Braving Bonegilla: a photographic journey in the Italian migrant experience

The Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was the first and largest of 23 such centres in Australia. Originally an army camp, it was converted by the Department of Immigration for the purpose of accommodating and educating migrants, and assisting them to find work. During its operations, between 1947 and 1971, the Centre housed over 300,000 European displaced people and migrants intending to settle in Australia.

In those years over 350,000 Italian migrants came to Australia, about 42,000 of them under the Assisted Passage Scheme signed by the two governments. As well as these economic migrants, escaping traditional poverty compounded by the effects of the war, several thousand Italian refugees came to Australia in that period, displaced from areas annexed by Yugoslavia after World War Two.

Many of these migrants and refugees transited through the Bonegilla camp.

The exhibition, featuring photographs from the collection of the Co.As.It. Italian Historical Society, documents the daily life of Italian migrants and refugees at the camp. These images show the resourcefulness with which these people – mainly young men and families – braved the condition of being suspended between two worlds. Living in the Spartan conditions afforded by the camp, with poverty and sometimes tragedy behind them, and looking towards the future with hope and apprehension, these migrants transmit through their snapshots a strong message of resilience and often good cheer.

The exhibition includes pictures of families striving to make their huts home, of men studying English, groups of friends playing music and enjoying outings, as well as photographs taken during the so-called Bonegilla riots in 1952, and pictures of a wedding and a funeral at the camp.

The opening event will include the participation of men and women who lived through Bonegilla.

Opening event: 3 June, 6.30pm

RSVP: [email protected]; (03) 9349 9021

Exhibition: 4 June – 14 August. Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm; Saturday 12.30pm-5pm

Venue: Museo Italiano, Co.As.It. 199 Faraday Street, Carlton 3053

Image (PTO): Migrants from Istria in the grounds of the Bonegilla camp, 1952