Summary

Poster produced by the Albury Regional Museum in 1997 for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the opening of Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre in 1947. Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre in Wodonga in northern Victoria, is probably the most famous migrant hostel in Australia. It opened in 1947 and received some 320,000 migrants until its closure in 1971. It is a key memory trigger for many migrants, in the same way that Station Pier is, evoking reminiscences of joy, sorrow, frustration, anxiety, community and loneliness.

In 1997, a series of events were held around Albury to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the opening of Bonegilla. It was auspiced by Albury Regional Museum, which also commenced a collection relating to Bonegilla which seeded a travelling exhibition. This series of promotional posters mark the anniversary and promote Albury as the home of the Bonegilla collection, using images drawn from their own and the Department of Immigration's collections.

These posters demonstrate the significance of Bonegilla in both collective community and institutional memory. They document the anniversary celebrations attended by thousands of people, showing how people still wish to evoke the memories and mark the place of a key 'icon' of Australian migrant experience; and also the way in which a regional cultural institution participated in that memory evocation and mapping, including the collecting of oral histories, images and some material culture.

Physical Description

Poster produced on gloss white paper with text in bronze and black type. Background underlaid with cursive script with the names of various Australian towns and cities in which people settled. The poster design features a central b/w image of an aerial view over Bonegilla, with a series of sepia images of activity around its perimeter.

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