Melbourne's Immigration Museum

The final place we visited in Melbourne was the restored Customs House, now the Immigration Museum. This gave a fascinating account of the many nationality groups that have helped to populate this country over the last 200 years and the way in which successive colonial administrations have both encouraged and restricted immigration.  The first question to which we wanted an answer was how many  criminals did Britain actually send here. The answer is that between 1788 and 1868 160,000 individuals were deported to penal colonies. 

In the magnificent central hall is a faithful and accurate recreation of a 1950s ocean liner cabin. We know it's accurate because there we met and talked to an 80-year old Geordie who had come to Australia in 1953 as one of the £10 poms. The cabin was exactly as he remembered it.  

The whole exhibition was well laid out and informative and has provided what will be useful background as we visit the different population centres of the country and learn more of the history of this young country.   

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