Tens of thousands of people went through work camps and migrant hostels in South Australia. Migrant hostels were also known as migrant camps, reception centres and holding centres. There were at least twelve hostels in South Australia between 1947 and the mid-1980s.
Hostels were funded and run by Commonwealth and State Governments. The first migrant hostels were built in the midst of an acute housing shortage. They were established in existing buildings, often military barracks with communal dining, laundry and shower facilities. Later, transportable structures like Nissen huts were used. Hostels assisted new arrivals to settle in and establish themselves before striking out on their own.
The South Australian Story
In addition to the government-run hostels listed below there were a number of camps or work hostels run directly by organisations that employed large numbers of migrants. These included sites at Salisbury and Hendon, and those run by the South Australian Railways in Adelaide (North Terrace), Islington and Peterborough, the Engineering and Water Supply Department in Bedford Park and Leigh Creek, and the Woods and Forests Department in Mount Gambier, among others.
Research is ongoing, and definite numbers and locations of work camps are not yet known. Some appear to have operated along very similar lines to the sites that have been referred to here as migrant hostels. Many were even more transitory, or temporary, in nature, taking the form of tent cities, or utilising whatever buildings were available.
The following migrant hostels are known to have operated in South Australia under government administration as indicated:
Woodside, 1949 - 1963
Smithfield, 1949 – 1971
Mallala, 1950 – 1951
Rosewater, 1950 - 1953
Willaston (Gawler), 1949 – 1952 & 1955 – 1956
Glenelg, 1949 – 1971
Finsbury, 1950 – 1966, renamed Pennington 1966 – c. 1990s
Elder Park, November 1947-1969
Woodville, c. 1969 – c.1978
Shared or split control
Gepps Cross, 1951 – 1952 (Commonwealth) 1952 – c. 1965 (State)
Milpara (Whyalla), 1949 – c. 1977 (funding split between Commonwealth, State & BHP)
Agutter, Dr Karen, research notes, Hostel Stories project, the University of Adelaide
Migration Museum, Hostel Stories: Migrant Lives, Work Camps and Interstate Hostels information sheet.
Migration Museum, research files, Work Camps and Interstate Hostels, Hostel Stories
State Library of South Australia, OH 948, Hostel Stories Oral History Project, JD Somerville Oral History Collection, 2010 - 2017