Summary

Black and white photograph showing Ivan Kucan and friends in a passenger shelter on the platform at Flinders Street, Melbourne, 1951.

According to Ivan's family, in 1949 the Kucan family migrated to Australia as displaced persons after World War II. They had stayed in a displaced persons camp in Austria for four years but their country of origin was the Ukraine. During the first two years in Australia they lived in migrant camps in Bonegilla and Benalla. The men had to work off the cost of their passage in a contract to the government. After two years of working off their passage, this group of five migrant men came down to Melbourne to purchase land and build homes. They joined together and helped each other build their own houses in the same street in Newport.

Description of Content

Five migrant workers sitting on a bench seat in a wooden passenger shelter on a platform at Flinders Street Railway Station. The photograph appears to be taken on Platform No.3. Through the glass window panes above the mens' heads can be seen part of the railway offices above Platform No.1 and the pantograph and roof of a 'Tait' style red suburban electric passenger train of the type that saw service on Melbourne's suburban railway network between 1919 and the early 1980s. Two of the men are wearing hats and one is holding a briefcase on his knee. Ivan Kucan on the extreme left is the contributor's father.

Physical Description

Digital image file. A digital photograph was taken of the original black and white print.

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