25 years up, and I would do it all again.
#17
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Amazingly well written,very impressed with your style my friend
Well done on your life,so far
Well done on your life,so far
#19
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Wimmera/Mallee
Posts: 115
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Great post. I agree with everything you said.
You said you'd do it all again, despite the cost. So can I ask what the cost was?
Thanks.
You said you'd do it all again, despite the cost. So can I ask what the cost was?
Thanks.
#20
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Missing the passing of two grandparents. Learning about the loss of one via a fax from the office, handed to me at a hotel reception desk in some outback mining town. No mobile phones and no email made things harder then.
Missing my nephews growing up. Not being there for them when they needed a streetwise uncle to lean on when things went wrong.
Missing my crazy sisters series of marriages and divorces. Maybe that’s not a cost.
Missing my parents getting old. When I left they were my age now. I missed having a beer with my father when he retired, that sort of thing.
Missing a seismic shift in England in the last 25 years. Culture, economy, financially. I had a few beers with some BE guys last Thursday, and I felt a stranger among my own people. I had to ask for explanations of simple things.
I am not alone.
I ran into a guy in the Sportsmans Bar in Jakarta in 04. Maybe 05. I remembered his face from Dubai. Rugby player. An expat all of his life, he is now a nomad. I guess I am the same. Australia is a nice place but it isn’t home. Neither in England.
That’s the real cost.
Last edited by slapphead_otool; Dec 8th 2009 at 1:47 am. Reason: spelling
#21
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Some great posts, really enjoy reading your stories & experiences.
#22
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Realy enjoyed reading that. I met you out last Thursday but didnt get to chat. Well done on 25 years in Oz. I've 24 more to go to get there. Looking at it now, I think I might do it too. But who knows.
#23
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
I had to fly to Tokyo to get her visa approved. I pulled rank to get it done almost immediately. Inexcusable really, but I had to return and was desperate.
My CO was furious when I married her because we had a very quiet wedding. Registry office, just the witness and the two of us. The CO said we hadn’t had a good wedding in the regiment for ages. He wanted patrol blues uniforms, an arch of swords at the doorway, and pipers.
I told him, if you want that, get married yourself!!!
Sorry i missed you on Thursday. Perhaps this week???
#24
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
I have been in Australian almost 25 years now. I came here via France, and before that Dubai, so I was a seasoned expat.
It was very different when I arrived. Amazingly there was no ISDN phones. To call my parents I had to go via the operator. The whole of Sydney closed at lunchtime on Saturdays. Union rules. The trains were “red rattlers”, with open doors, around which passengers would crowd to get a cooling breeze. No aircon on those trains.
Bob Hawke was the PM. I saw him in a hotel lift one night. Just me and the PM. He said “g’day Mate” when I got in. I remember thinking; that wouldn’t happen in the UK.
I was a true expat, on a company posting. Life was good. The economy was booming. The FBT was yet to be introduced, mining and minerals were pushing things along. Money seemed to flow like water, as did jobs. I remember at a party some guy offering me a job out of the blue, with a 50% pay increase.
I covered all of Australia. Sadly not the tourist bits, I spent time at places like Mount Isa, Kalgoorlie, and Roxby Downs. When I wasn’t somewhere in Australia I was in Asia. This was long before mobile phones and emails. Every morning I would collect messages, facsimiles and telexes from reception. Other than that no one in the world knew where I was, or what I was doing. And I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit to sometimes just laying on a beach, taking an extra day in some out the way place.
I flew all over Australia with Ansett. Now long gone. I knew most of the crews, I spent so much time on the planes. One week I had every meal for seven days on an aircraft, and slept in a bed twice. Jakarta, Perth, Singapore, Melbourne, Adelaide, KL. All one big blur of hotel rooms and aircraft seats.
I religiously called home once a week, and bought English newspapers, about 2 days old. I didn’t understand Australian politics, or culture. I remember sitting next to Malcom Frazer on a plane. When he introduced himself I said “Good God, I thought you drowned off a beach years ago”. “No you bloody fool”, he replied, “that was Harold Holt”.
I extended my contract. I still flew home regularly. One trip back I was in my local. They had just installed MTV or something. Icehouse Electric Blue came on, with its Sydney backdrop. “Wow, there’s home” I said without thinking. The darts team stopped talking and you could hear a pin drop. It was a seminal moment. I had become an Australian.
Lots have happened over the 25 years. Married. Served in the army. Started a business. Been back to University x2. Divorced. Remarried.
