The first official party of English settlers arrived in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, abroad the Duke of York in 1836. However, the most recent wave came after the South Australian and federal governments launched large-scale immigration programs around 1947.

Under the assisted passenger schemes, which lasted more than 30 years, it cost an English adult just £10 to migrate to Australia. These people were called ‘Ten Pound Poms’. In 1973, the cost of assisted passages was increased to ₤75 per family.

Many of those migrants came to work with local industrial employers — the largest being the Weapons Research Establishment — in Adelaide’s north where they lived in cabin homes with limited facilities. There were no shops, sewerage, sealed roads, street lighting and rubbish removal for several years.

To meet the demand for housing, the South Australia Housing Trust built a ‘new city’ for these people, with the Premier at the time — Sir Thomas Playford — calling that place Elizabeth to honour the English monarch.

Elizabeth East resident John Wilkinson is a ‘Ten Pound Pom’ who migrated to Australia in October 1953. He tells his story about his life in the air force, his decision to move to Australia and how he found work in Adelaide’s north, to CELESTE VILLANI.

ENGLAND

I was born in York, England, on January 14, 1924, and I am 95 years old.

As soon as I turned 18, I went into the air force where I was a gunner, but that was a long time ago.

I must say, there was always something going on when I was in the air force.

I can remember we were down at Hastings, I think it was, and we were actually living on the beach during World War II.

We saw this thing out at sea and we did not know what the hell it was, so we phoned up someone — we actually had a phone down there in those days there — and they sent a plane out to have a look because we could not identify what this thing was.

That was interesting.

We also went to Palestine and I was still a gunner there.

I reckon I was there for about 18 months, and it was there that I learnt not to take any rubbish from people.

I hated the fact that women were always subservient and always walking behind (men).

Palestine was pretty rough and the roads were terrible, that is if there were any roads.

When I was there, the air force’s main form of transport were camels.

I hated that because the camels were smelly and nasty.

There was this one time where we had to take German prisoners to Malta — about 50 of them on a small boat called the HMS Empire Mace.

After the war, I went back to my employer at Cooke, Troughton & Simms (a British optical instrument maker established in York, which eventually because a subsidiary of Vickers).

Soon after, I decided it was time to come to Australia.

THE JOURNEY OVER

When the opportunity came to migrate to Australia with my wife, Nora, and daughter, Chris, in October 1953, I didn’t think twice.

I had to pay money to migrate so when I came here I was called a “10-Pound Pom”.

That is what they called us when we came here from England.

When we were on the ship we were split up — men in one cabin and women and children in another cabin.

There were usually about six people in each cabin.

We were about six floors down in the ship, we could see the sea water going past our porthole.

We arrived at Fremantle and then the ship docked in Port Melbourne and, from there, we went to the Nunnawading Migrant Hostel.

I remember it being rough when we arrived here in October.

I got a job in Port Melbourne making spectacles, but I was used to making precision optics back in England, so applied for a government job in Salisbury, Adelaide, at the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE), which is now called Defence Science and Technology Group.

I got a job in optics and progressed up the ranks.

I came down on my own first and stayed in single men’s quarters at WRE, and my family met me a few weeks later here and we moved to Salisbury North where we stayed for three to four years.

My wife, Nora, also worked at the Weapons Research Establishment, so we were able to save money.

Eventually, the Housing Trust started building houses in Elizabeth East and we bought one of the first homes built.

The houses were made of cement bricks, which were terrible, because in winter when it rained the bricks would swell and the walls would crack.

The only way we could stop it was to paint the bloody bricks — so to make them waterproof.

When I was in the front garden of my home, I could see the Elizabeth Hotel being built.

Back on work now, I remember having to go to Woomera for quick visits to photograph missile launches there.

I used to go up in the helicopter and I remember when I went up with the photographer we would chase the goats the plane.

MY NEW LIFE

When Elizabeth first got going, it was quite a social place and most people were from the British Isles, so there were lots of social events.

There were lots of dances and I was in the Yorkshire Men’s Club.

But there was not a lot for kids to do in the early days in Elizabeth and my daughter, Chris, wanted to be a marching girl.

At the time she would have been about 10 or 11 years old.

There was Chris and a group of girls who wanted to march, but there was no instructor, so I put my hand up to become their instructor.

We practised in a car park near the Elizabeth South shops and on a Sunday morning we were at the oval at Elizabeth.

Where we practised at Elizabeth South, there was this tiny hall and that was the RSL, so they allowed the marching girls to use that on a Tuesday night.

The team was called the RSL Elizabethan Cavaliers.

We won a lot of medals in Adelaide, in country South Australia and we even went to Sydney and we won a medal there.

They were good kids, there was no two ways about it.

It was a governor, I think, that pulled his great big Rolls-Royce one Sunday and got out of his car and congratulated the team for everything they had done.

The Elizabeth RSL has also been a part of my life during my time in Australia.

Every Friday night a taxi picks me up from Anglicare SA Elizabeth East (residential aged care) and I go to dinner there.

There is this painting of me at the RSL that got done three or four years ago — it is huge.

Some university students needed to have something (to submit) for their major exam, and a couple of them did paintings.

So this man came to the RSL, took a photo of me and then painted this huge picture that is bigger than a door.

It is beautiful.

One thing I always love doing in Australia is going to Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services.

I will always lay a wreath for the British forces.

So from my time in the air force, to my new home here in Australia.

I’ve loved my time in Australia — it’s the reason I stayed.

WHAT IS A TEN POUND POM?

The colloquial term 10-Pound Pom was coined to describe British citizens who migrated to Australia after World War II.

The assisted passage scheme — which started around 1947 and ran for more than 30 years — gave English adults the chance to migrate to Australia for just £10 pounds.

Children travelled for £5.

The scheme, funded by the Australian and British governments, was devised to populate Australia.

To be eligible for the scheme, 10-Pound Poms needed to be of sound health, under 45 years old and willing to stay in Australia for at least two years otherwise they had to replay their fare.

Australia had bilateral assisted migration agreements with other countries, but the agreement with the English was the most generous and comprehensive.

It represented Australian officials’ desire to attract the most “suitable” immigrants — Brits — who could easily adapt to the Aussie way of life.

Many 10-Pound Poms migrated to Adelaide’s northern suburbs to work with local industrial employers.

WHERE ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS LIVE IN ADELAIDE’S NORTH

One Tree Hill

Hillbank

Elizabeth Vale

Elizabeth East

Salisbury Heights

Salisbury Park

Salisbury East

Craigmore

Para Hills

Elizabeth Park

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics