After WWII, Australia began accepting large numbers of migrants. Between 1949 and 1963, the wheatbelt town of Northam hosted 30,000 newcomers. They were Displaced Persons (DPs) from the Baltic States, Eastern and Central Europe and migrants from Western and Southern Europe.
Migration is a stressful process. It involves uprooting the past and confronting an unknown future in a strange land, often very different from the culture and society people know. In the new country migrants often need to learn a new language and adopt different customs and values.
In Northam, DPs were housed primarily at the Department of Immigration, Reception and Training Centre on the Great Eastern Highway (Army Camp). Other migrants and DPs’ dependants were housed at the Holden Immigration Camp, formerly the 118th Battalion Military Hospital. Holden Camp's initial residents were women and children, the dependants of DPs who were away in isolated areas working to discharge their debts for assisted passages.
The largest ethnic groups among the DPs were Polish, followed by refugees from Yugoslavia, Latvia, Hungary and Lithuania. The remainder were Estonians, White Russians, Czechoslovakians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Italians.
Between 1949 and 1954 the European-born in WA increased by nearly 45,000. Northam benefited as many migrants who had not been at the camps were attracted to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the township.
Since 1954, more than 33 million migrants have arrived on Australian shores. About a quarter of Australia’s 20 million people were born overseas, changing the social mix of Australia to a cosmopolitan multi-cultural society.
Northam’s Multi-cultural Festival celebrates with artistic displays, music, song, dancing and food.
See the Migrant Display at the Visitor Centre
For further reading: Milk and Honey But No Gold by Nonja Peters
