Plan Martha

Due to the lack of a formal diplomatic contact between the two countries, it was an "informal" arrangement.Totoricagëna Egurrola (2008), pp.15-16. The agreement was facilitated by Monsignor George Crennan the National Director of the Federal Catholic Immigration Committee.Mason (2018), p.141.

Altogether, the Plan Martha groups "brought about 800 single women to Australia, from 1960 to the end of the scheme [in 1963]".García (2002), p.93.

::"The travellers were women who migrated under the belief that they were coming to Australia to work as domestic servants, when in fact they were called on to balance the sexes of the Spanish migrant population. As García explains in his work, the Australian Department of Immigration encouraged male migrants to nominate their single sisters of marriageable age to come to Australia, the purported motive being that some single migrants were even ‘killing themselves because of loneliness and failure to obtain a woman’ (Garcia 2002, p. 104)." — (Ortiz, 2019, p.34.)

The first Plan Martha group, of 18 young Spanish women, arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, at Melbourne Airport on 10 March 1960.Ortiz (2019), p.34.

Seven of the groups arrived in Australia at Melbourne Airport):Garcia (2002), pp.181.

• 10 March 1960: 18 young women.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EJ5VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sa0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7010%2C1822345 Senoritas from Spain, The Age, (Friday, 11 March 1960), p.3.][http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article176529370 First single girl migrants arrive from Spain, The Good Neighbour, (Friday, 1 April 1960), p.2.]
• 10 June 1960: 23 young women.
• 17 December 1960: 23 young women.
• 13 March 1961: 60 young women.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=v55VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UrMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6887%2C2168408 Fiancees, The Age, (Tuesday, 14 March 1961), p.5.][https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NoFWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IeYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6858%2C4346952 Senoritas to Work in Sydney Homes, The Sun-Herald, (Sunday, 19 March 1961), p.25.]
• 14 June 1961: 57 young women.
• 24 June 1961: 64 young women.
• 2 February 1963: 60 young women.

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|title =GRAPE-PICKERS WORK IN NUDE

|quote =                                     MILDURA, Sunday.

   Five young married Spanish women, in the nude, have been

picking grapes at a vineyard at Merbein. But the location of the

vineyard has been one of the best-keep secrets of the district

and the women are believed to have left the area.

   Merbein Police had heard of the nude grape-pickers but did

not know the whereabouts of the property.

   The Commonwealth Employment Service, which brought the

Spanish women to Sunraysia, with other harvest workers, also

heard of the nude grape-pickers but officers did not know

which grower was employing the nudists.
   The district employment officer, Mr. Rex Carter, said: "Quite

a few Spaniards came here this season but they were split into

groups.

   "Each of the four employment officers in the district shared

in the distribution of the Spaniards," he said.

   The Spanish women, working as pickers, came with their

husbands, but the five nudists apparently worked together

on one block and their husbands worked on one or another

of the blocks.

   No official report about the nudists has been made to police,

"but we have heard about them", the officer-in-charge of

Merbein Police Station, Sen.-Const. M. O'Donnell, said today.

   "It sounded a bit strange to us because we always had the
idea that Spanish women were very modest types", he said.

                   The Canberra Times, 4 March 1963.

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On Sunday, 3 March 1963, the Sydney Sun-Herald, published an (unattributed "fake news") article, entitled "Nude Girls Picking Grapes" — allegedly sourced from Mildura, Victoria on the previous day — that reported that "five young Spanish women have been working in the nude at a vineyard near here to beat the heat"."Nude Girls Picking Grapes", Sun-Herald, (Sunday, 3 March 1963), p.22.

According to García (2002, p. 71), "there were heated discussions about [the article] after Spanish chaplain Father Benigno Martin gave mass in Albion St., Sydney".

Although not reported in the Victorian press, the article was repeated, with some (very minor) stylistic variations, the next day in The Canberra Times, the newspaper of the nation's capital city (full text at right).[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104589262 Grape-Pickers Work in Nude, The Canberra Times, (Monday, 4 March 1963), p.5.]

The Merbein matter was the subject of one of Molnar's page two editorial cartoons in the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 March 1963.Sydney Morning Herald, (Wednesday, 6 March 1963), p.2.Molnar's cartoon is reproduced at García (2002), p.71.

Noting his concern for "the good name of the women of Spain", the Sydney Morning Herald of 5 March 1963 reported that the Consul-General for Spain in Australia, Mr. José Luis Díaz, had flown to Mildura.

In the company of two Merbein policemen, inspected a number of vineyards in the district, Mr. Díaz had found that all of the women involved "had worn plenty of clothes in the traditional Spanish manner" at the time in question, and that he was entirely "convinced [that] the report about the nude Spanish women was not true".Spanish Check on Nude Pickers, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Tuesday, 5 March 1960), p.4.

• Operation Kangaroo
• Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary

{{Reflist}}

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• Garcia, Ignacio (2002), Operación Canguro: the Spanish Migration Scheme, 1958-1963, Jamison Center, ACT: Spanish Heritage Foundation.
• Mason, Robert (2018), The Spanish Anarchists of Northern Australia: Revolution in the Sugar Cane Fields, Cardiff : University of Wales Press. {{ISBN|1-786-83308-5}}
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46237461 Munday, Winifred (1960), "Valentina: Maid from Spain: She's One of the Family Now", The Australian Women's Weekly, (Wednesday, 24 August 1960), p.7.]
• [https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/136177/2/02whole.pdf Ortiz, Natalia 2019), "Home Sweet Home" and the Myth of Returning Among Spanish Migrants in Australia:] An exegesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, February 2019.
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51384992 Rowland, Noni, "The Lsughing Senoritas", The Australian Women's Weekly, (Wednesday, 16 August 1961), p.6.]
  also see: [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51602332 The Weekly Round, The Australian Women's Weekly, (Wednesday, 18 October 1961), p.2.]
• [https://www.sea.museum/2018/08/06/operation-kangaroo Tao, Kim (2018), The 60th anniversary of the Spanish migration agreement], Australian National Maritime Museum, 6 August 2018.
• Totoricagëna Egurrola, Gloria (2008), Australia : Vasconia and the Lucky Country, Victoria-Gasteiz [Spain]: Eusko Jaurlaritzaren Argitalpen Zerbitzu Nagusia = Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco. {{ISBN|8-445-72791-5}}
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page20745379 Expertly Domestic, The Good Neighbour, (Friday, 1 September 1961), pp.4-5.]
• [https://origins.museumsvictoria.com.au/countries/spain Immigration History from Spain to Victoria], Museums Victoria, 2017.
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n7cyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GOYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3509%2C5475385 Migrants Plead for Girls, The (Sydney) Sun-Herald, (Sunday, 14 February 1960), p.23.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189246725 New Australians Wed Local Girls, The Biz, (Wednesday, 21 November 1956), p.25.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130715091 What People are Doing: Information Letter for Spanish, The Canberra Times, (Tuesday, 20 July 1961), p.5.]

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Category:Human migration

Category:History of immigration to Australia

Category:Spanish emigrants to Australia

Category:Australia–Spain relations