A DOUBLE CELEBRATION

Yesterday was Mother's' Day and our 40th wedding anniversary.

I received phone calls from all my children and flowers. I LOVE flowers. I wish it was Mothers' Day every week. (They all live too far away for a visit)

In the evening we celebrated our Ruby Anniversary with friends at Toni's Restaurant.

Still happy after 40 years.

This photo was 40 years ago, just before we were married. Sadly, our wedding photos were a disaster. We only knew each other a few months before we were married and many friends didn't think it would last. Funny thing is most of them have divorced but our love has continued to grow. Looks like Bill's hair has slipped from his head to his chin now.

The food is good at Toni's.

We received some lovely gifts.

Ruby dessert glasses

a lovely orchid

and ruby Bromeliad

STARTING TO BUILD THE HOUSE

My Dad drove a PMG truck for a living. At first he drove linesmen and equipment to where they were installing new telephones. Later he became a telephone technician, learning on the job. He was allowed to bring the truck home which was a help in saving fares for him to get to work.

Mum was getting used to pioneer life but soon she got a job as a psychiatric nurse in Darlinghurst, Sydney. I'm guessing here, but she probably decided it was the best way to be able to get a loan for building materials and a few professionals, like plumbers, tilers, and electricians to help build the house. She used to work long shifts, including night duty. Some days she left at 4:00 am to walk to the station for the train to Sydney. It took her over an hour to get to work. My brother and I got ourselves to school with Dad's help. For a short time I was looked after by a neighbour after school. I didn't like it, especially as I had to bath with their little son, who let a pooh float to the top one day. So I soon convinced my parents I could take care of myself after school, with David's help.
Dad was still working every weekend on the finishing touches to the garage. There was a shortage of building supplies and skilled workers so he had to wait for a while to get bricks and timber.

So we had some fun on those weekends. They took us to the famous Sydney Taronga Park Zoo. We had to catch trains and a ferry on the harbour it was fun.
Even though my mum was so busy, she found time to make me a fancy dress costume (The Queen of Hearts) for the school fete competition.

Dad couldn't get enough bricks so he used concrete blocks as well to build the foundations. Mum helped on her days off.

The foundations for the front of the house are complete.

The floor joists are on. David and I painted them with creasote to protect them.

Dad wrote on the back of this photo, " All hands to help erect the kitchen wall. Lofty, a friend is on the left, a carpenter in the middle and yours truly on the right . David in front and Diane is acting foreman."

Even though money was scarce, Mum bought me a new party dress and new sandals for a friend's birthday party. But I didn't wear dresses often. I was a real Tom Boy. I was rapidly becoming an Aussie kid. I loved climbing trees and playing in the 'bush'. On the back of this photo Mum has written:

" This is 'Trousers' tree climbing at the back of the garage, on part of the 1500 sq. ft. that I still have to clear for the garden."

We have been in Australia for one year and we are loving it. I had already picked up the Australian accent. When I first went to school the kids used to stand around me and ask me to say something because it sounded funny. So I soon learned to talk like them. My Dad used to say to me , "You sound like a bloody Australian." But it had no effect, I couldn't help talking like my peers. Today no one would guess I was born in England.

My Mum and Dad get a rare chance to party. This was a house warming party given by the neighbours who had taken us in when we were washed out of the tent. My parents were well accepted by our Aussie neighbours.

By 1951 the framework for the the front of the house was finished. Often people only finished half the house and lived in it while they saved enough for the rest. Mum was looking pretty happy by this stage. The goal of owning their own home was coming true. Something that would probably not have been possible if they had stayed in England. On the back of the beach photo mum had written:
"We occasionally had a weekend off and went to the beach."  (Wollongong.)

Wanda Beach sand dunes were fun to climb and run and roll down.

LIVING IN A GARAGE

David and I returned home from the Saturday afternoon pictures to find our tent almost blown away and the humpy in shreds. Mum and Dad were lifting our belongings out of the water and mud that had washed through the tent in a torrent. Luckily kind neighbours took us in, they had just completed their house. David nad I helped carry our belongings down the road to their house. We were beginning to experience the famous, friendly, helpful Aussie spirit.
During the six months living in the tent, my dad had found a job driving a semi trailer for a brewery and David and I had started school. Dad didn't like the job very much as driving on the narrow roads with a huge truck was a lot harder and more dangerous than in England. Soon he found a better job driving a smaller truck for the Post Master General's Dept. He also learnt to be a telephone technician. With every penny he earned he bought building materials to construct a garage to live in. Every weekend he spent building, even though he had no building skills. Members of the little community of Loftus were very supportive of one another and helped each other build their garages and houses. So Dad would go off and help others and he was a quick learner, then when he could afford timber or bricks, the neighbours would help him. Years later when the house was completed, I remember hearing him proudly say to visitors, "Yes, we built the house ourselves and I had never knocked a nail in before I came to Australia!"

The garage was almost completed when we were washed out of the tent, so we were only a few weeks boarding with neighbours, while the electricity and water was connected to the garage.

David, Sandy the dog and me outside our new home about Dec 1949.

