Summary

Letter from Aileen Castillo, Northcote to Harold Holt, Minister for Immigration, Canberra, dated 8 March 1950. The letter, written in pencil, is a draft for the letter she sent requesting that her Filipino-born husband Agapito Castillo be granted permission to re-enter Australia. The letter outlines how Agapito lived in Melbourne for two years during the War, went to Papua New Guinea, returned to Melbourne when Aileen and Agapito married in 1945, worked in Melbourne till 1947 when they were informed he was to be repatriated. They successfully applied for a one year extension due to the impending birth of their first baby and then Agapito left as a member of an overseas tanker. Aileen requests a decision on his being allowed to return to Australia once his contracts at sea concluded.

Philippines-born Agapito Castillo had married Aileen McColl in Melbourne while he was working for the British Phosphate Company and was detained there during World War II.

This item is part of a collection of material relating to the migration and settlement experiences of seamen from the Philippines during the post World War II era in Australia; and the experiences of the local Anglo-Australian women they married.

Physical Description

Lined cream notepaper with handwritten text in pencil.

Significance

This collection and story represents an important narrative in Australia's migration history, regarding the challenges faced by seamen from the Philippines caught in Melbourne during the outbreak of World War II and unable to return home, trying to settle in Melbourne and marry locally-born women of Anglo-Australian background. It also shows the prejudice these women themselves faced. The collection reveals a community of these men and women and their families, connected through family relationships; and it demonstrates the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the influence of the White Australia policy, still officially in force at that time.

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