Australia’s immigration policy

Abstrakti

Australia has been an immigrant society since the British established a convict colony at Sydney in 1788. There have been few periods in which there has not been a steady stream of immigrants, the longest being between 1930 and 1947 due to the world depression and the Second World War. Even then Australia agreed to receive 7 000 Jewish refugees from the Nazis at the Evian conference of 1938. The outbreak of war a year later limited the effect of this agreement. At other times of economic depression, such as the 1840s and the 1890s, immigration has been very limited but continued to some part of Australia.

Immigration policy has gone through several historic phases, each of which has influenced subsequent practice. The period of convict transportation lasted from 1788 to 1840 in New South Wales, from 1804 to 1853 in Tasmania and from 1850 to 1868 in Western Australia. This system created methods of contracting ships to transport convicts across the world on voyages, which could last up to six months. It also created systems of rationing, accommodation and allocation to work which were to be modified for free immigrants. An example of the transfer of facilities still exists in the Macquarie Street barracks in Sydney, which were built in 1819 for convicts but then converted to house free immigrants. Another example is the use of ships, which had transported convicts to move free immigrants. Sailing ships were used into the 1870s, being replaced by steamships until the 1960s and then by air.