In Australia, the sun always shines.....
Came to Australia, 53 years ago. Why? Because “the sun always shines here” !
My first view of the city of Sydney was from the steps outside Central Railway Station, when I was 12, in the spring of 1956, standing beside my parents over-looking the park, where people were relaxing in the sun.
Rather melodramatically, my father stopped us and said to me: Joop. Remember. THIS is why we migrated. To give you a better future.
Don’t be so silly, said my down-to-earth mother.
The truth is, it’s a well-known fact that for so many of us from the Netherlands who came to Australia on the so-called “wave”, the motivation had included a fear of a third world war and dissatisfaction with conditions such as the weather, the influx of guest-workers, and, particularly, my father’s dissatisfaction with his occupation.
Mrswillow
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your experiences Ozcloggie! I remember very clearly, when the first two “new Australians” arrived in our school. It was just after the war! We were very young but very interested in the new arrivals. Our teachers helped us all to get to know each other and to understand the situations behind their re-location.
It is so good to read your story and to know that you, along with many of your countrymen and women have made wonderful lives and contributed to the colourful mix which makes Australia today!
Ozcloggie replied
Thanks for taking the trouble to read. At this very moment, on ABC Local Radio, 702, here in Sydney, Richard is trying to get listeners to tell their stories of sea-changes gone wrong.
Our experience a big sea-change and hopefully you read that my father stated far too often that he never regretted it.
It’s not a simple matter. He worked hard. Thoroughly enjoyed having lots of mainly Dutch-Australians around him, as well as visiting relatives but I wonder what it would have been like if he had not migrated and now, at age 92 and in poor health, had been, at least able to communicate in his mother-tongue. Not that he cannot speak and understand English, but coming here, at 39, he did not pick up all the subtleties of the way we communicate here.
Thanks again. I am so glade to have spent 53 years here, so far.