Audio file
About this record
This sound recording is an excerpt from a live broadcast of the first Australian naturalisation ceremony in Canberra. It begins with Advance Australia Fair and an introduction by Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell (1896–1973). Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court Justice William Simpson (1894–1966) administers the Oath of Allegiance and outlines the rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship to former Czech citizen Jan Jandura-Pucek. Later in the ceremony (but not included in this excerpt) six more European men took the oath to become Australian citizens.
Educational value
- The Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 provided for non-Australian and British citizens to renounce their former citizenship and to swear allegiance to Australia and the crown – this is the first ceremony at which such change of citizenship took place. Under the Act all Australian-born people are citizens of Australia; previously, Australians had been British subjects.
- Arthur Calwell became Australia’s first Minister for Immigration in 1945 and was instrumental in expanding immigration to include people from Eastern and Southern Europe. He travelled overseas in 1947 to encourage and speed up the process and coined the term 'new Australian'. In his speech, Calwell outlines the advantages of life in Australia and the mutual benefit of the migration program to both migrants and resident Australians.
- The ceremony indicates that in 1949 Australian citizens retained their status as British subjects, and those becoming Australian citizens were required to renounce any former allegiances they had to any other country. As British subjects, Australian citizens swore to be faithful and bear allegiance to the head of the Commonwealth (the King or Queen).
- All seven people naturalised in this ceremony are European, indicative of the White Australia policy and perhaps of how Australia wanted to see itself (as a nation of European descent). Under Calwell’s direction, the Labor Government undertook a major migration program. It set a target of 2 per cent annual population growth, half of which was to be the result of migration. The program, popularly referred to as ‘populate or perish’, continued for the next two decades with the majority of migrants drawn from Britain and continental Europe.
- In a speech later in the ceremony Prime Minister Ben Chifley recognised that at the time many immigrants to Australia had recently fled the horrors of war-torn Europe. Chifley emphasised the importance of welcoming and sympathising with the country’s new citizens. The opportunity, freedom and 'inclusivity' offered by Chifley’s address was rarely extended to ‘coloured’ migrants, as the White Australia policy was still in place.
Acknowledgments
Reproduced with the permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales.
Learning resource text © Education Services Australia Limited and the National Archives of Australia 2010.
