The year 1974 was a pivotal year for me. Aged 15, I was doing well at school, thinking about career options, socialising with friends; then our parents dropped a bombshell — we were going to emigrate to Australia! There were mixed emotions.
I was one of three children still living at home, number six of seven, I remember feeling annoyed, then interested and then excited about making the big change. An elder sister had emigrated previously on her own and now we would meet her husband and be part of their lives Down Under.
We took nothing but personal items, whatever we were allowed in the plane allowance. Nothing else was shipped as we headed for our temporary home at the Springvale Enterprise Migrant Hostel and a new life.
Planes didn’t go straight through to Melbourne back then; I recall we officially landed in Darwin. We had left a British winter in February and the humidity was stifling. An official of some sort held aerosol cans aloft walking down the aisles and we were told he was disinfecting the plane (and us no doubt!). A short while later we arrived in Melbourne; it was hot, dry and we were all very happy to be there, meeting family and heading for our new temporary home.
The Besser brick walls of the hostel were a little cold and grey but we knew it was temporary. It was the first time I’d encountered so many nationalities, a lot of them Turkish. We found some other Brits at the hostel were less than impressed and were ready to turn around and go right back home! For us though, Mum and Dad found work (the hostel offered jobs in factories, but they went out to find work more suited to their skills — cooking and electrical). My siblings and I were enrolled at the local schools. It was a bit of a shock to go from a girls’ school in the United Kingdom to a mixed high school, and I was sad to find the boys at our school to be rather mean and bullying, but I met some great girls.
I wrote to my old friends saying how I missed them, but told them I had discovered some great local music including Sherbet; I still sing along with ‘Summer Love’ and ‘Howzat’ when they come on the radio, and with ‘Billy Don’t be a Hero’, ‘I Am Pegasus’, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, ‘Seasons in the Sun’ and ‘Evie’ all come to mind. Memories of that year come flooding back! Pop music was a normal thing in an uncertain new world and I became a big fan of Countdown.
It was fun getting used to dollars and cents, learning new words — lollies not sweets, icy poles not iced lollies — picking up the habit of saying g’day, remembering to belt up in the car, enjoying the heat of summer, taking a train to the city to explore the shops (I loved the Myer bargain basement) or to go to the movies (I’m not sure if malls had cinemas but in Springvale we weren’t near any).
At the end of the year my parents bought a home and a cafe in the Western District. That led to our moving just nine months after we had arrived that hot February. I’m not sure if it was the regular rainfall and greenery reminiscent of the world we had left that took us to Camperdown in Victoria but we were very happy there and the high school was great, even the boys!
I wonder what became of our fellow migrants at the hostel, especially those who moved back to the old country? It’s a big adjustment, but for us the plan came together. Mum and Dad felt Australia offered a better future for us and we’re not complaining. We all had a good education, found work we enjoyed, found partners, bought our own homes and enjoyed travel around the world including visits back to our siblings and family in the UK, and enjoyed their visits to us. As a dual citizen, I guess I can never claim to be a dinky-di Aussie but I count myself a happy Australian.