Word.ws English Dictionary

ten pound tourist

ten pound tourist noun: an assisted immigrant to Australia from Britain, from the decades following World War II.

Noun

ten pound tourist (plural ten pound tourists)

  1. (Australia, UK) An assisted immigrant to Australia from Britain, from the decades following World War II.
    • In 1971 my own (Anglo-Celtic) parents traveled from the “Mother country” (the United Kingdom) as assisted immigrants, among the last of the “ten-pound tourists.” My brother and I traveled free (see Appleyard et al. 1988).2003, Ian Maxwell, Notes: Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down Under Comin′ Upper, page 251
    • Billy′s parents were ‘ten pound tourists’, arriving in Australia in 1962.2006, James Knight, Just Doing My Job, unnumbered page
    Synonyms:
    ten pound Pom

Synonyms of ten pound tourist

Forms of ten pound tourist

pluralten pound tourists
alternative formten-pound tourist

Origin of ten pound tourist

From ten + pound (“unit of currency”) + 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. The term tourist refers to the obligation (only) for participants to remain in Australia for two years; some elected to return after this time.

Questions about ten pound tourist

What does ten pound tourist mean?
Ten pound tourist means an assisted immigrant to Australia from Britain, from the decades following World War II.
What part of speech is ten pound tourist?
Ten pound tourist is a noun.
What is the plural of ten pound tourist?
The plural of ten pound tourist is ten pound tourists.

Words near ten pound tourist in the dictionary

  1. ten points for Gryffindor
  2. ten points from Gryffindor
  3. ten points to Gryffindor
  4. ten pound pom
  5. ten pound poms
  6. ten pound tourist
  7. ten pound tourists
  8. ten sack
  9. ten sacks
  10. ten thousand
  11. ten thousands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ten pound tourist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-ten pound tourist.ogg.

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