Assisted passage £10 Pom

[drifter410]

Can anyone explain to me the procedure of assisted passage.
Did people have to find their own accomodation, or did they go into hostels etc.
How can I find out if my relations, who were £10 pom's, stayed in Australia or came back to England.
They arrived in Melbourne on RMS Geordic on 4 Dec 1950.
After that i have no info.
I can offer lookups etc in England, as a thank you for info.

[majm]

Hi there,

Welcome to Rootschat, a great place to receive and offer help with family history searchings.

Here is a link re one of the more famous ten pound poms who settled in Australia.  Our current Prime Minister and our current Leader of the Federal Opposition are also ten pound poms. 

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/family-history/case-studies/hazelhurst/index.aspx

http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/discoverycentre/your-questions/ten-pound-poms/

Cheers,  JM

[sparrett]

Rootchat policy does not permit the public discussion of people who  are still living.

It sounds as if you do not know whether your people are deceased or not, so it is a tricky situation.

Were their birthdates before 1920?

Sue

[cathyaus]

Hi drifter
If you have a subscription to Ancestry you could look up the Electoral Rolls to see if your relations are on that.

I have checked for passenger lists for Victoria but they are not available for searching online for the years that you require 
Cathy

[judb]

Welcome to Rootschat, drifter

If your family has an unusual surname you may be able to find some clues through the telephone listings:

http://www.whitepages.com.au/search/residential?subscriberName=&location=

You can also look them up on the National Archives site which will probably have their emigration details - link in the article JM mentioned. This should at least tell you which State they were ticketed to; obviously they may not have stayed in that State.  Search the National Archives site as a guest.

You can then look at the various State BMD lists for deaths - eg the NSW BMD site has deaths up to 1980 (BMD registrations are handled by each State rather than nationally).  The Ryerson index has lists of deaths up to very recent but it is not a comprehensive list.

http://ryersonindex.net/search.php

A search of TROVE may turn up family notices such as engagements, marriages, deaths etc but most digitised newspapers are only on-line up to 1954.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

10pound Poms may have been 'sponsored' (had a job to go to, or friends/family to start off with) or may have found their own way in accommodation, job-hunting etc.  There were hostels also which new arrivals could go to.

I am happy to do look-ups on the electoral roll for you but you will have to make 2 more posts on Rootschat before you can PM me with the names.  It will need to be done by PM in case there are still living members of the family.

Good luck with your search.  Judith

[Kaybron]

Hi drifter410,

Welcome to Rootschat. 

My parents came out to Australia in 1952.  We always thought they were 10 pound poms but later found out that as my father fought in WW2 in the British forces, he could be discharged from the armed forces to any Commonwealth country.  They came to Australia in 1951, disembarking in Melbourne.  They then went to a hostel in Bathurst NSW and then on to a hostel in Gepps Cross in South Australia where they lived for about 2 years.   

Find My Past does have the passenger list for a ship named the Georgic which arrived in Melbourne on 4 December 1950. 

Regards Kaybron

[~MERLIN~]

Newspaper report on the 'Georgic' 1950 & Immigration:

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0guw/

[IrishOrigins]

My husband arrived in Melbourne from Scotland with his family in 1949 - also on board the Georgic, would you believe?  They had come from Scotland to London by train to join the ship there.

While they did immigrate under the £10 system they had been sponsored by my m-i-law's brother's family and went directly to their house without having to go to a hostel or camp. 

Bill tells me that sponsorship then virtually meant providing accommodation for the newcomers, not taking responsibility for them or giving a guarantee regarding employment.  Those who came out without the benefit of friends or family in country went to hostels or camps until they could find alternative accommodation (and work, of course).

Work was pretty easy to come by at the time and it only took Bill's dad a week or so to find a job.  Shortly afterwards they found their own rented accommodation, and in the late 1950s bought their own home in Frankston, so in about 10 years their situation had improved dramatically compared to what they had left behind.

The Georgic has a very interesting history, having been used as a troop carrier during the war.  My husband remembers the dints and bumps and bulges in some of the bulkheads which were left over from shell impact (so it would seem the old dear hadn't led a charmed life).

Philippa
 

[Billyblue]

A very interesting and readable book on the subject is "Ten Pound Poms" by Hammerton & Thomson.

The authors conducted a lot of oral interviews with both successful and dissatisfied migrants, including some who went back to UK and some who went back and then re-migrated.

Google ten pound poms book and you'll get lots of hits.   ISBN is 9780719071331 if you want to get your local bookstore to order it for you.

Dawn M