Ten Pound Poms archive released online
Earlier this year, archives containing details of the Ten Pound Poms passengers were released online on the National Archives of Australia website.
The ‘Ten Pound Poms’ scheme, also known as the assisted passage scheme, was an Australian initiative to populate the country with British families and skilled workers for the new booming industries such as mining. The programme, which operated from 1945 to 1972, was part of the ‘Populate or Perish’ philosophy of the Australian government at the time. The term ‘Ten Pound Poms’ is a colloquial term widely used in Australia to describe residents who arrived under this scheme.
Under the scheme, an individual could travel the passage from the UK to Australia for £10 and children were able to travel for free. The only stipulation was that the family or individual remained in Australia for two years. If migrants did decide to move back to the UK before then, the high price to make the return journey meant that it was not an affordable option to most. Over 700,000 British citizens emigrated to Australia after the Second World War under this scheme. Upon arrival, most new migrants were put up in basic hostels and left to fend for themselves.
A UK Newspaper, the Daily Mail, revealed that Kylie and Danni Minogue’s mother was a Ten Pound Pom. Carol Jones, originally from Wales, made the journey to Australia with her family in 1995. She settled in Melbourne where she met Ron Minogue.
More information can be found on the website of the National Archives of Australia.
