1945–1980: Suburban City
On a cool breezy Sunday in December 1947, a small group of people gathered on the pier at Port Melbourne. Among them was Arthur Calwell, Australia’s first minister for immigration.
They awaited the HMAS Kanimbla, a troop ship bringing to Melbourne the first “displaced persons” from war-torn Europe. A train waited alongside the ship, destined for the newly opened Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre.
Within two decades, almost one million immigrants had disembarked in Melbourne – from countries as diverse as Britain, Latvia, Italy and Greece. The city’s cultural transformation had begun.
Key Dates
1945
Melbourne’s population: 1,180,200
1945
World War two ends
1948
First Holden car rolls off the production line at Fishermen’s Bend
1954
Royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II – the first by a reigning monarch
1956
Melbourne Olympic Games
1956
Television transmission begins in Melbourne
1960
Chadstone opens – Melbourne’s first suburban shopping mall
1967
Ronald Ryan is hanged at Pentridge Prison, the last man to be legally executed in Australia
1970
70,000 people march in protest against the Vietnam War
1970
Melbourne’s international airport opens at Tullamarine
1977
Last ocean liner carrying assisted immigrants docks in Melbourne
1978
West Gate Bridge opens
1980
Melbourne’s population: 2,787,400