From Wagga Wagga to Orange, discover how New South Wales was experienced by British migrants in the 1950s
Ten Pound Poms Sunday 9.00pm BBC1
Matt Charlton - 12 May 2023
Aussies have a slang word for everything, and the name they gave to Britons emigrating via the Australian government’s Assisted Passage Migration Scheme after the Second World War was, of course, Ten Pound Poms – due to the administration fee of £10. Back then, it took them around six weeks to sail to Australia, usually on retooled merchant vessels, or passenger ships brought out of retirement. In 2025, Qantas will introduce the first non-stop flight to Sydney, taking 24 hours, and there’s already a non-stop flight to Perth taking 17. Punishing? Yes. But nothing compared with a month and a half at sea (though they did have plenty of time to get used to the time difference). Naturally, it has cost me a teensy bit more than £10 to get to New South Wales in 2023, but there’s plenty to see, not least the film locations for BBC1’s new dramatisation of the Brits’ migration starring Michelle Keegan and Warren Brown, as well as the opportunity to get a taste of how the state was settled and experience Sydney from the perspective of a “Blow-in” – slang (again) that Aussies use for newcomers. It’s also in Sydney, the state capital and Australia’s most populous city, that my Great Aunt Ellen – an original Ten Pound Pom herself – still lives at the age of 99.
Sadly, I don’t have six weeks to get used to a new time zone, so I have to power through the discombobulation of jet lag to utilise my time to its fullest. I start in Wagga Wagga, a city in the Riverina region of New South Wales. Like many of the other settlements in NSW, it’s rich in culture, with a thriving food and coffee scene. But Wagga – as it’s known to the locals – has a frontier feel about it, with most of its delights along one main strip and a few offshoots down side roads. A three-hour drive west takes me to Carcoar, which was transformed into a 1950s town for the TV series. Not that there was much transforming required: this place may as well still have a dirt track and a general store. Oh, wait, it does.
Once one of the most important government centres in the state, it’s now a well-preserved 19th-century township with a wooden bridge over a creek and Victorian shopfronts looming over Main Street. An hour east, further along the aforementioned dirt track, I find Orange, another Ten Pound Poms location. A retreat for rich Sydney dwellers with a hankering for some proper seasons at altitude, Orange is also a wine-growing region and home to the Charred Kitchen and Bar (charred.com.au). Despite the fact that it looks a bit like your local Harvester from the outside, the food and service are very much that of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Somewhat groggily I rise before sunrise the following morning and drive towards Canowindra, a farming community whose name derives from the original Aboriginal custodians of the land. It’s also known as Australia’s hot-air balloon capital and Anton from Balloon Joy Flights (balloonjoyflights.com.au) is waiting to show me the sunrise over the paddocks.
The transformation continues with the two high-end Ovolo hotels (ovolohotels. com) I stay in: one an old woolstore (the Woolstore 1888) and the Woolloomooloo – a wharf, where Shed No 7 was historically an immigrant passenger terminal. The settlers’ pub in the Rocks area of the city has given way to Henry Deane, a swish restaurant-bar (hotelpalisade.com.au) with commanding views of the Harbour Bridge. And of course, there’s my Great Auntie Ellen, who arrived here with her husband and built a full and rich life for herself in the harshest of conditions. Australia is a country built on grit, which is hardwired into its personality. The story of the Ten Pound Poms covers Australia’s tale as an immigrant nation, but now the rest of the story, the Aboriginal one, is being acknowledged, too. Assimilation, history and deference are what make modern-day New South Wales such a special part of the world. visitnsw.com; sydney.com
MATT CHARLTON
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Aussies have a slang word for everything, and the name they gave to Britons emigrating via the Australian government’s Assisted Passage Migration Scheme after the Second World War was, of course, Ten Pound Poms – due to the administration fee of £10. Back then, it took them around six weeks to sail to Australia, usually on retooled merchant vessels, or passenger ships brought out of retirement. In 2025, Qantas will introduce the first non-stop flight to Sydney, taking 24 hours, and there’s already a non-stop flight to Perth taking 17. Punishing? Yes. But nothing compared with a month and a half at sea (though they did have plenty of time to get used to the time difference). Naturally, it has cost me a teensy bit more than £10 to get to New South Wales in 2023, but there’s plenty to see, not least the film locations for BBC1’s new dramatisation of the Brits’ migration starring Michelle Keegan and Warren Brown, as well as the opportunity to get a taste of how the state was settled and experience Sydney from the perspective of a “Blow-in” – slang (again) that Aussies use for newcomers. It’s also in Sydney, the state capital and Australia’s most populous city, that my Great Aunt Ellen – an original Ten Pound Pom herself – still lives at the age of 99.
Sadly, I don’t have six weeks to get used to a new time zone, so I have to power through the discombobulation of jet lag to utilise my time to its fullest. I start in Wagga Wagga, a city in the Riverina region of New South Wales. Like many of the other settlements in NSW, it’s rich in culture, with a thriving food and coffee scene. But Wagga – as it’s known to the locals – has a frontier feel about it, with most of its delights along one main strip and a few offshoots down side roads. A three-hour drive west takes me to Carcoar, which was transformed into a 1950s town for the TV series. Not that there was much transforming required: this place may as well still have a dirt track and a general store. Oh, wait, it does.
Once one of the most important government centres in the state, it’s now a well-preserved 19th-century township with a wooden bridge over a creek and Victorian shopfronts looming over Main Street. An hour east, further along the aforementioned dirt track, I find Orange, another Ten Pound Poms location. A retreat for rich Sydney dwellers with a hankering for some proper seasons at altitude, Orange is also a wine-growing region and home to the Charred Kitchen and Bar (charred.com.au). Despite the fact that it looks a bit like your local Harvester from the outside, the food and service are very much that of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Somewhat groggily I rise before sunrise the following morning and drive towards Canowindra, a farming community whose name derives from the original Aboriginal custodians of the land. It’s also known as Australia’s hot-air balloon capital and Anton from Balloon Joy Flights (balloonjoyflights.com.au) is waiting to show me the sunrise over the paddocks.
The transformation continues with the two high-end Ovolo hotels (ovolohotels. com) I stay in: one an old woolstore (the Woolstore 1888) and the Woolloomooloo – a wharf, where Shed No 7 was historically an immigrant passenger terminal. The settlers’ pub in the Rocks area of the city has given way to Henry Deane, a swish restaurant-bar (hotelpalisade.com.au) with commanding views of the Harbour Bridge. And of course, there’s my Great Auntie Ellen, who arrived here with her husband and built a full and rich life for herself in the harshest of conditions. Australia is a country built on grit, which is hardwired into its personality. The story of the Ten Pound Poms covers Australia’s tale as an immigrant nation, but now the rest of the story, the Aboriginal one, is being acknowledged, too. Assimilation, history and deference are what make modern-day New South Wales such a special part of the world. visitnsw.com; sydney.com
MATT CHARLTON
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