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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000
The Polish
saga in Australia:
the Australian-Polish Community preserves its past
Polish: the language with all those jaw breaking consonant combinations and a grammar which, when even half-mastered, should give full membership to Mensa. Poland: the beautiful country with a fascinating history, whose people as a result of political and economic hardships have sought new homes all over the world.
Kosciuszko, Strzelecki, Zubrzycki, Malinowski, Stefaniak and Kruszelnicki are names known to a wide Australian population. Within the National Library we have Rozmus, Skurowski, Stawowczyk, Wojkowska, Biega and Horky. They get around, these Poles.
Thanks to the persuasive talents of the Director of the Polish Historical Institute in Australia, Andrew Kleeberg OAM, VM, JP, the National Library has received a special collection of material related to the Polish community in Australia.
The Polish Historical Institute in Australia and the Polonica collection were the brainchild of Andrew Kleeberg. He believes that it is the duty of his generation to preserve and secure the past for future generations. Through his own involvement in the AustralianPolish community, Andrew Kleeberg cajoled, persuaded and charmed individuals and organisations to assist in the creation of a basic infrastructure for the collection of documentary material on the experiences of those Poles who made Australia their home after World War II.
On 22 November representatives of the Library and the Institute signed a Deed of Gift which concluded lengthy negotiations to find the collection a permanent home.
Library staff who are also members of the Institute arranged a display of materials which show the many and varied links between the two countries, illustrating the following themes.
Participation
of Australian Airmen in the Warsaw Uprising, 1944
An Australia Remembers 19451995 initiative which
documents the story of 24 Australian flight crew personnel who delivered
vital supplies to the Polish Resistance and the Warsaw Uprising. This
selection also includes material on the subsequent reunion of six veterans
in Townsville in 1995 to unveil a memorial plaque and a second
presentation in Bull Creek, WA, 1999, and includes newspaper clippings,
correspondence, photographs, personal narratives and other writings,
decorations, a commemorative program, maps and official documentation.
Paul
Strzelecki
Includes the contribution and influence of Strzelecki on the Newcastle
Region as well as details of a Bicentennial exhibition Strzelecki
and the first Poles in Newcastle and other primary documents.
Immigration stories
Various unpublished accounts of life in Australian immigration camps in
Tasmania, Western Australia, 19471950. Correspondence relating to
the settlement problems of Poles in NSW, 19521954, as well as
statistics on Polish immigrants in 1978.
Histories
Various unpublished histories of individual Poles in Victoria, Queensland
and Tasmania, as well as papers of various Polish state and national
organisations including the various Federations of Polish Organisations,
the Polish Community Information Bureau and the Polish Ex-Servicemens
Association.
These and other materials recording the diverse strands of the PolishAustralian
experience are now located in the Librarys Manuscript collection.
Through the initiative of Library staff, the Institute has published in
Canberra a bibliography Materials in the National Library of Australia
on Poles in Australia, compiled in 1998 by Mark Biega, Wanda
Horky, Anna Skurowski and Teresa Wojkowska.
Joanna Biega
Above: Andrew Kleeberg, Director, Polish Historical Institute in Australia, signing the Deed of Gif. Margy Burn, Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections and Reader Services to his right with Library staff members Teresa Wojkowska and Wanda Horky. Photograph: Damian McDonald
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au