Leaving austerity Britain for the New World: how thousands emigrated to Australia from Liverpool docks

Apr 19 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

£10 emigrants on their way from Liverpool to Australia _320

Some 1.5m British citizens emigrated to Australasia and around 15% of them came from the North West of England, in the scheme which began on March 31, 1947.

Initially, these emigrants had to sail from Southampton and Tilbury, but soon the former luxury Cunard White Star liner Georgic started £10 sailings from her Liverpool home port in 1948.

Much rebuilt after severe war damage, Georgic was joined on the Liverpool emigrant run by four ageing Bibby liners: Cheshire (built 1927), Dorsetshire (1920); Oxfordshire (1912) and the former trooper Somersetshire, of 1921.

However, once the shipping lines sorted out their fleets, the £10 scheme became a cash bonanza. For them it really was the "never had it so good" 1950s and the money poured in until 1977, when air travel took over until the scheme finished in 1982.

Meantime for the passengers there was also the unexpected problem of coping with untrained stewards and waiters, some of whose tricks and laziness would make their professional prewar colleagues apoplectic.

"Some of the stewards on these emigrant ships had a reputation for doing as little as they could get away with. Some of them even persuaded passengers that it was their own responsibility to clean cabins," says Geoff.

"Some of these men were crafty and lazy. In 1951 a group of Southampton stewards refused to sail on SS New Australia because they’d heard stories that emigrants were bad tippers.

"Instead a gang of Liverpool stewards were hired instead to take their place, who presumably were glad of the work.

"Fraternising between crew and passengers was discouraged, as shipping companies assumed that it would lead to problems," says Geoff.

"Partly because of this the sexes were segregated, but it was also done to cram in as many passengers as possible.

"But obviously with a lot of male crew starved of female company and plenty of single young women (and some not so single) they did inevitably manage to get round the rules.

"All the ships had different, but similar stories to tell: how they had become home to many thousands of people of assorted ages, abilities, education and experience – but all with the same belief.

"Namely that Australia would offer them a better lifestyle, full of job opportunities, bright sunshine and open spaces. For many of the emigrants this was the case.

"But for some, doubts set in as soon as the gangway was withdrawn from the side of the ship and they started planning on how they could get the earliest ship back.

"While I was writing the book, Australia has embarked on a new, smaller emigrant drive from the UK, but the trip is now a day’s flight and migrants’ tales of life- changing experiences across the world’s oceans are just memories of a distant past."

* And The Crew Went Too, by Geoff Lunn, published by Tempus, £17.99

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