The Migration Museum works towards the preservation, understanding and enjoyment of South Australia’s diverse cultures. It is a place to discover the many identities of the people of South Australia through the stories of individuals and communities.
At the museum
Experience our migration history
Yett Soo War Way Lee
Chinese, arrived 1874, born 1852
Became a prominent businessman and advocate for the Chinese community in Adelaide.
Wietske Erica Bradley (nee Mouthaan)
Dutch/Indonesian, born 1948, arrived 1959
Came with her family who had survived Japanese occupation in Indonesia.
Wenzel Walla
Lived in Austria for 10 years before migrating to Australia, where her family spent their first eight months at Woodside camp.
Wanda Loader
Polish, arrived 1956
Arrived age five, her family lived together at Glenelg Migrant Hostel for four years, after which time her mother had saved enough to buy a house.
Viv Szekeres
Jewish and English heritage
Former Director of the Migration Museum, Viv migrated from England with her young daughter and then husband.
Vera Wilson
Scottish, arrived 1993
A keen embroiderer she immigrated to Australia in 1993 with husband Ian, following their youngest son, Craig and his family, who immigrated in 1990.
Tung Ngo
Australian, arrived 1983
"Australian with Vietnamese heritage. If someone asked me who I am am that's what I would say."'
Suntary Khchao
Cambodian
Survived Pol Pot’s regime. Is now an active member of the Cambodian community in Adelaide.
Stephan Stadler
Hungarian, arrived 1950
His story may have been lost, if it wasn’t for a friend who took possession of his papers before they were discarded.
Sheena Dickins
Scottish, arrived 1963
Sailed for Australia as a ‘10-pound Pom’. Sheena told us “Australia was my first choice in my Big Leap Forward.”
Samuel Way
British, arrived 1853
Former politician, Chief Justice, and chancellor of the University of Adelaide.
Samuel Kandwillan
Pupil of the ‘natives’ training institution’, Poonindie, SAPortrait by artist J.M. Crossland, 1854. Image Courtesy National Library of Australia
Robert Curnow
Australian, born 1950
Lived with his Australian family at the Gepps Cross hostel for ten years, 1952 - 1962.
Riva Pancotti
Italian, arrived 1961
Riva followed her husband Nunzio to Adelaide, where she and her children continue to live.
Rick Moore
Australian, born 1954
Of ‘mixed English and Irish descent’ Rick is the descendent of William Darton Kekwick and president of the John McDouall Stuart Association.
Regina Zielinski
Jewish, Polish, arrived 1949, born 1925
Aged 14 when the Second World War began, Regina is the only surviving member of her family.
Poli Garcia (nee Ruiz)
Spanish, arrived 1962, born 1928
Moved to Whyalla with her husband Enrique and young daughters Rosa and Yoli.
Phan Pech
Cambodian
Phan survived the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
Petro (Peter) Kusznir
Ukrainian, arrived 1948, born 1924, died, 1991
One of 12 children, he grew up in the rural village of Woszczanci in the Ukraine. Petro worked in German railway yards during the Second World War before emigrating to Australia post war.
Peter Mayer
American, arrived 1970
Came with his young family for a job at the University of Adelaide.
Peter Marshall
Australian, born at Willunga in 1851
Farmer, married Irish immigrant Mary Finlay Graham in 1881.
Peter Karellas
Greek, arrived 1955
Owner of the popular Ozone Fish Café in Port Adelaide for over 40 years.
Paul Eshmade
British, arrived 1967
Arrived with his young family and stayed at Elder Park hostel before buying their own house.
Patricia Robinson
English, arrived c. mid 1950s
Winning contestand in the 1957 Miss Elizabeth competition.
Olive Doran
Australian
Born in the ‘Lying-in Hospital’ of the Destitute Asylum 1885.
Olga Jefic (nee Radinovich)
Yugoslavian, arrived 1953, born 1940
Reunited with her father in Adelaide as a 13-year-old after last seeing him as a 10-month-old baby in the former Yugoslavia.
Nunzio Pancotti
Italian, arrived late 1950s
Nunzio followed his brothers in law to Adelaide, their families all grew up in Croydon.
Noris Ioannou
Greek
Executive Director of Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre, founded in 1984.
Nikolajs Barscevskis
Latvian, arrived 1950
Worked as a hairdresser prior to and during the Second World War. He came to Australia as a displaced person.
Mieczyslaw Wolanski
Polish, arrived 1954
Mieczyslaw (Mike) was a pilot in a Polish squadron of the RAF in the Second World War and didn’t see his family between 1939 and 1946.
May
Australian (as a little girl – c.1890s)
Daughter of Eleanor and grand daughter of Irish migrant Bridget Mahoney, born in the Destitute Asylum
Max Garcia-Underwood
Australian, Spanish and Scottish ancestry
“I believe that who you are is, in a basic sense, what you love, and whatever is important to you.”
