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Think ‘immigration’ and countless stories of courage and heart-rending tales of sorrow, separation, sheer exploitation and misery flock to the mind. The immigrants leave their motherlands, endure untold hardships and then go on to shape up the course of events in their adopted homelands. Come face-to-face with the stories from the lives of the immigrants to Victoria, Australia from the 1800s till date, at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne, one of the most popular Melbourne tourist attractions. The Immigration Museum, Melbourne is located within the Old Customs House building on Flinders Street and by a queer turn of fate, quite near the actual point from where the customs officials supervised the arrivals of the immigrants in the 19th century. The objects on display at the Immigration Museum include audio-visual presentations, photographs, textual documents, audio clips, personal artifacts, memoirs and memories in myriad forms to help you relate to the lives of the immigrants to Australia. A visit to the Immigration Museum, Melbourne is an emotional saga of sorts. Especially when you peek into the living quarters of the immigrants on a 1840s sailing vessel, its 17-meter replica rather. The space is nothing more than a pigeonhole and you will feel yourself shuddering at the mere thought of all those people living for days on end in these cramped confines. In stark contrast are the luxurious saloons of a steamer in the 1900s and the comfortable surrounds of a cabin in a 1950 ocean liner. Ready yourself for a confrontation with the emotional past of immigrants at the Melbourne Immigration Museum. The Immigration Museum also lodges within its premises the Sarah and Baillieu Myer Immigration Discovery Center, which is a library with resources on various migration and cross-cultural topics. One of the most frequented of the various Melbourne museums, the Immigration Museum doesn’t just stop after telling a few tales. It also strives to give you a complete understanding of the way and the extent of the influence that immigration has wrought on the lives of Australia’s natives. There is information on as many as 48 migrant communities, including their demographic details and settlement trends. Come to the Immigration Museum, Melbourne. Share a smile or shed a tear at the various stories of triumph and turbulence that are recounted here. But more than these, strike a chord with the people who have left behind everything to give Australia their all. One can be sure that there are not many museums in Australia, let alone museums in Melbourne that will evoke such powerful emotions.
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