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1945 to 1965Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

More than two million migrants arrive under the postwar 'populate or perish' drive

Displaced Europeans and the Snowy Mountains Scheme reshape the nation

On the timeline · around 1945 to 1965 · Rights, Reckoning, and Modern AustraliaWar, Depression, and a New NationRights, Reckoning, and Modern AustraliaMore than two million migrants arrive under the postwar 'populate or perish' drive19351940194519501955196019651970

Quick facts

Total migrants, 1945-1965
more than two million
Displaced Persons, 1947-1952
over 170,000
Snowy Mountains Scheme workforce
about 100,000 people from over 30 countries
Overseas-born share by 1971
about 20 percent

What happened

After the Second World War, the Australian government launched an immigration drive under the slogan 'populate or perish', aiming to grow the population for both economic development and national defence. Between 1945 and 1965, more than two million migrants arrived in Australia; the 1947 Displaced Persons Act brought over 170,000 refugees from war-shattered Europe by 1952, the first large wave of non-British migration in the nation's history. Many of these migrants provided labour for major infrastructure projects, most famously the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, which ran from 1949 to 1974 and drew about 100,000 workers from more than thirty countries to build dams and power stations in south-east Australia.

Why it matters

The scale and origin of postwar migration permanently changed Australia's demographic makeup, moving it away from its overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic population even while the White Australia Policy technically remained in force, and it laid social and economic groundwork for the multiculturalism officially adopted in the 1970s. By 1971, one in five Australians had been born overseas.

How we know

The NSW Migration Heritage Centre and Australian government migration records document the numbers and origin countries of these postwar migration waves, corroborated by Displaced Persons Act records from 1947 to 1952.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Australia33 events · 65,000 years of the world's oldest living cultures, a penal colony's dispossession of them, and the reckoning still underwayView all →
More than two million migrants arrive under the postwar 'populate or perish' drive · History of Australia · SourcedStory