The peopling of Australia since 1788

Why do some people leave their family and friends to start a new life on the other side of the world? What is it like to be forced from your home?

Horizons explores multicultural Australia and examines how each group, from British convicts to Sudanese refugees, has contributed to the richness of Australian society.

Horizons also examines the emotional side of migration - the longing for home, sadness, confusion, or joy and freedom.

The journey begins with the early stages of British settlement and the first migrants the convicts. It also highlights the importance of the early visionaries who worked to create a better society.

Through the use of biographies, images and objects, Horizons also looks at how Australia's growth was made possible by official immigration.

Meet people such as Mei Quong Tart, a Chinese businessman who spoke English with a Scottish accent (due to his living with a Scottish family as a child), and Rose Deng, who fled the civil war in Sudan and migrated to Australia with her children in 1997.

Horizons is laden with rich objects and images. These include traditional Castellorizian costume worn by a Greek migrant, an English settler's toy farmyard set, crockery from a convict housewife's kitchen, and an Italian barber's shaving tools.

As a whole, these objects and images serve as little windows onto Australia's very big past.