The Welcome Walls

Does your family have someone’s name listed on the Welcome Walls? Even if you don’t, they still tell some fascinating stories.

The Welcome Walls are at the front entrance to the Maritime Museum. Constructed between 2004 and 2010, those who registered had their name, year of arrival and ship of passage engraved for posterity. Over 400 panels pay tribute to migrants who arrived by sea, and to the way they enriched their new home. Their stories can be found on the Museums Internet site and on the kiosk located near the café in the Museum’s main foyer.

Some of the names date back to the pioneer era, such as John and Charlotte Davis who arrived in Parmelia in 1829, and whose descendants still live in WA.

The early migrants did not come unprotected. John Connolly was a soldier of the 63rd Regiment who came out as part of the colony’s defence force in 1829 in HMS Sulphur, a ship once commanded by the colony’s first Governor, James Stirling. The Jeffers family also came out in HMS Sulphur - in those days married soldiers could travel with their family and Edward Jeffers was accompanied by his wife and children.

James Baker arrived as a convict in Scindian in 1850. This was the first voyage of a convict ship to WA. He had stolen chickens and was transported for his trouble. Thomas Bush came out as the child of a pensioner guard in the last of the convict ships, Hougoumont, in 1868, and his ancestors still live in WA.

If you look around the panels you will find many names from the 1890s, reflecting the migration boom that came with the goldrushes at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, while those from the 1920s and 30s relate to the upheavals of the First World War and the international economic depression that followed.

Immigrants at Fremantle Migrant Immigration Office & Information Bureau, 1911.
Credit: State Library of Western Australia, 3051B/206