Flying High in Year Five

The Year Fives were all very excited to visit the Immigration Museum on the 22nd of July. We went looking through suitcases, filled in passports and walked on The Sandridge Bridge.

When we first arrived, each table had a suitcase. All of us were very intrigued by what was in the suitcases, but before we could open them a lady named Cathren told us about the suitcases. They were suitcases from different decades and there were things in them about the specific time period. After investigating the contents we filled out sheets about our suitcases. Then we explained the contents of our suitcases and the people that used them to the class.     

When we left The Suitcase Room, we were handed small passport booklets that we filled in throughout the museum. We made our way upstairs and split off into groups. In our groups we walked through the Leaving Home Room and filled out a few of the pages in our passports. A video was playing and it was all the reasons someone would leave their homes and travel to another country.

After The Leaving Home Room, we walked to the Voices Across Time room, where we saw antiques such as clothes, diaries and so much more. We wrote down the names of who the items belonged to and what special things were inside the glass cabinets.

After The Voices Across time exhibition, we walked into the big white room where we answered questions in our passport and we realised that the room that we were in was where all the immigrants that wanted to come to Australia did all their interviews and testing and it was fascinating and fun.  

After The Long Room we went to The Getting In Room, where we completed a dictation that immigrants would have had to do before entering Australia. Then there was a really cool feature where we chose to interview a Greek family on the screen. It was amazing and it was probably our favourite thing there.

After we looked around the museum we came back for a quick snack break. We then crossed multiple roads to get to Sandridge Bridge, where we got booklets and answered questions about the exhibit. After 45 minutes we stopped for a lunch break. We went back onto the bridge and got to draw three of the Travellers' statues. It was really fun and we all had a blast.

Overall, we had the best time. We got to go into the museum and go into so many cool rooms like The Suitcase room, the Leaving Home room, Voices Across Time room and Getting In  room. All of the rooms were so much fun that we could not pick a favourite. We all had a great time and will always remember this excursion.

 Hannah S Georgia V

The Immigration Museum was incredible to learn about. When we got there, we sat down on a velvet bench to eat our fruit. When we finished, we were greeted by polite staff. Shortly after meeting them, we were led into a room decorated with four paintings. Everyone sat at a large table with a year from the past, accompanied by a bag or suitcase that matched that year. 

Everyone learnt about an immigrant who had moved to Australia.

We then departed the room, wandered through a hallway, and entered another room filled with immigrants' stories and how difficult their journeys had been. We also got to go into the interview room, where we interviewed virtual people.Later, we arrived at an exhibit where we discovered how long it took immigrants to travel by boat compared with travelling by plane. 

After our time at the museum, we ate our lunch near the Sandridge Bridge. A little later, we explored the bridge and learnt about different countries by reading the glass panels.

Overall, we had an awesome day at the Immigration Museum. Thank you so much to all the staff who took care of us and planned the day!

Ruby S & Ethan L