Year 10 History
A Study of Change
Post World War Two Immigration
As part of Year 10 History A Study of Change, the unit we are studying is ‘Globalising World’. To further immerse ourselves in this unit, we headed down to the city where we visited The Immigration Museum, Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar and The Sandridge Rail Bridge.
Our first stop was The Immigration Museum, where we learned particularly about the White Australia Policy and subsequent waves of migration. We were placed into groups and were tasked to investigate a time period and explain how it was historically significant to Australia. Later, we took a walk through the museum where we were able to observe artifacts, learn further about Australian migration history and play around with interactive migration interviews.
Next, we visited Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar, which was established in 1954 and was Australia’s first coffee bar! We were greeted by the very friendly owner of Pelligrini’s, who was a nice man named David. David told us a little bit about the history of Pelligrini’s and the coalignment of Italian migration. We learned that in Italy, the majority of people live in small apartments surrounded closely to each other, creating a close knit community. The Italians began their major migrations to Australia after World War II and started establishing many businesses. Pelligrini’s was one of these. After learning some further facts about Italian migration, we were given the opportunity to try some drinks from the espresso bar. Many of us walked out happily with coffees, hot chocolates, teas and iced chocolates.
Our next stop was The Sandridge Rail Bridge, which features some glass panels with information about many countries' histories around migration to Australia, including cities of origin, time periods that the migrants began arriving and the occasion of migration. We were given time to observe and read about any countries of interest.
To finish off the phenomenal day, we stopped off at Southbank where we spent some time together with our friends debriefing our day with some tasty food and drinks.
This excursion was the first time ever being run and it was a successful learning experience that couldn’t have been possible without the organisation of Mr Allison, so huge thank you to him. Also thank you to Kristin for accompanying us on this excursion.
Ether Tsang & Leila Hoogenraad
