ten pound pom

noun

An assisted immigrant to Australia or New Zealand from Britain, from the decades following World War II.

Meanings

ten pound pom1

nounten pound pom (plural ten pound poms)

plural ten pound poms · alternative ten pound Pom

  1. AustraliaNew ZealandAn assisted immigrant to Australia or New Zealand from Britain, from the decades following World War II.

    Under the slogan “Populate or Perish”, the government reintroduced assisted passages from Britain - the “ten-pound-poms” - also accepting substantial numbers of European refugees.

    2004, Margo Daly, Alison Cowan, Adrian Proszenko, The Rough Guide to Sydney, page 323
    2 more examples

    She was able to overcome the hurdles of the Immigration Department because she had actually been born in Adelaide five years before, the child of ‘ten pound Poms’ who were now re-returning to Australia.

    2008, Eric Richards, Preface: Destination Australia: Migration to Australia Since 1901, page xiii

    2008, Timothy Darvill, “Jones, Rhys Maengwyn (1941-2001)", entry in Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, 2nd Edition, unnumbered page, On graduating he became one of the last ‘ten-pound poms′ by migrating to Australia under a scheme where the individual paid £10 and the Australian government paid the rest of the fare for a one-way journey.

    Synonyms: ten pound tourist

ten pound Pom2

nounten pound Pom (plural ten pound Poms)

plural ten pound Poms

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAn assisted immigrant to Australia or New Zealand from Britain, from the decades following World War II.

nounSynonym of ten pound tourist.

Origin

From ten + pound (“unit of currency”) + pom (“British person”); compare ten pound tourist. An allusion to the immigrant′s contribution (in sterling) paid for passage to Australia under an assisted immigration scheme, the remainder being paid by the Australian government. The scheme operated from 1946 to 1982; in 1973 the immigrant contribution was increased to £75.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ten pound pom. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ten%20pound%20pom

MLA

“ten pound pom.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ten%20pound%20pom. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ten pound pom,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ten%20pound%20pom.

Source: ten pound pom on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.