Australia wanted as many skilled and indeed semi-skilled people as they could get after the second world war. And as Brits spoke the same language and had a similar background they set about making Australia look very attractive. Australia was booming and there were many jobs available, but the postwar austerity in Britain did not allow for interested Brits to pay anywhere near a full fare to get to Australia. So Australia made it easy. Perhaps too easy, because over 250,000 of the 1.1 million that took up the offer of £10 for a new life downunder - came back. This book looks mostly at the positive side of that exodus from Britain, but also covers in first hand detail and indeed with some understanding the many thousands who returned to Britain, and why they returned. This book is full of case histories, life histories, first hand accounts, and stories drawn from journals these new Brits in Australia made of their new life downunder. Most went through the pangs of homesickness, the rigours of adjustment to a new way of life, and the fears of starting from scratch in a new country with a very different culture. Most made that adjustment, and never regretted ever going to Australia. Those positive stories abound in this book, telling how over a million Brits just up and left their home country, their family and friends, their own established way of life, and threw everything they had into being a new citizen in a new country - thousands of miles away.

Australia was no home from home, but it had lots to offer war-weary Brits who wanted the best chance possible for a fresh start after the war. Australia offered its much over-stated sunshine, lots of room, exotic fruits, foods, and wines, and none of it rationed, and what was seemingly most important to the vast majority of working class Brits who arrived downunder, Australia offered a one class society, a place where working class Brits fitted in. To the well over 750,000 'Ten Pound Poms' who stayed and 'multiplied' Australia was indeed the promised land. But in this real earthly paradise, there were many setbacks. First of all what did the average dyed-in-the-wool Australian think of these pale-faced British newcomers swarming into Australia? The Australian government hadn't considered the 'adjustments' the Australians themselves had to make to accommodate this influx of Brits. And Aussies are Aussies, they're outspoken, very much to the point, and very different to your British migrant who now stood out like a sore thumb in this land of suntans, sunshine, gum trees, and little wooden houses. Right away the Brits began complaining, as is the custom of all British people everywhere :) - mostly about the hostel and housing conditions where a great many were put up in old Nissen huts like those that housed the German prisoners of war they'd seen back in Britain. Next came the obvious complaints about the ever present flies, the nasty little poisonous red-back spiders, the hosts of poisonous snakes, and the often desolate, dusty outback, that lies just beyond the fringes of the cities and looks more like a moonscape than a modern go-ahead country. Brits began whineing, (or whingeing - your choice!) and the Australians very quickly labeled them 'whineing Poms.' Why 'Poms' is somewhat debateable. One popular belief is that it stands for 'Prisoner Of Her Majesty' (POHM) refering to the British transportation of criminals to Australia in the late 1700 & 1800's. I was told by a few old Aussie soldiers when I was in Australia that it comes from the instant mashed potato British soldiers had to eat during the war called 'Pom.' Whatever, Australians didn't like newcomers running their country down, and Brits did, especially the quarter of a million who went back to Britain very dissatisfied.

Over this same period, the late 1940's through to the mid 1980's, nearly half a million Brits emigrated to Australia without using the assisted £10 passage. And it wasn't only Brits that emigrated to Australia. Over that same period nearly two and a half million other immigrants arrived in Australia, mainly from the European continent. Some of the ships on their way to Australia from Britain would pick up migrants from Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean countries, and this had an effect on the British migrants already on board. Suddenly Brits were not sort of special, now there were lots of kids running around barefoot and speaking a language Brits didn't understand. If you've got a good British imagination you can just imagine what Hilda whispered to Gladys as they sat sipping their tea on deck in their deckchairs! Worse was to happen on arrival in Australia. Special buses took the immigrants out to old army camps (the Nissen hut 'Nightmare' camps) and the locals would often wave their fists at these buses full of British immigrants and yell, 'go home you Pommy bastards.' The terrible hostel accommodation, combined with the hot weather (they sprayed water on the Nissen huts to cool them down) and the anti-British, scornful taunts drove many new Brits almost to their knees. Some never left the hostels, prefering instead to save the required money to get back home. Trouble was they had to stay two years in Australia to pay off the 'real' costs of getting them there, or they got family and friends to send money to them to clear what they owed and to pay their fare home. That's why an unusual high number returned to Britain. They had real, genuine reasons. Brits can overcome a lot, but what some of these hopeful migrants took was very painful, hurtful, unkind, and un-called for and difficult to understand let alone justify. Even today 'Pommy Bastard' is still a phrase often heard in Australia - and still some of our fellow Brits keep putting up with it.

There's much this book doesn't go into, but what it does cover is the real true story of British migration to Australia and doesn't just talk about the positive 'happy face' stuff. The book tells of a time when Britain gave up 1,600,000 of its own people to another country, and a lot of those people who left Britain were sorely needed to hasten Britain's emergence from a devastating war that left Britain broke, and bewildered. Many say they left Britain because of the politics, but we all know politics changes every few years. Many said it was the grey skies, the drafty houses, and the poor paying jobs. Others did it for the shere adventure, and those whose dreams didn't come true - came back home. Who do you praise? The 'I'll make this work or die trying' types, or the 'Oh my God Hilda we've made one hellava mistake.' Both take courage - going out, and coming back. Those who stayed in Australia kept a little bit of Britain with them, but that's now been absorbed into the Australian culture. A few Brits from that era of migration hang on to a few British ideals, but in another decade or two the 'Ten Pound Pom' will be almost forgotten - except for this excellent book that did a great job in telling the truth about a wave of British emigration that has nearly been lost forever. This book is accurate, and well researched. It's not perfect though, because it kicks off with a very good looking middle class couple who both went on to get degrees. They were not your average migrant, and the grand opening to this book might mislead you. It also leaves out a lot of 'whys' and 'wherefores' but, what it missed might not be missed at all when someone 50 years from now mentions 'Ten Pound Poms.' I can see it now: - "Yeah that's right Bluey, a couple of proffies, one from Latrobe University and the other from an English university put a book out about them. All I remember is that my dad told me those Pommies were an odd bunch and they 'whined' a lot."

Not a fair legacy but one I'm sure will be remembered more than anything else about those 1,600,000 Brits who went downunder.

Footnote: The above is what I call a short review, of this very excellent book. There's more. Much more. I have a lot more to say about this book and about the people I met in Australia during my short stay there. It'll be about my dear friend who went out on the £10 scheme in 1961 and came adrift downunder. It's also about the 'Big Brother Scheme' (not mentioned in the book) whereby the Australian government got young British teenagers to go out to Australia and work their butts off on farms. A few horror stories there to be told I can assure you. And it's about the many good Australians I've met in my life, in London, in Melbourne, in Sydney, and even here in Canada. My next essay about emigration will be about these things. Please come by next month and look for: 'Poms. Part Two'

Buy this book from: www.amazon.com  and  www.amazon.co.uk

Also from:  www.footprint.com.au/       
 and from:  www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=071907133x