Summary

Booklet entitled 'Wissenswertes uber Das Wohnungswesen in Australien' ['Facts About Housing in Australia'], issued in German by the Australian Department of Immigration in July 1958. It details for intending migrants home finance, rental housing, the contemporary Australian home, flats, fares, past trends, and the housing situation in general. It was issued to Dorothea Huber [nee Freitag and later Dunzinger] in preparation for her migrant voyage from Austria to Melbourne onboard the Cogedar Line ship 'Flaminia' in November 1959.

This is one of many booklets in the 'Facts About...' series produced and reproduced throughout the 1950s-1970s by the Australian Department of Immigration in English and other languages as a series of subject-specific information guides for intending migrants from the UK and Europe. This particular series in German was translated for intending migrants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Born in 1929 near Graz, Austria, Dorothea Dunzinger [formerly Huber and nee Freitag] was a proficient recreational skier and part of a volunteer rescue team in Switzerland. She lived and worked primarily as a mill weaver and seamstress in England, Switzerland and Austria before migrating to Australia from Austria on 30 November 1959, arriving on the Cogedar Line ship 'Flaminia' on 31 December. She settled in Melbourne and married fellow Austrian Johann Dunzinger whom she met at Broadmeadows migrant hostel. They had a daughter Caroline and lived in various Melbourne suburbs boarding and renting before building a home in Kalorama. The couple divorced in1978. Dorothea worked hard all her life, owning a boutique clothing shop in Camberwell at one stage but primarily as a textile outworker and factory worker trying to make ends meet. She died in 2001.

Physical Description

White 8 page booklet including cover, text printed in black ink. 2 staples at spine. Front cover features text, an image of a suburban house and the title is printed white on green background. The Australian coat of arms is in the top right hand corner. All text is in German.

Significance

The Dunzinger Austrian Migrant Collection has evolved to become a rich group of objects which tell a particular story of an Austrian woman's post-war migration experiences, as well as broader contextual narratives relating to the variety of selection and management processes in place in Europe after World War II. These include references to Australian-specific organisations involved in migration management such as the Australian Migration Mission. Items explore the enthusiastic promotional activities of the Australian Government to encourage migration from the UK and Europe in order to populate Australia and build a workforce. Artefacts also relate to a significant Italian migrant ship of the period, the Cogedar Line 'Flotto Lauro'.

There is a also symbolic poignancy about the skis and the small sewing machine Dorothea Dunzinger brought with her from Austria: the skis representing precious mementoes from home and hopes and expectations for the leisure activity they might bring in Australia; the sewing machine a pragmatic object which came to dominate Dorothea's actual settled life of hard work both in the home and as an outworker with no leisure time at all.

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