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The Fairfield City Museum and Gallery and the NSW Migration Heritage Centre would like to know the places and collections that members of the local community consider important to the migration heritage of the Fairfield area.
Fairfield City has a long association with the history of migration and settlement. Small settlers and convict labourers established agriculture in the region in the 1790s. Since then, migrants from all over the world have chosen to settle in the Fairfield council area. Others had little choice, living in government run migrant accommodation at Cabramatta and Villawood to be near their place of work. From World War One and Two internees to post-Second World War migrants, Fairfield has had a huge influx of migrants over the years, who have all worked together to lay the foundations in building the City of Fairfield. This has consequently led to much growth and development and has allowed Fairfield to become the thriving city that it is today.
There are extensive collections in local museums, community groups and family collections and there is enormous scope to showcase and promote the migration history of Fairfield.
It is not well known that over 130 nationalities live in the Fairfield Local Government Area and over three quarters of all residents have overseas ancestry. Fairfield is one of the most culturally diverse areas in Australia. This history documents the story of migration and settlement in Fairfield from its indigenous beginnings to our present day ‘city of migrants’.
Fairfield: Evolution Of A Migrant City was written by Dr Stephen Gapps for the NSW Migration Heritage Centre and Fairfield City Museum & Gallery as part of the ‘Migration Memrories’ thematic study. A web exhibition is proposed in 2012.
