State Library of Queensland > Find... > Virtual exhibitions > Travelling for Love

Travelling for love

This exhibition was displayed in the Philip Bacon Heritage Gallery, level 4, State Library of Queensland between 14 Feb – 1 Jun 2008. The following is an excerpt from this exhibition

Have you travelled for love?
Tell us your story.

Travel around the world and across three centuries in this exhibition of long distance love. This exhibition featured letters, diaries, embroideries, photographs and artworks of ten couples who have travelled in and out of Queensland to be with the ones they love.

Many stories in this exhibition come from a time before internet, SMS or e-mail, where main means of travel was by train or ship. Relationships developed and blossomed through regular correspondence. Travelling for love was a global phenomenon in the years after 1945. An estimated 12,000 Australian women married American serviceman and 5000 British women married Australian servicemen during World War II. Governments charted special ships and trains to reunite the couples.