A de Kretser Family who gained Aussie Citizenship in 1952

Hugh de Kretser, “An Early Burgher Migrant Family to Australia in 1952”

It’s Australian Citizenship Day. This is my dad’s family along with their citizenship application and certificate. They emigrated from Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) to Australia in 1949 and became Australian citizens in 1952.

This side of my family are Dutch Burghers – the descendants of Portuguese and Dutch settlers in Sri Lanka who, over centuries became of mixed European and Sri Lankan descent. Under the White Australia policy, my grandparents had to prove they were “predominantly European” by lodging their genealogy with the High Commission in Colombo. The High Commission thought the Dutch Burghers would make suitable Australian citizens but the arrival of “European” Sri Lankans with non-European appearances caused consternation, and in 1951 the Department of Immigration in Canberra told the High Commission in Colombo it: “should not authorise the entry of persons who are likely to cause adverse comment on arrival or be restricted from landing by immigration officers at the ports as being predominantly non-European in appearance.” Some Burghers with darker skin or less European ancestry had their applications refused.

The White Australia policy was finally dismantled in the 1970’s and we have had a non-racially discriminatory migration policy since. We need to keep it that way.