Colin's Diary
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About this Site
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Army Chaplain's Poems
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Bookshop
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Gallery
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Looking for Friends
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Maltese Migration
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Passenger Stories
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Polish Migration
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Ship's Crew
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Ship's Voyage Logs
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Site Contents
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Sr Angela Mary Doyle AO
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Statistics about the Ship
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Ten Pound Poms
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The 1920s
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The 1930s
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The Lost Children
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Troop Service
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The Daly family at Picnic Point, NSW, with friends they met on the SS Asturias.  Read their story here.
Many passengers kept diaries of their voyage to Australia on the Asturias, and others have written detailed and fascinating accounts of their arrival and settlement. 
 
 
Can you help?
This site has been created to provide a central place to gather information about the SS Asturias II and may be of particular interest to those passengers who came to Australia aboard her in the 1940s and 1950s when the ship saw service as a ‘migrant ship’..
 
All genuine material for publication on the site that may be of interest to others is welcome including photographs, memorabilia and stories. 

Please submit your articles for publication by email and indicate whether you wish to be acknowledged as the source of the material.  Also include your contact details in case verification is required.  Your feedback
is always appreciated, and all genuine emails receive a response
 
 
 
Eddie and Violet Lawrence were married in Leeds UK and came to Australia in May 1948. Eddie's niece Valerie would love to know what happened to them.
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From launch to scrap - the Asturias story
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Passenger Stories

Can you help?
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Child migration
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Immigration Museum -
Permanent Exhibition
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Polish soldier
Antoni Lekstan

Memorabilia
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Photo Gallery
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Media clippings
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After World War II the British Government devised a plan to unburden 'overflowing' childrens' homes. Children were shipped to Australia 'to be adopted by loving families' only to find that they were used as cheap labour.
 
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Peter Russell - Ship's Writer
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[Excerpt from diary of Leslie Mount, 10 August 1948]

What's New
Alan Pearson has been located - but Shaun Andrews who had the case is uncontactable.  If you know Shaun, please get in touch.
 
Peter George Russell was employed as a writer on the SS Asturias between 1950 and 1953.  Ships' writers were responsible for official correspondence and other clerical duties. Peter's daughter Lee would love to hear from anyone who remembers him.
Our photo gallery has hundreds of images which have been kindly supplied by passengers and their families.  Contributions are always welcome.
Anthony Triscott was 1 year old when his family travelled to Australia on the Asturias in December 1951.  He'd like to hear from others on the same voyage ....
 
 

Maltese Migration
In 1948 Australia signed an assisted passenger agreement with Malta. Thousands of Maltese migrants came to Australia in the 1940s and early 1950s on the SS Asturias.
 
Mr Les Malton of Melbourne has kindly shared his fascinating store of memorabilia, from his journey to Australia on the SS Asturias in 1947.
 
Newspapers - particularly the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times and The Argus often sent photographers and journalists to the docks to welcome and photograph new arrivals to Australia.
 
3,800 'Displaced Persons' were among the thousands of migrants who came to Australia. Some Polish soldiers who fought alongside Australians at the Siege of Tobruk travelled on the Asturias.
Built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, the Asturias was launched on 7th July 1925 by the Duchess of Abercorn.  Follow the ship's journey through the years until she was broken up in Faslane, Scotland, in 1957.
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Welcome
Photo (top right - masthead) Asturias, Southampton [Photo courtesy of Simon Walker, UK]

Found!
"This little suitcase belonged to passenger Alan Robert Pearson ('fireman' aged 22) who travelled on the Asturias to Melbourne in September 1951.  A visitor to this website has it in his possession and would love to return it to Alan or his family".
 
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Immigration Posters
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Furniture from
Ship's Timbers
After the ship was broken up, some of the teak from Asturias was made into garden furniture by ship-breakers Hughes and Bolckow, a lot of which still exists in the UK.
Hedy De Bat's father served in Indonesia as an army officer.  He returned home on the Asturias in 1949 to the Netherlands where he still lives.  Hedy has forwarded photos and other memorabilia.
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Latest contributions
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Bill and Elsie Fuller with their daughter Joan in Aden, en route to Australia in August / September 1947
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'May's Letter' - on Friday 11 October 1946, May Flinter, her mother Rachel and her brother Basil arrived at Southampton.  They shared a taxi to the docks with 'a lovely girl of 21 called Olive Clark' who became May's friend on board.  It was the first journey for the Asturias after repairs and refurbishment and its first immigrant service.
 
May wrote a long, wonderful letter to a friend back in England about her journey, which has kindly been forwarded by her niece, Debra Barnard.
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"Fancy Dress" - Hamish Hughes, aged 7, on the SS Asturias in November 1948.
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Michael Hickey was born in Ireland in 1929.  In 1952 he  travelled on the SS Asturias, with his friend Paddy, to Australia where he met his wife in 1964.  His daughter Colleen has written an account of her father's journey to Australia, his work and his life in Sydney where he loved the beaches.
Alan Parkes came to Australia aboard the SS Asturias in February 1951 - with his parents and four brothers.  They arrived in Fremantle on 1 April 1951, then Sydney - and by train to Brisbane where he still lives.  See more of Alan's pictures here.
 
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Ken (Kenneth) Alexander came to Australia with his family when he was 3 years old.  Together with father George Edward, mother Gladys Maud and his 6 year old brother John, they left Southampton on the 28th January 1949.  Read Ken's story here.