Two researchers at the University of Sussex are on the look-out for some of the thousands of 'ten pound poms' who left Britain for a new life in Australia after the Second World War - but only if they came back. Dr Alistair Thomson and Dr Lani Russell, who are based at the University's Centre for Continuing Education, want to talk to migrants who later returned from Australia to Britain.

An enormous number of people - more than a million - migrated from Britain to Australia in the quarter century after 1945. Most went as assisted migrants, paying ten pounds for the journey.

Although these people were part of one of the largest planned migration schemes of the 20th century, historians know little about the experiences of those who emigrated - and even less about the quarter of them who returned to the UK.

Now the British-Australian Postwar Migration Research Project, conducted by Dr Thomson and Dr Russell, aims to put that right. If you migrated to Australia in the period 1945 to 1981 (whether under the assisted passage scheme or not) and then came back, they would like to hear from you.

The project, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board, complements research at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. Dr Jim Hammerton has been collecting accounts by British immigrants who remained in Australia, many in response to a 1996-8 BBC television documentary about 'The Ten Pound Poms'.

If you would like to participate, please send your contact details to Lani Russell, by phone: 01273 877774; email: l.russell@sussex.ac.uk; or letter: Dr L. Russell, British-Australian Postwar Migration Research Project, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RG.

The project team will then send you a request for some details about yourself and an account of your personal migration experience, together with a Freepost envelope.

Notes for Editors

For further information and details of two 'ten pound poms' who are available for interview, please contact Lani Russell (CCE), Tel. 01273 877774, Fax 01273 678848, email l.russell@sussex.ac.uk or Alison Field, Communications Officer, University of Sussex Tel: 01273 678888, Fax: 01273 877456, email: A.Field@sussex.ac.uk

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