jan 1, 1945 - Start of populate or perish action

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The reason this began is when Japan entered the Second World War in December 1941 its troops started moving rapidly south, being in most of south-east Asia and the Pacific. Singapore had fallen in February 1942 and Darwin was bombed soon afterward. In Australia, the likelihood of invasion was very high and the country was a larger amount vulnerable than they had thought. These susceptibilities meant that well before the war ended on 14 August 1945, the government started and thinking up policies that would boost Australia’s population and its defenses.

Arthur Calwell was appointed Australia’s first Minister for Immigration in July 1945. Addressing parliament a few weeks later, he said ‘If Australians have learned one lesson from the Pacific war … it is surely that we cannot continue to hold our island continent for ourselves and our descendants unless we greatly increase our numbers … much development and settlement have yet to be undertaken. Our need to undertake it is urgent and imperative if we are to survive.’

Calwell’s cry for sudden migration was significant but possibly even more important were the last decisions of his speech: ‘The door to Australia will always be open within limits of our existing legislation to the people from the various dominions, United States of America and from European continental countries’.

For the earliest time, the government had stated that it was prepared to accept migrants from past the British Isles. It signified a huge step onward considering the prevalence of the White Australia policy and the underlying public attitudes.

The way I assume people got over wouldv'e been with prehistoric aged aircraft and on cruisers, liners and storage container ships.

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