A group of Baltic women migrants in Melbourne, 1948

A group of Baltic women, having after spending some time at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp, are all smiles on Spencer Street in Melbourne, Victoria. The women are heading to the Austin Hospital to begin training as nurses.

After the Second World War, the Australian Government began to accept migrants from displaced persons camps across Europe. The first shipload arrived in Australia in 1947 from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They were all young and single and quickly became known as the ‘beautiful Balts’.