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MIGRATION · JOURNEY

Bathurst to Wallangarra, October 1949

Bathurst Reception Centre → Wallangarra Army depot, Queensland

On the evening of Tuesday 25 October 1949 more than 350 displaced men of about 28 nationalities left Sydney by train after a term at the Bathurst camp, bound for Army installations between Wallangarra and Brisbane under two-year government contracts. The parish history of St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Sydney records a group of twenty Ukrainians sent from Bathurst to Wallangarra. They worked in the kitchen, formed a choir and a volleyball team, and earned five pounds a week with free board because it was a military camp.

29 September 1949

The author of the parish account arrives in Sydney and finds the Bathurst camp unpleasant

Sources

St Andrew’s Parish in Sydney, 1948–1998

25 to 26 October 1949

More than 350 displaced men leave Sydney by train for Army installations between Wallangarra and Brisbane, fed on the platform at Armidale

Sources

Migrants keen about opportunities

Late 1949

Twenty Ukrainians are posted from Bathurst to the Wallangarra depot, working mainly in the kitchens

Sources

St Andrew’s Parish in Sydney, 1948–1998

December 1949

Free English classes run for migrants working for the Army at Wallangarra and other Queensland sites

Sources

Migrants go to school

Documents

Sources

St Andrew’s Parish in Sydney, 1948–1998

Migrants keen about opportunities

Migrants go to school