Hello. I am looking for one of two records. First, I am trying to determine if the SS Amarapoora arrived in Australia in Jan or Feb 1950. If so, I’d like to have the exact date and arrival port. I have a list of displaced persons (including the family I’m searching for) who were said to be on board and leaving Germany / Italy 12 Jan 1950, but I cannot find an arrival date.
Second, the family I am searching for appears in the archives as arriving on the Castel Bianco in February, but I can’t find a manifest for that voyage with their names. Any suggestions for either search most welcome. Thank you.
Peter Plowman, in his book Australian Migrant Ships 1946-1977, on page 85, has the Amarapoora arriving twice in Australia in 1950. On the first occasion, she disembarked 631 passengers at Newcastle on 24 April. On the second trip, it was 634 passengers who left the ship at Newcastle on 15 September. Neither of those dates match your January or February 1950, but I have noted that Plowman sometimes makes errors. OTOH, your source may be wrong. I’ve just used Trove for a quick Advanced Search on the Amarapoora for the period 1950-01-01 to 1951-01-01, with results which seemed to match Plowman’s dates. I’ve also used RecordSearch for Amarapoora, 1950 to 1950, then clicked on the Series No. column to sort the results that way. There are 3 files in the Series A434 which are correspondence files about the ship’s 1950 voyages, and all include nominal rolls. Only one has been digitised, but start there, pay for more digitising if you have to, and you may get what you are looking for. If they definitely arrived in February 1950, though, you are looking for a different migrant ship! My list of migrant ships at <fifthfleet.net> may be of further help.
