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Belongings

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"It was brought over from Malta and used for cooking and warming washing water in our first home. My mother thought we might need it in Australia. The cast-iron primus is of European design and silver painted."
Pauline Peadon

Meet Pauline Peadon and see her spiritera from Malta.
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"My Aunty Caterina asked us to bring her one, no-one had one here. In Italy, we boil the ripe tomatoes, then squeeze [them] through the sieve. We would do this every time we have pasta sauce which was a lot."
Carmela Pasquetti

Meet Carmela Pasquetti and see her tomato sieve from Italy. Continue reading →

"I used it to write diary notes on the ship and for English night classes in Griffith with my brother. I remember I copied what my brother wrote. He wrote it down wrong and I wrote it down wrong too!"
Salvatore Papasidero

Meet Salvatore Papasidero and see the exercise book he used for English classes in Australia.
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"This gift for my Barmitzvah was given by Umbo, a Chinese employee of my father. It is symbolic of the friendship between the Chinese and the Jewish communities."
Peter Nash

Meet Peter Nash and see the Chinese vases given to him as a Barmitzvah gift.
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"This set square from Hungary is a reminder of my education, but also of the education I was unable to attain [during the Communist era], although I had the ability."
Imre Molnar

Meet Imre Molnar and see his school book from Communist Hungary.
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"These three plates show scenes of Croatia. We got these when we visited in 1983."
Milan Mesic

Meet Mick Mesic and see his plate from Croatia. Continue reading →

"We bought this traditional St Nicholas figurine when we went back to Croatia to visit family."
Julie Mesic

Meet Julie Mesic and see her St Nicholas figurine from Croatia.
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"My husband was a fine cabinetmaker. I have one [item from] the early years when we come out here - just a little cassette. I didn’t ask him, he just made it for me. He made this type of furniture in Austria."
Elizabeth Mergl

Meet Elizabeth Mergl and see the clock she used to time feeding her baby son as they fled from Hungary to Austria in 1944. Continue reading →

"This photo shows my mother, father and myself looking at the albums."
Frederick Mayer

Meet Frederick Mayer and see the photograph albums documenting his life until in the 1950s. Continue reading →

Helen: "In 1989 we went to the Ukraine and my husband's [Sam] sister gave them to me. She had made them a long time ago."
Helen & Sam Lihos

Meet Helen Lihos and see her hand embroidered dress from the Ukraine. Continue reading →

"The headset signified an achievement in my professional life as I had completed my commercial licence. I was now a pilot and thought, I'm a professional and am going to buy a really good headset."
Sussan Ley

Meet Sussan Ley and see her pilot’s headset. Continue reading →

"I was only four year old when we left England. I remember vaguely Aden when we pulled up along the Suez 'cause of all the camels and the baskets on rope."
Stewart Lee

Meet Stewart Lee and see the postcard of the ship he came to Australia on in 1955.
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"When I was ten, I received a thimble from my godmother Dora. My mother used to make me embroider doilies for my godmother, aunts and grandmother every year. They must have been so sick of doilies!"
Inga Krain

Meet Inga Krain and see her sugar cube holder from Germany. Continue reading →

"I carried that suitcase everywhere, bringing the light green, metal case with me across from Greece. The suitcase was small - about 50 centimetres wide and 30 centimetres in height - but it was all I needed and I carved my name into the metal."
George Kotsiros

Meet George Kotsiros and see his Greek-English dictionary. Continue reading →

Bill: "The tools were all mine - two planes, a wooden mallet, chisels, a saw and a saw setter. I used them in Holland and then a little bit in the beginning in Australia until more modern tools were available."
Bill & Henny Kloosterman

Meet Bill Kloosterman and see his carpentry tools from Holland.
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"I bought this wallet peacetime in Estonia. Then you can buy anything what you want."
John Kena

Meet John Kena and see his tractor driving license from 1941 when Estonia was Soviet-occupied. Continue reading →

