Settlement Story of Anne Carson
I arrived in Australia in 1968 from Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In order for my family and I to migrate to Australia we were required to trace our ancestry and prove that we had a minimum of sixty per cent Anglo-Saxon blood. My father's family was of German background and my mother's family was of Dutch background. We were able to trace back to six generations of German decent and traced back to nine generations of Dutch decent.
Migrating to Australia from an Asian country was very difficult in those days. We were not given any assistance from the Australian Government to migrate. We did not receive assisted passages like other migrants did, such as, being provided with housing at a migrant hostel. In order to migrate, we were required to undergo thorough medical examinations at the Australian Embassy. The migration interview also included being tested on our English skills.
Another requirement of our application was to provide three sponsorship letters to prove that we had accommodation on our arrival in Australia. Our immigration application was sent through to Canberra and twelve months later, it was approved. I arrived in Australia with my mother where we joined my two brothers who had settled in Melbourne in 1966. My mother and I moved into a house in Oakleigh South.
In 1969, a year after arriving in Australia, my mother and I became Australian citizens. I worked for the Commonwealth Public Service for eleven years before getting married and having two children.
Updated: 16 October 2006
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