Note from the Editor:
This article was kindly written for the SDC by member @Doctor Alan.

As we sit in our beautiful home in Queensland surrounded by all the ‘mod cons’ and the comfort of a beautiful climate and excellent standard of living, I can’t help harking back to the early days when we first arrived in the ‘lucky country’.

I emigrated from England with my parents and an older and younger brother in 1955 when I was 11 years old. In England I’d just passed what was then called ‘The Common Entrance Examination’ to allow me to attend a Grammar School. When we arrived in Australia, having spent 5 weeks on the P&O ship Orsova we were put first into ‘transitional’ accommodation in Marrickville, then into a ‘housing settlement’ at Bradfield Park near Lindfield in NSW.

Because my father was a teacher, we didn’t have to live in the ‘Hostel’ part of Bradfield Park but had part of a self-contained gable-roof hut to make our home for the next few years. We had our own kitchen and sewered toilet – the huts had been constructed for the RAAF, and that service always looked after its personnel a little better than the Army or Navy (the new houses being built nearby had a septic system for toilets!). The Hostel part of the ‘camp’ had a communal dining room and public toilets, so we were very lucky.

My Uncle Don’s cartoon of our arrival in ‘Sydney’ in 1955! Image source: Alan G

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[Ezzy]

In 1966 I was a ten-pound pom and together with my husband and two children had a very mixed journey by ship. I first had a telephone call asking if we were ready to go in a matter of days by plane but as my husband worked in another part of the country and was away working and I had two children, a son aged 3 years and a baby daughter aged 3 months we could not be ready to leave with only a week's notice. I then had to ring and leave a message for my husband to come home and pack up ready to leave by ship at a time to be advised. We then started to sell or give away those things we could not take with us and moved in with my husband's mother and sister until we were advised when to leave.
The ship was full of migrants until we reached Fremantle WA but on leaving England and reaching the Bay of Biscay off Spain, we hit extremely bad weather and were locked out of the deck for our own safety. Before the lock-down a girl aged about 10 years had the door from the deck shut on her arm as she came back in and luckily we had a fully equipped surgery on board together with a first class surgeon who managed to look after her. On our deck the lowest which was D deck, everyone was sea-sick including the cabin staff of two and only my husband myself and another woman were not sick. We were helping other people instead of the cabin staff. My children were sick and especially my son and we had to get tablets from the doctor to stop him being sick and be able to eat at least some bland food.
We had a crew of Chinese in the dining room which had three sittings to cover the number of migrants on board. I asked one of the crew if we were in fact over the limit for the size of the ship which he admitted. He said if we got into trouble the lifeboats were insufficient to hold everybody. For some reason the crew member assigned to our table in the dining room did not like our family and always made us wait until all his other tables had been served before even looking at us let alone serving. One of the other crew noticed what was happening and started to serve us almost as soon as we sat down from then on. Most of the rest of the crew were Italian and very helpful.
At Fremantle as migrants left the ship normal paying passengers joined to go on a cruise which was to end in Brisbane. These "paying passengers" were treated much better than us, The same happened as we got off in Sydney with cruise passengers getting on the ship.
The funniest happening was as we crossed the equator when we assembled in the swimming pool area for the obvious ceremony. The Purser who was a very serious and pompous character and was apparently disliked by the rest of the crew who turned up in their best uniforms looking great. After the ceremony was officially over, one of the crew members deliberately pushed this pompous Purser into the pool and he was absolutely ropeable!!

I found your recollection of your arrangements prior to & the trip to Australia interesting too. Sad your family was at some time treated poorly on that trip for no apparent reason but great that this was seen by another server & rectified. The packing up & moving in with relatives with a young family while waiting for your sailing date must have been stressful without being ignored on the ship.

I can visualise the Purser in his fines being pushed into the pool. Not surprised he was annoyed. Must have been a reason for much laughter from crew & passengers alike though.

Just wondering. How long did you need to wait to sail from the time you moved in with relatives please?

 

[Reet]

What year did you come to Australia? We came on the Fairsea in 1966 which was a sister ship of the Fairsky and had a fully equipped surgery on board together with a first class surgeon and staff. The weather was also bad in the Bay of Biscay and no-one was allowed on deck because of the weather. Unfortunately before the doors to the deck were locked a girl aged about ten had gone out on deck and when she tried to get back in the door slammed on her arm. Just as well we had a good surgeon on board as he managed to save her arm. My sister and her family came on the Fairsky a few years before us in 1958 but my brother-in-law had a transfer in his job together with a promotion. We spent Christmas Day off Fremantle as the port authorities were on holiday but were allowed off for the day on Boxing Day. On Christmas Day the ship held a party for all the children on board and the children were given presents by Santa. The person on our ship playing the part of Santa was the younger brother of Stan Laurel the actor.
I had clerical qualifications but my husband was a jack-of-all-trades and my qualifications were ignored when he was interviewed for jobs before the ship reached Sydney where we left the ship. They obviously were of the opinion that women stay at home to look after the kids!

 

[Reet]

I found your recollection of your arrangements prior to & the trip to Australia interesting too. Sad your family was at some time treated poorly on that trip for no apparent reason but great that this was seen by another server & rectified. The packing up & moving in with relatives with a young family while waiting for your sailing date must have been stressful without being ignored on the ship.

I can visualise the Purser in his fines being pushed into the pool. Not surprised he was annoyed. Must have been a reason for much laughter from crew & passengers alike though.

Just wondering. How long did you need to wait to sail from the time you moved in with relatives please?

I think it was two weeks. I know it wasn't very long after the initial phone call asking us to fly which was turned down because we had no time to get organised. That is why we gave a lot of our things to people who needed them as there wasn't time to do otherwise.

 

[Ezzy]

I think it was two weeks. I know it wasn't very long after the initial phone call asking us to fly which was turned down because we had no time to get organised. That is why we gave a lot of our things to people who needed them as there wasn't time to do otherwise.

Thankyou Reet. Certainly was a quick turn around for you all. You would hardly have settled into your shared accommodation than you were saying goodbye. Hope for you all that things worked out well. Thanks again.