Arthur Calwell's 'populate or perish' policy changed the face of modern Australia. More than three million refugees and migrants came to Australia between 1945 and 1975, almost doubling Australia's population.
Between 1947 and 1971, more than 320,000 of them passed through the Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre, a sprawling 320-acre ex-army camp on the River Murray in north-eastern Victoria, near Albury-Wodonga.
In the late 1940s, these people were displaced persons from post-war refugee camps. In the 1950s and 60s, they were Assisted Migrants from throughout Europe, looking for work and a new life.
Bonegilla became their temporary home while they were processed and until they found work. it was to become Australia's largest and longest-lasting post-war migrant centre. One in twenty Australians have links to Bonegilla through migration of the post-war era. I am one of them.
