ASSIMILATING IMMIGRANTS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 7

ASSIMILATING IMMIGRANTS

Example Set By Mount Isa ft tßv NEIL IfUNRO, for Reuier.J * / BRISBANE. Australian, immigration authorities, keenly aware of the assimilation prooleep in mass migration, arr'pttblieMng an outback mining township in Queensland to prove that immigrants can be assimilated into the community. The township is Mount Isa, situated in tropical north-western Queensland. In no other town in Aus- ; tralia are immigrants being * assimilated so smoothly and* on such a large scale as in this e mining town, an immigration spokesman said recently. Here * j men of 40 different nationalities J; are employed by Mount Isa mines a* —new settlers who have come j* from all parts of Britain and \ Europe. « One of the main reasons for * the outstanding success of the . venture in assimilation could be | that life in this outback mining f town tends to bring Australians * and new settlers together socially as well as industrially. Scarcely * a country in the world has not * been represented on the payroll f at Mount Isa during its 34-year ? history. Even two Eskimos have been employed. The Mount Isa story began in l 1923, when a prospector, John * Campbell Miles, discovered silver- * lead there while on his way to . Darwin. He pegged two leases * Soon there were 500 leases in an area three miles wide and eight miles long. Mount Isa mines took » over all the leases in 1925 and > poured in millions of pounds of * Australian. British and American w capital to develop the field into * Queensland’s greatest single in- * dustrial enterprise. Deposits of »■ silver-lead, zinc and copper are *■ now worked. 5500 Tons a Day / * About 5500 tons of all ores are * mined daily. The miners use v. about 50 tons of explosives a month. Production is expected to w be trebled by 1961. Lead and copper concentrates are smelted at Mount Isa. Zinc concentrates are sent overseas for smelting The mines produce half of Australia’s copper and one fifth ol its lead. The mining company has its own dam which supplies water for the town and the mine powerhouse supplies electricity The largest group of immigrants v at Mount Isa is English-speaking Including English, Scottish. Irish and American groups, it forms more than 70 per cent, of the newcomers. Finns form the ** largest national group of any other people; it is the largest Finnish community in Australia These groups were the earliest settlers to arrive at Mount Isa. and are specialists in mining work. With Germans. Czechs. Italians and Hungarians they form most of the drilling crews. With 30 sporting and 140 social clubs, it is inevitable that the mostly unmarried immigrants should come into close contact not only with‘ Australians but with other nationalities. The provision of large-scale unmarried men’s quarters and dining hall facilities by the mines company is another important factor Living quarters are generally shared by two men. and it is not uncommon to find an Australian •nd Italian or Czech and Hungarian sharing the same room Old nationalisms are forgotten in the hustle of this flourishing town > of 10,000 people, where naturalisation ceremonies have become a routine part of lifeTo ensure a continued flow of the desired types of immigrants in the required numbers and categories of skill, the Commonwealth immigration planning council recently approved as policy that annual intakes must be sought from a variety of European countries as well as from Britain.