Bathurst Migrant Reception and Training Centre

A temporary home at Kelso

The migrant centre occupied former army grounds on Limekilns Road at Kelso. The first intake arrived in May 1948. Some newcomers eventually settled around Bathurst, but most moved towards work and housing elsewhere.

From army huts to family quarters

The Migration Heritage Centre describes accommodation adapted from the 1940 army camp: iron sheds and timber barracks, with dormitories for single residents and partitioned spaces for families. The buildings offered little protection from seasonal heat and cold. Housing shortages made this improvised accommodation important despite its shortcomings. Arrivals travelled from Sydney by train to Kelso, then continued by bus to the camp.

Six weeks in Block B

For the Babij family, Bathurst was a short but precisely remembered stage in a longer journey. Kate Babij’s published family account records arrival in Sydney aboard Marine Jumper on 7 September 1949, followed by about six weeks at the reception centre. Their address was Hut 5, Building 15, Block B. The family’s next move divided them: her father Nikola received employment papers for the Emmco factory at Orange in October, while Anna and Kate went to Parkes.

Reuniting at Orange

The Babij family spent another six months apart. Nikola lived in Orange’s tent accommodation while working at the factory. In April 1950, Anna and Kate joined him in a packing shed on an orchard. They later moved into a house he was building. Their story connects the reception centre to the slower work of finding a home: departure from Bathurst did not mean the end of temporary accommodation.

A single man’s route to Newcastle

John Bojko’s account offers another Ukrainian route through Bathurst. He recalls reaching Sydney on 5 December 1949 and entering the camp the next day after travelling by train. He stayed in the single men’s BC barracks. On 19 December, another train took him to Broadmeadow, followed by a bus to the hostel at Mayfield West. His memories distinguish the railway destination from the accommodation itself. Bojko later worked at Goninans Engineering and the Mayfield hostel, before a long career at Rankin Park Hospital. The published account identifies his cultural background as Ukrainian; his recollections of Bathurst concern a stay of roughly two weeks.

School during a short stay

Children’s education continued even as families arrived and left. The State Archives guide lists Bathurst Holding Centre school from January 1949 to May 1952. Commonwealth authorities provided buildings, while the State Education Department established schools for children in migrant centres. The guide identifies file 14/7287, covering 1948–1950, about equipping and running Bathurst’s primary school and continuation classes in the area. Adult teaching also formed part of reception-centre life. The Migration Heritage Centre describes evening classes in English and Australian culture in the schoolrooms.

Keeping Ukrainian in the classroom

Ukrainian classes developed alongside Australian schooling. Bathurst was among the arrival camps where Ukrainian ethnic schools emerged around 1949, helping children keep their language during a period of repeated moves. These early classes preceded the more permanent schools later established in towns and cities.

Ukrainian women organised camp life

The Ukrainian women’s organisation records a Bathurst branch founded in 1949 by Nina Denysenko. A new committee elected on 21 November 1949 was headed by E. Kozolkovska. The branch brought people together through talks on Lesia Ukrainka and Taras Shevchenko, a Saint Nicholas celebration and a shared Christmas Eve meal for 150 newly arrived Ukrainians. A Ukrainian evening included a choir conducted by V. Ostrovskyi.

The women also organised two exhibitions of Ukrainian art, featuring N. Ohrynovska’s embroidery collection, for Australian women’s groups and other visitors. Their work extended to people still in Europe: the 1966 account records 42 parcels sent to those remaining in Germany; the 2001 history gives 43. It dates the branch’s activity to 1949–1952 and explains that it ended as members moved to permanent homes.

Artists and community organisers

Denysenko’s work at Bathurst was part of a longer career in Ukrainian cultural education. The choreographer arrived in Australia in 1949 and initially lived at Bathurst, participating in camp life and organising a Ukrainian folk-art exhibition in 1950.

A local Ukrainian community branch formed in early 1950, working with the New South Wales community council. Ukrainians also worked in the camp administration. These accounts show residents helping to organise both their own associations and the wider reception centre.

An Easter remembered

Writing as O. Mykhailiv, Orest Pytliar remembered Easter worship in Bathurst’s camp chapel, decorated with eucalyptus flowers. His recollection, reprinted from Vilna Dumka in 1962, describes residents gathering near the administrative block and Father Kolomyitsiv trying to shoo a possum from the altar. Pytliar also remembered English classes and sociable walks through the camp while awaiting work assignments.

Taras Figol’s camp choir

In recollections recorded in February 1996, Taras Figol described reaching Sydney aboard Skaugum on 29 September 1949 and travelling by train to Bathurst. He organised a men’s choir in the camp, which performed alongside other national groups.

Figol later left Bathurst in a group of 20 Ukrainians assigned to work at Wallangarra near the Queensland border. There he again organised a choir, alongside a volleyball group. His recollection follows cultural activity across successive temporary homes rather than ending at the camp gate.

Culture beyond the barracks

Bathurst’s cultural life reached beyond its gates. Residents performed Tosca for fellow migrants and the Bathurst public. A Polish club and the Polish Catholic weekly Tygodnik Katolicki were further expressions of the different communities living at the centre.

Closure and remembrance

The centre closed in April 1952; the school’s record continues to May. Families moved on, but Bathurst remained part of their shared history. A reunion in May 1985 brought former residents back and marked the unveiling of a memorial plaque. In 2018, Bathurst Family History Group erected a memorial to children from the migrant camp in the Catholic section of Bathurst Cemetery.