Camps

This section provides the groundwork for conveying the networked nature of camp, industry and labour pathways. It discusses the creation of hostels, holding centres and reception centres and their different functions, physical locations and architectural and urban configurations. This stage traces the ‘pathways’ from camp to industry, which created ‘clusters’ or concentrations of migrant workers and their families in particular regional areas (eg. from Greta camp to Newcastle). In some cases, these pathways, as part of a Department-led network driven by industry demands, were longer and multi-nodal (eg. from Bonegilla to Parkes to the Snowy Mountains). The camps under investigation include Bonegilla, Benalla, Parkes, Rushworth and Somers in Victoria, Greta and Kapooka in New South Wales, Stuart and Wacol in Queensland, and Northam/Holden (National Archives), and a wider network of industry-funded migrant hostels in the southeast (see Migrant Hostels in Australia, Dept of Immigration, 1970). This section uses government departmental records to link immigration centres and federally funded industries that employed large numbers of immigrant workers in the post-war period focusing on the camps and industries that connect to the selected case studies. Once this network is mapped through the creative research project, it goes on to examine how immigrant habitation transformed these environments, the gendered nature of labour policy (resulting in holding centres where male ‘breadwinners’ families were housed) and the significance of these transitory or permanent features in immigrant life stories. This stage will draw on oral histories, memoirs and visual records. It also studies the historical tensions between labour distribution, domicile and heritage commemoration in representations of the camp--and the importance of physical remnants in the prominence of Bonegilla as a commemorative site [Archives: NAA-Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Records of Department of Immigration Centres, Commonwealth Employment Service and the Department of Labour and National Service , Commonwealth Employment Service, Department of Works and Housing, Commonwealth Hostels Ltd., Migrant Hostels in Australia, Dept of Immigration (1970); Individual industries—including BHP steelworks; digital newspaper records; and Department of Defence records (Defence Archives)].