‘We came to Australia seeking a better life’

My late husband and I talked for a year about what we wanted to do. We were not happy with what we had in Denmark. Before we were married, my husband had been sailing as a deck boy for two years from Europe to the United States. We both wanted to travel and see other countries, but with two young children we had to be sure it was the right decision.

First, we borrowed a lot of books about Canada and Australia to find out as much as we could about how it was to be an emigrant in those two countries. My husband and I could speak a little English, but I was better at reading and writing as I had a very strong accent. Even after 50 years I have not lost it.

After six months we settled on Australia. Then we had a chat with the Australian emigration office in Copenhagen. We met with the people there a few times and filled out a lot of paperwork. Then we played the waiting game to see if we would be accepted.

In all this time we’d not told our families that we planned on leaving. When we were accepted we only had four months until we sailed. You can imagine the shock when we told our families. As emigrants our children sailed for free. My husband and I only had to pay half the total fare if we stayed in Australia for two years, otherwise we’d have to pay the full amount. We told our families that if we did not like things we would be back in two years, otherwise we wouldn’t be returning for five years and it would only be for a holiday.

Our parents and siblings were not too happy about this decision, mainly because we would be so far away. However, we were eagerly anticipating the adventured. We got our papers in order and had booked the ticket for the train to Rotterdam, which is where we would be departing from.

We had to decide what would be coming with us and what would be sold. Some of our furniture and other pieces went to family. My husband sold all of his tools. Items such as plates, cutlery, cups and glasses, our bedding, towels, and all of our clothes and the children’s toys would be packed. We later discovered we could have taken so much more than what we did with us. A large chest that had been with the family since my mother-in-law’s aunt travelled to the United States, would now be going to Australia with us.

It was a sad day when we had to say goodbye to everyone at the train station. It would take us the night to get to Rotterdam and we were so excited that we did not sleep.

We would be arriving in Victoria, but we had wanted to go to Western Australia. Unfortunately, Danish emigrants were not taken into hostels in that state at the time. We were advised that when we got to our hostel we could choose the state we wanted to go to.

Our ship was called the SS Arcadia and it was on its last trip to Australia. We were placed in tourist class. Our cabin was nice and the staff were very helpful. Our children had their meals before we did. My eight-month-old would not eat the baby food that was being served — it was all out of tins — so I requested milk and the same food as her brother, so long as it could be mashed. I’m sure the staff thought I was a bit strange.

It was 1968 and it took us around seven weeks to reach Australia. We spent a day in Durban, South Africa. It was cold when we arrived in Melbourne, and another family from Norway got a bit of a shock as they had only packed summer clothes for their trip. We got all of our winter clothes out. At Nunawading hostel the old huts were cold and we ate our meals in a large hall.

We joined an English class, but were told our English was too good. My husband got assistance to get a job on the railways in Melbourne. He was cleaning the wagons, but as a former railway worker used to doing track repair in Denmark, he moved on. He found a job in a factory near Ringwood and after four weeks we moved out of the hostel into a rented unit in the suburb of Croydon. Other families in the hostel thought we were mad leaving as soon as we did. There were families from the United Kingdom who stayed in the hostel for two years!

I also found work in a factory and our two children started day care. I was young and fit and the 3km walk to and from work was not much of an effort for me.

We had no regrets about our move out of the hostel. We were building a life for ourselves.

Have you emigrated from one country to another? What was your experience?

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