Special Guest Pritika Desai (right), who was named the India Australia Business Community Awards Young Community Achiever of the Year for her work on a youth mental health project, reflected on her Indian heritage at the Welcome Wall unveiling ceremony, 7 May 2017.

Stories from the Wall

More than 10m people have crossed the world to settle in Australia - read some of their compelling stories here.

Pictured above: Special Guest Pritika Desai (right), who was named the India Australia Business Community Awards Young Community Achiever of the Year for her work on a youth mental health project, reflected on her Indian heritage at the Welcome Wall unveiling ceremony, 7 May 2017. Photo: Andrew Frolows, ANMM
Mona Hussain with her daughter Aisha Duncan, 2020. Photography by Andrew Frolows

A leap of faith

16 Dec 2020

In 2001, Mona Hussain (born 1969) left her family, friends and a successful career in London to begin a new life in Australia with her American-born husband Mark (Dexter) Duncan. 

Read more
Antonello and Ayumi in traditional Kimono in Oita, Japan in 2015

Family and a fresh start

10 Dec 2020

When Japanese-born Ayumi Sumiyoshi and Italian-born Antonello Abonante celebrated their son’s first birthday this year, they figured it was the perfect opportunity to register their names on the museum’s Welcome Wall and honour their new life in Australia.   

Read more
Henry Lippmann (centre, with hand on chin) during a lesson at the Jewish ORT school in Berlin, Germany, c 1939. ANMM Collection ANMS0219[007], gift from Henry Lippmann

Behind barbed wire: Remembering the Dunera boys

07 Sep 2020

Yesterday marked 80 years since the hired military transport Dunera sailed into Pyrmont, Sydney. To mark the 80th anniversary, we look at the story of the late Henry Lippmann OAM and his journey on this infamous voyage. 

Read more
One of the Las Balsas rafts at sea, with the other two rafts in the background, 1973. Photograph by John Carnemolla. Image reproduced courtesy Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum

Las Balsas: The world's longest raft journey

16 Jul 2020

Twelve men, seven nationalities, three rafts, six months and one epic 14,000-kilometre trans-Pacific voyage. Curator Kim Tao interviews Luis Guevara from the 1973 Las Balsas expedition, which completed a record-breaking crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to Australia on three balsa-wood rafts.

Read more
Cruise ship in the Suez Canal

Sydney via the Suez: The diary of Michael Walker

30 Dec 2019

To mark the Suez Canal’s 150th anniversary, curator Kim Tao shares an edited extract from the diary of Michael Walker, a 33-year-old chiropodist who emigrated from England in 1953 with his wife Mildred (aged 32), a teacher, and their children, Nicholas (five) and Elizabeth (three), on the P&O liner Maloja. 

Read more
Workers place concrete reinforcement steel in the Tooma–Tumut Tunnel, part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, 1960. Photographer Don Edwards. ANMM Collection Gift from Barbara Alysen ANMS0215[016]

Snowy stories

17 Oct 2019

Seventy years ago today, the first blast was fired in the town of Adaminaby in southern New South Wales, officially marking the start of construction on Australia’s largest engineering project – the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.

Read more
José Coelho is farewelled by his teaching colleagues in Ponta do Sol, Madeira, prior to his departure for Australia, 1956.

Love and sacrifice: From Madeira Island to the Snowy Mountains

28 Sep 2019

Seventy years ago this October, work began on Australia’s largest engineering project – the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Curator Kim Tao shares the story of Portuguese newlyweds José and Maria Coelho, who swapped sunny Madeira Island for the isolation of the Snowy Mountains.

Read more
Watercolour of Port Adelaide, South Australia, by Samuel Thomas Gill, 1840s. Rex Nan Kivell Collection, National Library of Australia

A worker in tulle: The English lacemakers of Calais

27 Aug 2019

The 1848 Revolution in France led to the exodus of a unique group of refugee artisans now known as the lacemakers of Calais. Curator Kim Tao profiles the story of Edward Lander, chairman of a committee representing nearly 650 English laceworkers and their families, who sought a fresh start in the Australian colonies.

Read more
Annarosa Coluccio (third from left) with her parents (left) and mother-in-law (fourth from left) at her proxy marriage in Roccella Jonica, Calabria, Italy, 1956. Reproduced courtesy Isabella Coluccio

Until we meet again: An Italian proxy bride's story

22 Aug 2019

Annarosa Coluccio (née Bova) was one of 12,000 young Italian women who arrived in Australia as proxy brides between 1945 and 1976. Confronted by vast cultural and linguistic barriers, she eventually settled in with the love of her husband and the friendship of their new Australian neighbours.

Read more