Processing incoming immigrants at Sydney Airport, 1970s
Source: Australian Customs Service
More than 9 million people have migrated to Australia since 1788.
Countless others have tried and failed. Find out why...
This permanent exhibition documents the immigration policies that have shaped Victoria and Australia since the 1800s and how these policies have been a significant factor in forming a national identity.
This confronting exhibition utilises images, historical objects, a computer interactive and personal stories to explore the impact of these policies and the resulting cultural diversity in Victoria.
The exhibition does this by exploring the history of immigration policy and how it has changed dramatically over the past two hundred years. Four timeframes outline the main threads in immigration policy: the gold rush days of the 1840s to 1900, Federation to the end of the Second World War (1901 to 1945), then post-war to the early seventies (1946 to 1972) and finally 1973 to the present day.