Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants

By A James Hammerton And Alistair Thomson, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005, 388 pages, paperback, £14.99. Reviewed by Shirleene Robinson in the June 2005 issue.

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Between the 1940s and the 1970s, as most Australians are aware, more than a million British migrants known as 'ten pound Poms' emigrated to Australia as part of a somewhat desperate post-war strategy to fill the nation with 'white' migrants. Some returned home to Britain after their compulsory two years, disillusioned about what they had found in Australia. The majority permanently embraced life on the other side of the world. In Ten Pound Poms, A. James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson use an extraordinary volume of first-hand accounts to map the diverse experiences of this huge mass of migrants.

At first, some readers might be surprised to find that Hammerton and Thomson refer to this enormous wave of migrants as a 'forgotten' group of immigrants. After all, the sheer volume of this migration indicates that this mass movement of people inevitably had a significant impact on Australian society. What Hammerton and Thomson mean however is that in proportion to their size and influence, this group of British migrants have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. With Ten Pound Poms, Hammerton and Thomson have provided a definitive history of this migratory movement.

Quite fittingly given its subject matter, Ten Pound Poms emerged from the integration of research projects at the University of Sussex in Britain and La Trobe University in Australia. The authors have used a remarkable amount of oral history interviews with British migrants to flesh out the themes of the book and to give the 'ten pound Poms' themselves a strong voice in their history. It is clear that there were many different factors that drew these migrants to Australia and that life in Australia had the potential to be anything from wonderful to horribly disappointing.

The true strength of Ten Pound Poms is that it manages to strike an almost perfect balance between academic rigour and between being a readable and entertaining account of this wave of migration. Ten Pound Poms is a book that should not only appeal to historians and an academic audience, but is a work that should also appeal to these British migrants themselves. Both authors have worked with oral history in the past and know when to let the migrants speak for themselves and tell their own stories.

The book itself is structured and written well. It is divided into three parts. The first, entitled 'Emigration', features chapters that discuss the way that Australia was promoted as a destination within Britain, the motives that drew migrants to Australia and the way that some migrants felt stuck between two worlds upon making the decision to migrate. The second part, entitled 'Britons in postwar Australia', features a number of chapters discussing the experiences of these migrants within Australia. It is clear that there were as many negative experiences as there were positive ones and it is interesting to read how these British migrants adjusted to -- or failed to adjust to -- life in Australia. The third part, entitled 'Migration, memory and identity', deals with the national identity of these migrants and the way that this had altered over time and with passing generations.

The text itself is illustrated well. The promotional material produced by the Australian government to lure British migrants to Australia makes for interesting reading. A number of pictures from those whose stories are told in the text are featured. These serve to personalise the larger story of mass migration and allow the reader to identify with the stories that are being told.

Ten Pound Poms captures the multifaceted nature of migration to Australia very well. Some people tend to assume that 'ten pound Poms' were wholeheartedly embraced by the wider population upon migrating to Australia and that their adjustment was easy due to the fact that they were English-speaking migrants to a society that still considered itself intrinsically British in nature. Hammerton and Thomson, however, do effectively manage to point out and capture the distress and adjustment problems that some migrants did experience. Problems such as dislocation, racism, and even difficulties adjusting to the Australian weather and environment, haunted a large number of these British migrants.

Overall, it is hard to find fault with Ten Pound Poms. Personally, I was quite interested in the way that British migrants interacted with non-British migrants to Australia during this time period. I would have liked to have read a little more about this topic. This was a matter that was dealt with briefly in the text, but was really outside the scope of concern of this book.

This is a book that thoroughly charts one of the most important migratory movements in Australian history. It is well-written, interesting and personal. It should not only appeal to those who have an association with these British migrants, but those who have a general interest in twentieth century Australian history. I recommend it thoroughly.

Citation

• Shirleene Robinson. 'Review: Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants by A James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), June 2005. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 19 June 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• More than a million Britons emigrated to Australia between the 1940s and 1970s. They were the famous 'ten pound Poms' and this is their story. Illuminated by the fascinating testimony of migrant life histories, this is the first substrantial history of their experience and fills a gaping hole in the literature of emigration.
  
  The authors, both leading figures in the fields of oral history and migration studies, draw upon a rich life history archive of letters, diaries, personal photographs and hundreds of oral history interviews with former migrants, including those who settled in Australia and those who returned to Britain. They offer original interpretations of key historical themes, including: motivations for emigration; gender relations and the family dynamics of emigration; the 'very familiar and awfully strange' confrontation with the new world; the anguish of homesickness and return; and the personal and national identities of both settlers and returnees, fifty years on.
  
  Accessible and appealing, this book will engage readers interested in British and Australian migration history and intrigued about the significance of migrant memories for individuals, families and nations.

Visitors' Responses

• 10 Pound Pom
  I arrived In Australia via Ship Empire Brent from Glasgow in 1949.
  Is it possible to contact any body that came on this same boat .

• Re: Visitors Comments - 10 Pound Pom (above)
  My family arrived from Leicester, England in April 1948 on the 'Esperance Bay'. (I was 10 at the time).
  Phyllis and Reg Barratt were my Auntie and Uncle. (Now deceased- 1 daughter in Sydney) (See extract below from family letter). We met them in at Station Pier, Melbourne.
  Extract
  'The Barratt family left Leicester at 11.30pm on Thursday 12th May 1949 and arrived at Glasgow and went on board the Empire Brent at 7 am Friday 13 May 1949. They sailed from Glasgow just after Midnight (very early Saturday morning). Sunday 12th June 1949 they arrived at Fremantle Australia and Friday 17th June 1949 disembarked in Melbourne, Australia.'

• The Fairstar
  We arrived on the FAIRSTAR in 1967 and would love to get in contact with any fellow passengers still settled here .... (20/05/1216)

• Ten Pound Poms
  Great review, Shirleene. I thought this book was fabulous and hope to use its methodology in my own work on displaced persons. Inspiring stuff!
  Jayne Persian (20/06/0221)

• Thanks Jayne, I'm glad u liked it :) Best of luck with your own research. The topic of migration/displaced people is a really interesting field and i'll keep an eye out for your work.
  Shirleene Robinson (20/06/0301)