Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z On the Box Timewatch: The Ten Pound Poms

Timewatch: The Ten Pound Poms will be broadcast on Saturday, 2 February at 2010 GMT on BBC Two. The programme was made by Essential Viewing Group.

After World War II many Britons were sold the dream of a new life in Australia, seduced by a fare of just £10. Over one-and-half million went, but what became of the Ten Pound Poms?

For young newlyweds John and Sylvia Cannon "it seemed like an amazing adventure for the price".

John, now 68, worked as a sales clerk for a car company in London's East End and like most working class Britons, they could never have afforded the real cost of the voyage. At £120 it was nearly half of John's yearly wage.

Like many others they were seduced by government propaganda films in glorious technicolour, which sold the dream of a modern British way of life in the sun.

It was a chance to escape post-war rationing and a housing shortage. Australia was sold as a land of boundless opportunity. In the first year alone 400,000 Britons applied to migrate.

Australia desperately wanted white British stock to populate its shores and build its burgeoning post-war economy.

The racist law, known as The White Australia Policy, meant blacks or Asians need not apply. Britain was more than happy to oblige, helping to populate the Commonwealth with Britons.

Beginning in 1947, it was one of the largest planned mass migrations of the 20th Century. Some were transported in refitted troop ships.

But John and Sylvia, who left for Australia in 1961, were among the lucky ones and found themselves on one of the P&O liners equipped with swimming pools, luxury cabins and more food than they could possibly eat.