The Flemington Reading and Writing Program had an excursion to visit the Immigration Museum on the 15^th of September 2000. Three of our classes joined together to visit it.

The Immigration Museum is located in the center of the city of Melbourne at 400 Flinders Street, opposite the Yarra River. It originally was the Old Customs House for the Port of Melbourne.

When I arrived at the museum, I stood out of the front of the building and saw the large tall and cream colored structure. My first impression was that it is one of the Melbourne’s finest 19^th century buildings. This historically and architecturally significant building gives people an unforgettable impression.

I walked up the steps and entered it to meet the other students together with our teachers Jan and Kay. At 10 o’clock a guide who was a nice Italian/Australian woman met us to take us to the Resource Center. In this place you can research your family history and access a growing library on subjects of cultural heritage and immigration.

One of our students called Aldo was a migrant from Italy during the 1950’s. When he told the guide his date of arrival, "maybe in 1953" and the name of the ship, the guide went through the internet site to find that he had actually arrived here in 1955. The archives have very detailed information, such as date of departures and arrivals, the port and passenger listings. When I heard this I was very proud of the archives which were kept so well, this is due to my background as an archivist in my own country China.

After that we followed the guide to go up stairs which was a grand ceremonial style staircase to the first floor. On the first floor it is divided into three sections with three themes. The first section is called Leavings, Journeys and Arrivals. It uses moving images and voices to explain why people left their home countries and travelled thousands of miles to Australia. In many cases people left because of war, some left for human rights reasons. Some arrived in Australia because of love, or job opportunities and/or family reunions.

The second section is called Settlings. It uses real materials, the personal photos and stories that tell how people settled in Australia. For example there is a display about Baillieu Myer a migrant from Russia. He started a retail business in Geelong in Victoria and it gradually became one of the most famous department stores in Australia.

Another thing I was very interested in was an advertisement from England which was asking for English migrants to come to Australia. It said, "You are welcome to migrate to Australia, and we will provide a free travel ticket and land."

At that time, Australia needed more people to come here to live and work, but only white skinned people because of the White Australia Policy.

One big model ship stands in a large room. We climbed aboard and we could explore the sensation of ship travel for migrants who came to Australia. Aldo told me, it really looks like his ship when he came to Australia. You can lie in the bunk of a square rigger and sit at table of a steamer and listen to the music of different times on board. Aldo asked me "do you feel the ship is moving?" I said "No, I don't." It really reminded him to of when he came to Australia. He asked me to take a photo of him when he stood beside the ship. He said it would be a meaningful picture for his family.

The third section is about the history of the Old Customs House. Customs was a treasure chest of all trade in Victoria. It played a very important role in Victoria’s economic, maritime and immigration history. We followed the guide to the Long Room. It has beautiful ionic cream columns, a high ceiling with beautiful decorations and hand laid multicoloured tiled floor - all these architectural styles show off the wealth of the gold rush years in the mid 1800’s when the building was built.