Then we moved into the garage that would be our home for the next 5 years. Our cousin's dog "Sandy" adopted David and I and followed us everywhere and protected us. My mother worked along side my dad and helped with the building. She held up timbers, painted and constructed ......

Sweeping the crazy paving outside the garage

...this crazy paving pathway, which I had to sweep on weekends. Mum loved the natural rocks we had in the back yard and while most neighbours blasted their rocks away, mum insisted on keeping ours, which she turned into a lovely rockery garden.

Our home for the next 5 years

Our home from the street. We still had the laundry tubs outside but we had a sink inside, which doubled as a kitchen sink and a bathroom basin. We didn't have a real bathroom. We had an iron bathtub that we kept outside and carried it inside on bath days, which was probably once a week since we were typical pommies. Mum and Dad had a bed in the main room, which also had a kitchen table and chairs, two old lounge chairs, and an ice box. There was a little kitchen area in the walkway to David's and my bedroom, where we slept in bunks. Naurally, we had an outside dunny (toilet) and yes I got used to it. Mum kept it very clean but we still had to be wary of red back spiders and snakes. We thought the garage was a palace after the tent and we were very happy living there.

David, Sandy and me outside
7 Eighth Ave,  Loftus.

David and me (and Sandy) in Eighth Ave. Loftus in front of our place, with the home made bread and milk box. Today it is a typical tar sealed, suburban road full of houses and front fences.

The letter box tree, National Ave, Loftus
  about 1950

 Our mail wasn't delivered to our street, we had to go down the road turn the corner and go up the hill, where there was a tree with all the letter boxes nailed to it of the people who lived in Eighth and Ninth Avenue.

EXCITEMENT TURNS INTO DESPAIR

My parents were excited to be arriving in their new homeland, but the excitement was not to last. As my mother's diary came to an end before we landed in Melbourne, I will endeavour to continue the story through photos and my own memories.

Arriving in Melbourne February 1949

Little Collins St Melbourne

Leaving Melbourne for Sydney.

Entering Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour at 6:00am on 13 February, 1949

 Our destination was Sydney.We were all very excited as we left Melbourne and I suspect my parents were wondering what the future held for them. I felt secure because I had my Mum and Dad to look after me. In those days migrants had to have a sponsor in Australia, who would provide a home for them until they found work and a place to live. My parents were sponsored by my mother's cousin. My parents had never met her and didn't know her at all, except for a few letters to arrange the sponsorship.

We arrived in Sydney Harbour at 6:00 am on 13 th February 1949. Unfortunately I can't remember anything about that day. However, I do remember staying at the cousin's house in Hurstville, a southern suburb of Sydney. There was Mr and Mrs D. He was mousy and she was a dragon. She wouldn't allow us to keep our suitcases in the house, they had to be stored under the house in the dark with the myriad of Australian creepy crawlies. So every time we wanted a change of clothes, Mum had to scrabble under the house to get them for all of us. The dragon lady fed us sparingly, toast and Vegemite for breakfast. I think everyone in the world knows how revolting Vegemite is if you haven't had it since a child. Luckily I learnt to like it. I remember my brother very politely asking for more potatoes at one meal and Mrs D. flew into a rage complaining we were eating them out of house and home. My Mum told me how Mrs D. would follow us around with a dust pan and broom if we walked into the house with shoes on. One of the worst experiences that I remember was my first visit to the toilet. It was in the back yard and consisted of the little house with a seat over a pan. It was full of the weekly human deposits together with millions of maggots and many flies. The smell was disgusting. After retching, my mother convinced me this is where I had to do a pooh. Afterwards, I said to her, "I am never going to the toilet again." I was serious and didn't understand why my Mum smiled at me.

My Dad went looking for work, while my Mum persevered living with a mean , unhelpful , dragon lady for a week. At the end of the week we caught a train to Loftus to visit Mrs D's brother, who might help us find somewhere to live. Loftus was a developing suburb much further south of Sydney. It was still a virgin bushland area, with sandy tracks for roads. We tried to find the address but .......

Lost in the bush and loving it.

.....we got lost in the bush but Mum was happy to be out of the dragon lady's sight. Some locals helped us find our way to: 3 Eighth Ave. Here we were welcomed by Mum's other cousin Walter and his wife Betty. They were very friendly, kind and helpful and they weren't fond of his mean sister.

He explained to us how people who were settling out here bought the land fairly cheaply, put up a tent and lived on the land, while they built a garage to live in. Then they built their house. Walter and Betty were living in a big old army bell shaped tent and were in the process of building their garage.

Betty, Walter and Mum and the typical outside "dunny"

Walter had three blocks of land adjoining. One was for his son and one was for investment and he offered to sell it to my parents for 125 Pounds, if they were interested.

