Summary

Black and white photograph showing Ukraine migrant Ivan Kucan and his neighbour Mrs Malynko (first name unknown) in her Newport backyard smoking hams in 1968.

According to the 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 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 their contract was finished, Ivan and a group of five friends came to Melbourne looking for land on which to build their homes. They all purchased land in the same street in Newport and helped each other build their homes.

Ivan had been a butcher at home in the Ukraine and here in Newport he smoked hams regularly and made sausages.

Description of Content

Man holding a ham in each hand and lowering one into a metal drum in a back garden. A woman is standing with him pointing at the ham being lowered into the drum. At left is a garden and at right is a clothes line with washing hanging on it to dry.

Physical Description

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

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