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Title Stripping an Average Australian Wheat Crop
Date c.1922
Document Type Postcard
Publisher Information Commonwealth Immigration Office
Reference HT 32384
Library / Archive Museums Victoria
Collection Name Emigrant Guides and Promotional Material
Description This particular postcard promotes the success of Australia's wheat farmers, depicting a farmer in a paddock harvesting a high standing crop of wheat with a stripper-harvester pulled by a team of eight draught horses. The reference in the caption to the 'Total Value of the Australian Wheat Crop Last Year' being £62,169,360, represents the official production recorded for the 1920-21 season.
Series Description One of a series of postcards issued by the Commonwealth Immigration Office during the early 1920s to promote immigration to Australia for rural settlement. The postcards were part of a promotional scheme, that also included advertising posters, introduced by the Commonwealth Immigration Office after it assumed responsibility for the recruitment and transport of assisted immigrants to Australia from the individual State governments in 1921. The postcards portray rural activities, and feature positive propaganda style messages to entice intending migrants. The rural subject matter highlights the strong push for British rural workers and settlers during the 1920s as part of the Empire Settlement Scheme.
Biographical Note / History This collection of postcards offers important insights into Australia's migration policies and promotional activities during the 1920s; a period when enticing British immigrants for agricultural settlement was a key priority, along with attracting farm labourers and domestic workers. Recruiting British migrants to Australia to settle on the land was an important Government strategy for Australian immigration schemes at this time, particularly with the launch of the Empire Settlement Scheme in 1922, which offered assistance and land packages to immigrants from the United Kingdom with varying degrees of success.
Theme(s) Motives for Emigration
Country (from) Great Britain
Country (to) Australia
Keywords Empire Settlement Scheme, animals, assisted migration, emigration, immigrant, agriculture
Additional Information The reverse side has a outline map of Australia with 'Kinsmen! We Welcome You' printed across it, together with population statistics and a reference to the Australian Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition, which was held at Wembley, England, from April-October 1924. Please note: Some of the metadata for this document has been taken from the Museum Victoria catalogue.
Catalogue Link Museums Victoria Catalogue
Language English
Document(s) linked to Harvest-Time in Australia
Breaking Land for an Orchard
Timber Tramway in a Beautiful Setting
Mustering on a Sheep Station
A Teamster's Camp in Australia Carting Wheat to a Railway Station
Off to School in the Australian Bush
Copyright Museums Victoria