"These are the tickets for the ship that brought us from South Africa to Australia."
Esther Katz

Meet Esther Katz and see her boat tickets from South Africa to Australia in 1960.
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"Our ship was burning and the smoke was so thick I could hardly see. I was wearing a chain with St Christopher around my neck; an old girlfriend in Germany had given it to me as a good luck charm. The chain got caught on the lever of a door which was a chute that goes down to the engine room. I think St Christopher saved my life!"
Karlheinz Otto Karthauser

Meet Karl Karthauser and see the St. Christopher medal that saved his life in 1958.
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The Hungarian national costume worn by Yolanda Takacs' granddaughter, Joanna Morcom.
Yolanda Takacs

Meet Yolanda Takacs and see her Hungarian national costume.
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"The statue is made of hand-painted fine bone china. It was acquired in Italy in the 1850s and passed on to me through my husband's grandmother and mother. It was a wedding gift to his grandmother from the local friars."
Domenica Scarcella

Meet Domenica Scarcella and see her statue of the Madonna, a family heirloom from Italy.
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bedcover
Teresa Restifa

Meet Teresa Restifa and see the bedcover purchased in the 1940s for her mother’s glory box.
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"It belonged to my grandmother [and] the shell was always with her. It fascinated me from the minute I could read and was something she let me have, hold and look at. She died when I was 15 [and] it was something I’ve always kept."
Annie Page

Meet Annie Page and see her grandmother’s shell from Canada. Continue reading →

"This is the last remaining piece of my cutlery set which I received as a wedding gift before we left Italy. After Bonegilla I only have one knife left now – you see, I lent them out to other people at Bonegilla and they did not come back. It was a 24 piece set: six knives, spoons, forks and teaspoons. Sometimes I wonder where all those cutlery pieces ended up!"
Edda Marcuzzi

Meet Edda Marcuzzi and see the remaining item from her 24-piece cutlery set.
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"I made these comic books 1948-1949 in Taranto, Italy when we were in the refugee camps. My mother gave me money to buy fruit and I would buy these comics instead! I did a course in bookbinding at another camp in Averso, Italy."
Bruno Ladogna

I was born in 1935. My mother Caterina and I were originally from Pola in Istria, then in Italian territory. Continue reading →

Sophia Kanna with her blanket
Sophia Kanna

Meet Sophia Kanna and see her family blanket from Iraq. Continue reading →

"We sold everything we had in Norway and brought out mostly clothing and a sewing machine. I used to make clothes for the children and made my own dresses."
Dagmar Kanck

Meet Dagmar Kanck and see the sewing machine she brought with her from Norway to Broken Hill in 1952.
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"It was hard to have left my mother. She took it pretty hard. There's these things from my mother – these little bells. I look at them and remember her."
Johann Kaiser

Meet Hans Kaiser from Tweed Heads and see his mother’s see his miniature cow bells from Austria.
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"Given at a farewell tea by the Indian families of the children I had treated, it was unexpected and moving gift. I felt overcome by the gesture and stammered through a thank you speech."
Ron Joffe

Meet Ron Joffe and see the cutlery set he was given at his farewell in South Africa.
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"I flew to Sydney in 1963. I wore a big, flat, wide tie and the trousers were wide-bottomed. Because of this I had plenty of attention from people - it was a good way to meet friends!"
George Varughese

Meet George Varughese and see the outfit he wore when he arrived in Australia in 1963.
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"I brought it from Kerala in 1969 and kept it because it's good silk material. Now I only wear saris for functions."
Rose Varughese

Meet Rose Varughese and see the sari she brought with her to Australia in 1969.
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Ingrid Cohen
George Coutsoumbes
Esther Katz
Walter Schmied
Stefania Petryk
Marta Aquino

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Telephone +61 (02) 9217 0111
500 Harris Street, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia
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The Migration Heritage Centre at the Powerhouse Museum is a NSW Government initiative supported by the Community Relations Commission.



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