Melbourne’s heritage-listed Station Pier was Victoria’s most important arrival point for migrants. Since 1854, the site has welcomed and processed millions of anxious and excited new arrivals. Today the pier continues to service interstate ferries and cruise ships.

The first stop in Australia for migrant ships was the Western Australian Port of Fremantle.

In the post war years, the journey from Europe to Australia took approximately one month. For those who travelled to Australia in the nineteenth century, the journey was much longer and far more and dangerous, sometimes taking as long as four months. By the turn of the twentieth century improvements in technology and routes meant the journey took only 35 or 40 days.

After World War II, many ships that had carried soldiers were converted to meet the urgent need for the transportation of migrants. Passenger comforts on these 'troop ships' were extremely limited. Large empty holds were fitted out with double or triple tiered bunks. The food was plain and sometimes inadequate. Many European migrants were not used to the English fare that they were given to eat, and missed their traditional spiced foods. Overcrowding was a common complaint. Everyone, including families, which were split up, was accommodated in men's and women's quarters.

Throughout the post-war period, the most common route taken from Europe was through the Suez Canal, although access was at times dictated by political circumstances. While the canal was closed, ships took the longer route, heading around the southernmost point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.

Stopovers were not only a practical necessity to restock the ship with fuel and food, but also a bonus for migrants, many of whom had never had the opportunity to travel before. Stopovers offered opportunities to meet the locals, bargain for souvenirs and organise sightseeing tours.

Travelling via the Suez Canal led to stopovers in Port Said in Egypt, followed by Suez at the southern end of the canal, the former British colonial outpost of Port Aden in Yemen, Sri Lanka’s (formerly Ceylon) capital of Colombo, and the Western Australian port of Fremantle before arriving in Melbourne.

The final leg of the journey out to Australia included a celebration when crossing the Equator. The origins of this ceremony go back to ancient times when sailors were very superstitious and made obsequious pleas to the God Neptune, the ruler of the seas, to bring them home safely. 'Neptune's Journey' or crossing the Equator has been a feature of immigrant voyages since the 1800s but became increasingly elaborate in the twentieth Century. Some ships would mark the occasion with a visit from King Neptune himself, certificates and celebrations.

Ocean liners remained the main form of transportation for immigrants to Australia well into the 1960s. However, wealthier immigrants had been migrating to Australia by air from the 1930s. The first organised flights for immigrants occurred in 1947, although it was not until the introduction of long-range jet aircraft a decade later that a significant number of migrants began to arrive by air.

Between 1945 and 1965, two million immigrants arrived in Australia. Most of them came from Briton and other European countries that had suffered terribly during the war. The decision by the Australian Government to increase immigration during this time was based on the notion of 'populate or perish'. The campaign initially targeted Britons with schemes such as 'Bring out a Briton', then expanded to provide assistance and reunion schemes to other Europeans.

Newly arrived migrants to Victoria in the post-war period would spend their first nights, days, weeks and sometimes months at migrant hostels, the home of relatives or friends, or at community-run temporary boarding houses. Hostels such as Bonegilla only accommodated assisted passage immigrants. Therefore, initial housing of unassisted passage migrants was the responsibility of the sponsor or guarantor. This resulted in formal and informal networks emerging within different migrant communities such as boarding houses and shared accommodation with relatives or friends.