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Title A Teamster's Camp in Australia Carting Wheat to a Railway Station
Date c.1922
Document Type Postcard
Publisher Information Commonwealth Immigration Office
Reference HT 32390
Library / Archive Museums Victoria
Collection Name Emigrant Guides and Promotional Material
Description This particular postcard promotes rural life in Australia as a somewhat idyllic lifestyle choice for immigrants. The scene depicts a carter's horse team stopped at a campsite beside a dirt road in a bush setting. The horses have been unhitched and unharnessed and are standing facing a wagon piled high with a load of bagged grain, with their heads in a water or feeding trough. In the background is a saddled horse hitched to a tree and four men seated around a camp fire. The caption states that 'last year there were 2,415,510 horses in Australia', which is a reference to the offical statistics recorded in 1920.
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, livestock
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 Stripping an Average Australian Wheat Crop
Harvest-Time in Australia
Breaking Land for an Orchard
Timber Tramway in a Beautiful Setting
Mustering on a Sheep Station
Off to School in the Australian Bush
Copyright Museums Victoria