‘THE TEN POUND POMS QUARTER OUNCE .999 SILVER COMMEMORATIVE' ONLY $149.00

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The Assisted Passage Migration Scheme was created by the Chifley government and its first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell in 1945, as part of its melodramatic, ‘Populate or Perish’ policy. It was intended to substantially increase the population of Australia after the war and to supply workers for the country's booming industries. In return for subsidising the cost of travelling to Australia, the Government promised employment prospects, affordable housing, and a generally more optimistic lifestyle to the people of Britain – still reeling from the losses and bomb damage of almost all their large conurbations and industrial sites.

For many, however, the promises made to them before leaving their homeland were empty – with almost all migrants who arrived placed in basic migration hostels, with tin rooves and the expected job opportunities not always readily available. 

 

Called ‘Ten Pound Poms’ due to the charge of £10 in processing fees to migrate to Australia, the policy attracted more than a million migrants from the British Isles between 1945 and 1972. Supported by an interim campaign in 1957 more called, ‘Bring out a Briton’, the scheme reached its peak in 1969, when more than 80,000 migrants took advantage of the scheme in that year. By 1973 the cost to migrants of the assisted passage was increased to £75 and the scheme was ended in 1982. During the scheme most British subjects were eligible, which at that time included residents of British colonies such as Malta and Cyprus.

 

Assisted migrants were generally required to remain in Australia for two years after arrival, or alternatively refund the cost of their assisted passage. If they chose to travel back to Britain, the cost of the journey was at least £120 in 1945 - equivalent to $10,259.72 in 2026 - a sum that most, even now would find it hard to afford.  

 

Even so, an estimated quarter of British migrants returned to the UK within the qualifying period and around half of these – ‘The Boomerang Poms’’ - returned to Australia eventually.​

 

Call one of our Senior Coin Experts now on 02 9841 3324 to secure this tribute to the people who helped re-build Australia.