Bonegilla Exhibition "Where Waters Meet"

For thousands of South Australian migrants this is a very special place full of memories both joyous and painful. Bonegilla is the aboriginal word for "where waters meet" and for more than three hundred and twenty thousand immigrants it was the first taste of their new Australian home. A sprawling village of army barracks - Bonegilla - was established in north-eastern Victoria and served as a holding camp for men, women and children from all over Europe. Some had escaped political persecution while others saw Australia as a wonderland - a break from Europe's recent war torn past - full of the promise of new beginnings.

The Bonegilla exhibition currently on display at the Migration Museum tells the Dutch migrant experience. Foe me this exhibition certainly strikes a chord. Although I was born here in Adelaide my parents immigrated to South Australia in 1951. And over the years I've looked long and hard at that strange mix of elation and fear that's so apparent on the faces of these people as they leave their loved ones bound for what really was the adventure of a lifetime.

For me that fear and elation is captured in this photo of my parents taken on December 12th 1951 as they left Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam bound for Australia. Leo and Nelly Kandelaars arrive at Bathurst one of the other major stepping off points for the thousands of migrants who made their way to Australia in the post war boom. But whether it was Bonegilla or Bathurst the arrival point marked the beginning of a new life.

Many have come to the Migration Museum to relive those days and those emotions.
"You can walk through the display and see the photographs and see some people who are in tears and others who just are joyous about recognition. Remembering that time, and lots of nostalgia about how good it was, how bad it was, how difficult it was and how much harder it had been somewhere else. It sparks off a lot of memories as I said both good and bad".

Bonegilla was the biggest of the 23 reception camps established to hold the flood of migrants who made their way to Australia under the Assisted Passage program overseen by the then Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell. At one point ten thousand immigrants called this home. Bonegilla was finally closed in 1972.

The exhibition is open 7 days a week at the Migration Museum off Kintore Avenue in the city and admission is free. Mon - Fri 10am to 5pm Sat & Sun 1pm to 5pm. For more info email info@postcards-sa.com.au