Loftus Station 1949

That evening we caught the funny little rail motor train from Loftus Station back to Sutherland and changed to an electric train back to Hurstville, where we arrived after dark. The house was in darkness and we hadn't been allowed a key. I was sleepy and I don't remember what happened but I have been told the story. My Parents knocked on the door and no one answered but somehow my parents knew the mean cousins were home and had locked us out on purpose. My Dad had to call the police to get the door opened. The cousins gave some cock and bull story to the police so they left, and we had a bed for the night. I can just imagine the pain my parents went through that night. They only had about 250 Pounds in the bank. They couldn't return to England as we were "10 Pound Poms". The name given to assisted migrants, who only paid 10 Pounds for the voyage to Australia. The deal was we had to stay for two years like it or not. So they knew they had to make a go of it here. However my mother was so miserable in this house she said to my Dad, " I would rather sleep under a tree before I stay in this house another day."
So the next day we went back to see kind cousin Walter, and offered to buy the block of land next door but one. My Mum told him about our hassles with his sister and he said we could stay and share his tent until we could buy one of our own. I remember David and I slept on the ground and my parents in chairs . I don't remember being worried or upset. I think my brother and I thought it was like camping and all a bit exciting. I think my parents did a great job of shielding us from the anguish that they must have been experiencing at this time.

Erecting our tent, our temporary home. David and I are standing next to Dad who is bending over. We don't have any shirts on. It was very hot

Betty and Walter were very helpful and in no time they had found a neighbour who had just moved into their garage and they would sell us their tent. All the neighbours in the area were extremely friendly and helpful.They all came to help Mum and Dad construct a wooden floor for the tent.

Our tent home after a storm.

Mum and Dad built a "humpy" attached to the tent where we ate. Mum had to learn to cook on a wood stove you can see outside in a little shed. We had a bath in the laundry tub on bricks outside. We didn't have electricity or water. We carried water in a bucket from a tap situated a block away, about 300 metres. This picture was taken when a bad storm came and almost blew the humpy down. Water surged through the tent and everything was wet.

ARRIVAL IN AUSTRALIA

Wednesday 2nd February 1949

Weather glorious today. Hot but not too much as there is a strong breeze. Children’s sports on deck today. Saw dolphins leaping from the ocean. We are about 20 degrees below the equator. Have got a lovely tan by now, but some passenger’s skin burns when only 20 mins in the sun, even when it is cloudy.
David went to visit the Captain’s bridge. He steered the ship, saw compasses and all the other instruments.
Clocks on again I hour.

Lost David and found him sound asleep, fully dressed, but with his pillow and blanket on a hatch at 1:00 am.

Thursday 3rd February 1949
Cooler than what we have been used to lately but still warm enough.

Friday 4th February
A little cooler but hot in the sun. A lot of excitement as it is the children’s farewell party at 2:00 pm. All looked lovely in party dresses.

(I'm in the middle and David is on the right ) 

All 500 lined up and marched around the decks following the pipers in kilts. It was a beautiful sight. The main dining hall was decorated with flags, hundreds of balloons and the tables were beautiful. There were 2 huge birthday cakes, cream cakes and fancy cakes. After tea there were games and a concert with prizes. Each received a packet of sweets and a chocolate. The captain made a speech and gave them each a signed menu.

Clocks on again. Everyone is excited as it is only 1000 miles to Freemantle.

Saturday 5th February 1949
(The first day there is no entry written. I do remember the party, I was much happier now as I had learned my way around the ship and had made a few friends. I can remember we were all very excited, a party with 500 kids! There was heaps of delicious party food and lots of fun and games.)

Sunday 6th February 1949
Awake at 5:30 and looked out to see AUSTRALIA in the distance.

The pilot climbs aboard to guide us into Fremantle.

We are there at last and we are excited because we can go ashore today at Freemantle the first stop since Aden. Everyone was up and dressed by 7:00 am to pass the doctor before landing. Lots of people on landing stage to meet passengers. Finally we got on shore about 11:00 am. It was 90 F degrees and very hot. Everyone beautifully dressed on shore in summer attire and all looking very bronzed.

Got a bus to Perth. Peculiar buses, no conductors. Really beautiful city. Walked around and looked at the shops then took a taxi ride around King’s Park.

Kangaroos, pineapples, palms, gorgeous flowers and lovely bungalows with coloured tile roofs. Wide clean streets. Everything is spotless and all the buildings look brand new. We visited Perth University where there was a pond absolutely teeming with goldfish.

 Mum, Dad David and me in King's Park Perth 1949

 The goldfish pond in the University grounds.

Lovely food. 7/6 for all our lunches. Bought fruit.
Back at 5:00pm. Very tired but had an enjoyable day.

Monday 7th February 1949
Watched the coast of Australia. White sandy hills and cliffs looking like snow. Rather cool.

Tuesday 7th February 1949
Lazy day. Melbourne passengers are packing ready to disembark. We had talks from emigration officer and padre. Some saw whales. Dancing in the evening. Clocks on.

Wednesday 9th February 1949
Only 5 more days, so we are looking forward to landing in Sydney now. As the clocks are put on again we slept all afternoon.

(Sadly mum’s diary of the voyage finishes here, even though we stopped in Melbourne and landed in Sydney on Sunday 13th February 1949. I can only guess she was so excited to have arrived and on the brink of a new life that the diary became unimportant. However, I have her photo album with captions and my own memories to help me piece together my parents first years of their struggle, hardships and fun in establishing themselves in their new homeland.)