Mary Harper Lithgow (nee Radcliffe)
Scottish, arrived 1928
Her father, John Radcliffe, was a keenly sought after band conductor and brought the family to South Australia.
Martha Hulda Kutzer
Prussian, born 1869 died C1948
Married Callington butcher, Joseph Gehrieke in 1900.
Marion Evans
English, arrived 1940's
Marion migrated to Australia as a child and became very proficient in her new country as a dressmaker.
Marie Hamra (nee Kattar)
Lebanese, arrived 1927, born 1902, died 1973
Married George who had returned to Lebanon with his brother, Joseph, in 1926.
Marian Wieczorek
Polish, arrived 1949
Marian, an officer in the Polish army, was a Prisoner Of War from 1939 – 1945, including time in the infamous Colditz, and came to Australia as a displaced person.
Mari Walla
Czech, arrived 1955
Lived in Austria for 10 years before migrating to Australia, where her family spent their first eight months at Woodside camp.
Marguerita Stack
Australian, born 1926
Marguerita was the grand daughter of Spanish immigrant who came to Australia in 1884. She kept up her Spanish dancing heritage by performing and teaching.
Margaret Orr Snr.
Scottish, born c.1821
A number of her children and grandchildren became Australians, but maintained close family ties.
Margaret Orr
Scottish, arrived 1898, born 1860, died 1942
Kept a diary on board the Oaklands, which has been donated to the Migration Museum collection
Margaret Neil (nee Merritt)
Australian, born 1861
Raised five children with her husband on their farm near Peterborough in the late nineteenth century.
Margaret Davey
Australian, b. 1915
Margaret and her sister Jean donated a large collection of family items to the Migration Museum.
Mahira Hayretdinova-Nadolny
Tatar, arrived 1949, Mahira is reported to be the first Tatar migrant to come to South Australia.
Lydia North
Greek, arrived c.1840s
Married to George North, the first Greek settler to SA, who changed his last name from Tramountanas.
Lisa Huong Nguyen
Vietnamese, arrived 1980
Fled Vietnam with her Aunt and came to Australia via Songkla Refugee Camp in Thailand. It was six years before she was re-united with the rest of her family.
Lewis Grant
Scottish, arrived 1914
A youth migrant who fought for Australia in the first World War, although he had only migrated here less than a month before the War began.
Kuol Baak
Sudanese, arrived 2003
Became one of the young referred to as the Sudanese ‘lost boys’ due to civil war. Kuol pursued an education in Kakuma refugee camp, and later in Adelaide, and is now a successful urban planner.
Krystyna Luzny Snr
Polish, arrived 1950
Was a member of the resistance movement and gun-runner during the Nazi occupation.
Krystyna Luzny
Polish, arrived 1950
Was a member of the resistance movement and gun-runner during the Nazi occupation.
Kegel club member
German
Unidentified member of the Kegel club, c. 1898Image Courtesy Lutheran Archive.
Kalman Kiss
Hungarian, arrived 1949
Served in the Hungarian army during the Second World War. He fled the Soviet occupation and found he could not return.
Joylyne Teh (nee Ooi)
Joylyne came to Adelaide when she was 3.5 years old with her parents when riots broke out in Malaysia in 1969.
Joseph Rickard
Cornish, arrived 1867, born 1848
Came aged 19 to work as a copper miner in Moonta. Joseph also worked at Hill End, NSW, and Broken Hill before settling in Wayville.
Jolan Falkai
Hungarian, arrived 1949
Jolan and husband, Matyas, came to South Australia after living as displaced persons for four years in a cattle truck in Austria.
John McDouall Stuart
Scottish, arrived 1838
Explorer who successfully crossed Australia from South to North coast and back
Jill MacKenzie
Canadian, arrived 2005
Came to Australia as a student intern. Stayed for work and love.
Jennifer Stenton
Born Northumberland, 1949
Came to Australia, aged five, with her family who migrated for work. They paid their way in full.
Jean Lang (nee Davey)
Australian, born 1920
The grand daughter of early colonists Arnold and Sarah Davey, flour mill owners in South Australia and interstate.
Janina Mazelis
Latvian, arrived 1949
When the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania in 1940 he fled to Germany with her family, later coming to Australia as a displaced person.
Irek Garipov
Tatar, arrived 1992
Has worked on a number of community projects with the Migration Museum and is a proud ambassador for his Tatar heritage and the Turkic community.
Ian Henschke
Australia, born 1955
Of his identity says “I am a South Australian and an Australian but I tend to think of my work as who I am”
Humna Mustafa
Pakistani, born 1978
An artist, she describes henna as “the thin thread of culture that I brought along with me”.
Heather McCooke
British, arrived 1950
Heather’s first home was at the Rosewater Migrant Hostel.
Grace Lukac
Born in London, 2002
Came to Australia in 2003 when her family moved back to Adelaide.
Gordon Sym Choon
Australian
Parents, John and So, were immigrants from Guangdong Province, China, in the mid 1890s. Gordon was a successful Rundle St busninessman.
