Famous Ten Pound Poms from Hollywood actor to Prime Minister and superstar singers

BBC viewers have been tuning into the dramatisation of one of the largest planned migrations of the last century in Ten Pound Poms.

The show, which stars Michelle Keegan, Faye Marsay, from Game of Thrones and Warren Brown, from Luther, among others, follows a group of Brits who leave the UK in a bid to create a greater life in Australia.

With £10 boat tickets, promises of better job prospects, better homes and a better overall quality of life in the sun, around one million Brits made the journey after World War II.

But as the six-part series highlights, life on a new continent isn’t quite what the Brits might have expected when they arrive.

Viewers also might not be aware that there are some very famous real-life Ten Pound Poms.

READ MORE: Ten Pound Poms episode count explained as nightmare worsens for family

Kylie and Dannii Minogue

Sisters Kylie and Dannii Minogue, who were born in Melbourne, are actually the daughters of Ten Pound Poms.

Their parents – car company accountant Ronald Minogue and his wife and former ballet dancer Carole Ann – came over to Australia on the ship Fairsea in 1958.

This means that Kylie and Dannii are of English and Welsh descent, even though their surname is of Irish origin.

Also on board the ship Fairsea was the Gibb family, of Bee Gees fame. The brothers spent their first few years in the UK before they moved to Queensland. They also started their musical careers in Australia.

Hugh Jackman

Star of The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables and many more box office hit movies and stage shows, Hugh Jackman is the son of two Ten Pound Poms.

Even though Hugh was born in Sydney, his parents migrated from England to Australia in 1967 as part of the immigration scheme.

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott

Two former Australian Prime Ministers, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, also started out life in the UK.

Julia migrated with her family from Barry in Glamorgan, Wales in 1966 when she was four years old.

Her parents actually made the move in a bid to help cure Julia’s lung infection, with them hoping that the warmer climate would help.

Tony meanwhile migrated to Australia in 1960. His father had already lived in Australia, after arriving at the beginning of World War II, while his mother was an Australian expat living in the UK when he was born.

Ten Pound Poms airs weekly on Sunday nights at 9pm on BBC or all six episodes are available to watch now on the iPlayer.

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