The Ten Pound Immigrants

by Reg Appleyard

with Alison Ray and Allan Segal

Boxtree Limited, 1988 [First Edition], ISBN 1852832207, black and white photographic plates, no inscriptions, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear (see photographs)

“Between 1947 and 1973 a million and a half Britons paid the Australian Government ten pounds, sold up, and took ship for Australia.  Known officially as the Assisted Passage Scheme, it was the best organised voluntary migration scheme ever undertaken by two countries.
The range of social background of the migrants was wide.  So were their skills and their ages; most were married couples with children, but many were single.  The lucky ones had relatives and friends already in Australia, but the majority did not.  Their reasons for leaving the home country were as various as their circumstances, but they had one idea in common: to build a ‘great future’ for their children and, if there was time, for themselves too.
The book draws upon a lifetime’s research by its author, and the vivid comments of those who took the plunge collected by Granada Television when filming The Ten Quid Tourists in 1987.  It describes the whole phenomenon of the Ten Pound Passage – the Australian and British Government attitudes, which people were selected to go, the conditions of the journey, the first few weeks of arrival, and the making of a new life on the other side of the world, which was often harsh to begin with.”