Gladys Sym Choon
Australian, born 1905
Parents, John and So, were immigrants from Guangdong Province, China, in the mid 1890s. Gladys opened the China Gift Store in Rundle Street at age 18 and operated it until it closed in 1985.
Giovanna Pulti (nee Pancotti)
Italian, arrived 1962
Met her husband, Dino, once in Italy before they reunited and married in Adelaide.
George North
Greek, arrived c.1840s
First Greek settler to SA, he worked as grazier on the Eyre Peninsula. George changed his last name from Tramountanas.
George Hamra
Lebanese, arrived 1919, died 1969
The Hamra family became well known through their furniture factory and shop in Adelaide.
George Doxey
English, arrived 1922
Arrived aged 18 under the ‘Barwell Boys’ scheme, he worked for three years on a farm at Penong on the Eyre Peninsula.
Geoff Cooper
Ngarrindjeri, Australian
Geoff is a member of the Stolen Generation whose story is told in the Impact section at the Migration Museum.
Enrique Garcia
Spanish, arrived 1962, born 1926
A mechanic and driver in Madrid, Enrique worked for BHP in Whyalla for many years.
Ella Flaum
Austrian, arrived 1938
Dr Flaum and her husband, Dr Ernst Flaum, were Jewish refugees, who escaped from Vienna with the help of a former patient, and came to Australia via Indonesia.
Elizabeth Rickard (nee Eddy)
Cornish, arrived 1866, born 1851, died 1931
Came from Lands End with her parents and four siblings. They settled in Moonta where her father worked the copper mines.
Eileen Acott
English, arrived 1952, Eileen and her family spent their first six years at the Gepps Cross migrant hostel.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
English
South Australia was colonised using a planned system designed by Wakefield and adopted by the South Australian Company.A. Wivell stipple engraving, 1823. Image Courtesy National Library of Australia, Rex Nankivell Collection.
Edith Loud (nee Barnes)
Edith’s mother, Elizabeth, migrated from Cornwall in the mid nineteenth century, bringing with her the family bible, which has been passed down through generations
Dzidra Knochs
Latvian, arrived 1949, born 1931
Arrived in Australia aged 18 with her infant son after living as a displaced person in Regensberg, Germany.
Dino Pulti
Dino Pulti, Italian, arrived 1956
Dino followed his brother Ellio to Adelaide
Despina Ververi (nee Tsakalos)
Greek, arrived c. 1922
Married on the island of Kastellorizo in 1903, her family donated her wedding costume to the Migration Museum.
Dame Roma Mitchell
Australian, born 1913, died 2000
Governor of South Australia from 1991 to 1996.
Colonel Light
South Australia’s first Surveyor-General, his plan of Adelaide is in the Historical Relics Collection.
Christine Finnimore
India, arrived 1962
Christine came to Adelaide as a teenager with her parents Grace and Horace Finnimore and her sister Jean
Catherine Mfundo
Tanzanian, arrived 2001
An active member of the Tanzanian Association, Catherine is proud of her cultural heritage.
Cath Kerry
English & French ancestry, arrived 1959
Adelaide restaurateur who says “Food in Australia is a happy mix of cultures.”
Candido Mazzarol
Italian
Candido arrived from Italy as a child in the 1890s. He volunteered for service during the First World War and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in France.
Bill Gladwell
English, arrived 1923
A Knight of St John who migrated to South Australia under the 'Barwell Boys' youth migration scheme.
Autauns Mazelis
Latvian, arrived 1949
When the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania in 1940 he fled to Germany with his family, later coming to Australia as a displaced person.
Arturo Comelli
Italian
Arturo was involved in the carving of stone decorations on Parliament House in 1937.
Arthur Lowe
English, arrived 1952
Worked for the International Refugee Organization after the Second World War, helping hundreds of displaced persons to find a new home before migrating himself.
Antonio Giordano
Italian, arrived 1924, born 1907, died 1984
He strove to assist other Italian migrants and to nurture and celebrate Italian cultural heritage in South Australia.
Annie Way Lee (nee McDonald)
Her parents migrated from Scotland and Ireland. After marrying Yett Soo War Way Lee she had four children.
Anna Kiss
Hungarian, arrived 1949
Married Kalman in 1942 and after going into hiding from the Soviet Army separately, they both sought to emigrate from Europe as Displaced Persons.
Andrew Steiner
Jewish Hungarian
Holocaust survivor and artist, Andrew tells powerful stories through is sculptures.
Amelia Tiivas
Australian, born 1983
“I think my identity and who I am is shaped hugely by the choices I make and the people I’m around.”
Alec Balayance
Armenia, arrived 1966
Of his identity says “I think the overriding factor is that I consider myself a Christian”
Akoi Guong
Sudanese, arrived 2004
A ‘lost boy’ of Sudan who has become a leader in the South Australian Sudanese community.
