The Federal Government spent close to $2.5 million dollars restoring Bonegilla Migrant Camp - getting some semblance of atmosphere. The original Bonegilla reception center must has been a massive undertaking judging by the remnant that remains, Block 19. Originally it had 24 such accommodation blocks spread over 130 hectares. It wouldn't have been a comfortable place, cold in winter hot in summer. The meals were Australian cuisine - if you could call it that, I wonder what they made of it all. Borderline remembers PIO the self-styled working-class anarchist and poet from Greece on an ABC radio show telling the listeners about the reaction of Italians and other nationalities when they were confronted with 'bangers and mash'. There were no mutterings about Asian cuisine because you only got that at Chinese restaurants and they were few and far between. Arthur Calwell as Minister for Immigration in the post-war Chifley. Calwell was concerned that we would be overrun by Asians. Such xenophobia was not confined to Calwell. A lot of Australians were worried. That's why Arthur Calwell had no hesitation in not only not letting them in but throwing them out as well. The trip from the parts that brought them was not a particularly enlightening experience to some. Though it would have been a profound experience.
…But the ten-hour train and bus journeys were a nightmare for many: "They put us on a train which was very old-fashioned. They had placed some benches in the carriages. When we looked out of the window, the landscape seemed dry with dead sheep, dead cows and dead trees everywhere. We thought what on earth made us do this because in Holland, in those films they showed on information nights, we saw green fields and beautiful houses. Everything we saw on those films looked like a beautiful dream…" (Herman and Geesje Blom, arr 1958)
Bonegilla: Where The Waters Meet, The Dutch Migrant Experience in Australia. Compiled and edited by Dirk and Marijke Eysbertse,
Obviously spin was part of the migrant experience as well. However, the first arrivals the displaced from the Second World War probably weren't bothered by dead things many having endured human misery almost beyond imagination.
A lot of people went through Bonegilla from 1947 - 1971 history, 300,000 people who gradually dispersed all over the country. Some still come back and leave a comment about their experiences.
So there it sits, Block 19. To the casual observer it looks like a post-war army camp. Closer inspection inside the buildings is an ordinary affair - a lot of the buildings, inner walls have holes the size of which in one particular instant you could fit a Kangaroo through. Never mind the mouse holes.
There is an interactive display, it is called an interpretation centre. The audio/visual display works when it detects visitors. It's a rather minimalist interactive display at best with a sign telling that souvenirs of Bonegilla can be bought down the road at some shop. And that's it.
Block 19 was placed on the National Heritage list in 2008 along with the Sydney Opera House, the MCG and Great Barrier Reef amongst other notable landmarks in Australia. The Albury Library Museum is the repository of the Bonegilla Collection, an extensive collection of photographs, artifacts and histories both oral and written. Considering that the generations that sprung from the loins of those who went through Bonegilla, is about 1.5 million people, you would think that Albury-Wodonga could do a bit better than that. The whole thing - considering the federal and state money that has been poured into the site and has no real feeling - no real sense of place.
It's a bit like when Catherine the Great was visiting some town in Russia and they had the peasants stand outside what looked liked almost brand new dwellings except they were facades. The old lean-to was at the back. (They still do this type of thing in North Korea) Catherine was not only great she didn't like getting out into the winter chill either. She wasn't going to get out of her carriage and inspect the peasants - not like the Queen of England who shows a genuine interest and when someone says 'would you like a cup of tea ma'am' and the queen would enter their humble abode and have a cup of tea and a few biscuits; even if it was snowing, which it was when Catherine went a 'visiting.
Let's face it if you said to someone what are the great attractions of Albury Wodonga you could count them on one hand. Bonegilla could have been a great attraction; after all it's a great story. It's a story about part of Australia's history and the best everyone can do is having a collection of padlocked tin sheds.
That's when the spin sets in because you're supposed to have a profound experience. If you don't, some people will think you're one of those "why don't you go back to where you come from" types. If you were going to rate Bonegilla as an attraction it shares something in the visit to Phillip Island to see the Fairy Penguins, standing there watching the poor little bastards exhausted from a hard day in the sea fishing, making their way home to their nest for a hard earned kip and then The Penguin Parade. Even when the Gulags existed in Russia when weary lines of men were returning from the salt mines you could hardly call it a parade.
Wodonga's main tourism attraction we've been told is the old water tower. It's hardly one of the great architectural leftovers from a bygone age, the acropolis of the North-East. Then you've got a few other assorted attractions. Albury used to have the Floral Festival years ago. When they used to have a parade of floats - trucks and what have you disguised with all manner of constructions, just like they used to have at Moomba.
That is the thing about tourist attractions you're supposed to have had a profound or enjoyable experience because if you don't you're some anti-social moron. Remember the Rutherglen Wine Festival. Now that was a real festival. That went the way of the Floral Festival except for a different way. It just faded into oblivion. In a sense the Rutherglen Wine Festival faded into oblivion - that is for most of those who went there. Most of them couldn't give a damn about what vintage it was. A great many of them preferred beer, the more traditional way of fading into oblivion. It became a law-and-order issue. The Floral Festival was never a law-and-order issue.
One more thing there were about thirty-three or thirty-four nationalities in the area, perhaps we could invite them out - free food and accommodation with authentic clothes, food and what-have-you and make the place one big migrant experience theme park like they have at Sovereign Hill at Ballarat.
