Fits the Bill

This is a story of a person who experienced an extraordinary life during and after the Second World War. He was a Displaced Person (DP) who came to Australia, the promised land, from Germany by the famous USAT General Stuart Heintzelman the first migrant boat arrived in Australia in 1947.



The migrants arrived after the Australian Government realised how vulnerable its vast land was to foreign invasion and concluded that Australia had to "populate or perish". The Minister for Immigration instructed the selection officers purposely to find "good types" of immigrants; white skin, with blue eyes and blond hair; in order to make a good impression on a sceptical Australian public, and especially the trade union movement.



John Lipsius was one of the first Baltic migrants who fitted the bill for migration to Australia selected as one of the "good type" immigrants, white skin, blue eyes and blond hair.