant Experience, 1948-1952, private publication, Wagga Wagga, 2001. Uranquinty was the holding centre which received dependants from Bonegilla. Strong Bonegilla links.

Moss, M ed. Taking a Punt: First stop Bonegilla, City of Darebin, Preston, 1997 A collection of Bonegilla stories from a community.

*Skowronska, W, Bonegilla Journey, private publication, nd. A keen observer’s account of life at Bonegilla.

*Sluga, Dis/placed, Meanjin, 48/1, 1989, pp.153-160.

*Sluga. ‘Bonegilla and Migrant Dreaming’ in K Darian-Smith & Paula Hamilton eds. Memory and History in Twentieth Century Australia, OUP Melbourne, pp.204-205.

York, Barry, Michael Cigler: A Czech-Australian Story A keen observer’s account of life at Bonegilla. Built on an oral history.

S Tan, The Arrival, Lothian Books, South Melbourne 2006. An award winning graphic novel that is on the migrant experience of the pre-war years – strong on migrant experiences more generally.

Bonegilla Stories * Three articles on ‘Welcoming New Australians’, History, Magazine of the RAHS, June 2007, Number 92, Ann Tundern Smith, ‘Welcoming Europe’s Displaced Persons’, pp4-6; Claudia Zipfel, ‘Welcome to Bonegilla: refurbishing a camp and reshaping ideas’, pp7-9; Bruce Pennay, ‘Welcoming the Young: Bonegilla Remembered’, p.13-14.

22 *Bosworth, R, ‘Conspiracy of the Consuls? Official Italy and the Bonegilla Riot of 1952’, Historical Studies, vol.22, no.89, October 1987, pp.547-567.

Family history related Family Journeys: Stories in the National Archives, NAA, Canberra, 2008. Contains guidelines for pursuing the history of an immigrant family. One of the most moving examples used is that of Dr Kar Kruszelnicki who entered Australia with his family through Bonegilla.

Migrant accommodation * Hutchison, Mary, ‘Accommodating strangers: commonwealth government records of Bonegilla and other migrant accommodation centres, Public History Review 11, Sydney, 2004, pp.63-79.

* Miller, Patrick, ‘A little marvel in timber and tin – the military P1 hut of the second world war’, 14th national engineering conference, Perth 2007 The design and construction of Army personnel buildings.

Post war migrant settlement Jordens, Ann-Mari, Alien to Citizen, Settling Migrants in Australia, 1945-75, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, 1997. Policy development and settlement practices. Shows how child care arrangements at Bonegilla ran ahead of arrangements elsewhere and even in the wider community.

Panich, Catherine, Sanctuary: Remembering Postwar Immigration, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988. Focus on Bathurst, the only other large reception centre. References to Bonegilla.