Access memories: More than 300,000 post-war migrant ID cards to be available online

Looking at her identification card, Doina Eitler starts talking about the long hair she wore in plaits when she arrived in Australia in 1949 as a 10-year-old.More than 300,000 identification cards and records will be available online"My mother wouldn't allow me to cut it because she thought I would go astray," she laughs.

Arriving from Austria, Donia and her family were some of the thousands of migrants who lived at Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre after World War II., telling the stories of more than 300,000 migrants who lived there while they were processed and assigned jobs.Now 83, Ms Eitler is happy her family's records will be digitised with an $800,000 regional tourism grant from the Victorian government."If it is online, it is there forever," Ms Eitler said.

Her family's identification cards alone are enough to prompt many memories for Donia of her time at Bonegilla. For example, her mother's missing occupation."Mainly because she couldn't speak English and no one would have been able to understand her."The Victorian government this week announced the $800,000 grant from the Regional Tourism investment fund.Regional Development Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the funding would also help grow visitor numbers to the area.

"I know with one in 20 people having a connection to Bonegilla, this is only going to grow as an attraction and an experience," she said. "The $800,000 will help digitise more than 300,000 individual records and will also provide funding for an interpretation of those records."

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