British Emigration to Australia

Each year nearly 30,000 Britons emigrate to Australia under the Assisted Passages Scheme. In return for near-free transport they are required only to stay a minimum of two years in Australia. Are these persons the ne'er-do-wells of British society, the unskilled misfits who have not been able to succeed in Britain? Do they base their decisions to emigrate on reliable information and study economic opportunities in other overseas countries before choosing Australia? To what extent do relatives and friends in Australia and the fact that it is a British country influence their decisions? Why do they leave their homeland – inequality of opportunity; a hostile class structure; the climate? What do they know about the country many of them will never leave and what do they hope to achieve by going there?

In 1959 Dr Appleyard and a team of interviewers set out to find the answers to these questions. They conducted long interviews with nine hundred British families (and single persons) just before they sailed for Australia. This book contains the results of the interviews set in the background of post-war emigration to Australia, demographic and economic conditions in each country, government policies which have been formulated to meet these conditions, and actual differences in wage, social services, and the ownership of houses and consumer durables between the United Kingdom and Australia.

R.T. Appleyard is an emeritus professor of Economic History and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, UWA Business School, the University of Western Australia. From 1957 to 1967 he held academic appointments at the Australian National University, Canberra, before appointment to the Foundation Chair of Economic History at UWA, a position he held until his retirement in 1992.