Lots of good memories. Standing on a boat in the harbour for the 1988 Bicentennial. Same boat, same harbour, 2000 Olympics fireworks. Drinking beer in a ghost town in WA. Standing on a North Queensland beach at dawn. Not many bad memories.
So the point of this post: A lot of BEs seem unhappy in Oz. “20 years behind the UK”, “Life on Mars”, “cant wait to get home” etc. Others seem desperate to get here, and in the desperation overlook that this is a different country. It’s not another county of the UK. It’s a bloody big, relatively unpopulated country, where life is what you make it.
For Christs sake people:
1. Think carefully before you come here. It’s a big step. It isn’t England. No corrie and fish and chips. It has good parts and it has bad parts. Its not somewhere to run away too. If you are unhappy in your life in the UK, or you are unsuccessful, then your life will be the same here. Moving here wont lose the extra kilos, or make you look like Brad Pitt. If you are a Bum in Birmingham then you will be a Bum in Brisbane.
2. If you are here, give it a fair go and think positive. Yes Australia has some down sides. But don’t fool yourself, the UK has its share of down sides too. And if you don’t like it, just leave. No shame in it, no need to make excuses. You didn’t like it, and you went home. No need to write endlessly about how bad you think Australia is.
On balance, Australia has been good to me, despite the cost. I would do it all again.
It was very different when I arrived. Amazingly there was no ISDN phones. To call my parents I had to go via the operator. The whole of Sydney closed at lunchtime on Saturdays. Union rules. The trains were “red rattlers”, with open doors, around which passengers would crowd to get a cooling breeze. No aircon on those trains.
Bob Hawke was the PM. I saw him in a hotel lift one night. Just me and the PM. He said “g’day Mate” when I got in. I remember thinking; that wouldn’t happen in the UK.
I was a true expat, on a company posting. Life was good. The economy was booming. The FBT was yet to be introduced, mining and minerals were pushing things along. Money seemed to flow like water, as did jobs. I remember at a party some guy offering me a job out of the blue, with a 50% pay increase.
I covered all of Australia. Sadly not the tourist bits, I spent time at places like Mount Isa, Kalgoorlie, and Roxby Downs. When I wasn’t somewhere in Australia I was in Asia. This was long before mobile phones and emails. Every morning I would collect messages, facsimiles and telexes from reception. Other than that no one in the world knew where I was, or what I was doing. And I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit to sometimes just laying on a beach, taking an extra day in some out the way place.
I flew all over Australia with Ansett. Now long gone. I knew most of the crews, I spent so much time on the planes. One week I had every meal for seven days on an aircraft, and slept in a bed twice. Jakarta, Perth, Singapore, Melbourne, Adelaide, KL. All one big blur of hotel rooms and aircraft seats.
I religiously called home once a week, and bought English newspapers, about 2 days old. I didn’t understand Australian politics, or culture. I remember sitting next to Malcom Frazer on a plane. When he introduced himself I said “Good God, I thought you drowned off a beach years ago”. “No you bloody fool”, he replied, “that was Harold Holt”.
I extended my contract. I still flew home regularly. One trip back I was in my local. They had just installed MTV or something. Icehouse Electric Blue came on, with its Sydney backdrop. “Wow, there’s home” I said without thinking. The darts team stopped talking and you could hear a pin drop. It was a seminal moment. I had become an Australian.
Lots have happened over the 25 years. Married. Served in the army. Started a business. Been back to University x2. Divorced. Remarried.
Lots of good memories. Standing on a boat in the harbour for the 1988 Bicentennial. Same boat, same harbour, 2000 Olympics fireworks. Drinking beer in a ghost town in WA. Standing on a North Queensland beach at dawn. Not many bad memories.
So the point of this post: A lot of BEs seem unhappy in Oz. “20 years behind the UK”, “Life on Mars”, “cant wait to get home” etc. Others seem desperate to get here, and in the desperation overlook that this is a different country. It’s not another county of the UK. It’s a bloody big, relatively unpopulated country, where life is what you make it.
For Christs sake people:
1. Think carefully before you come here. It’s a big step. It isn’t England. No corrie and fish and chips. It has good parts and it has bad parts. Its not somewhere to run away too. If you are unhappy in your life in the UK, or you are unsuccessful, then your life will be the same here. Moving here wont lose the extra kilos, or make you look like Brad Pitt. If you are a Bum in Birmingham then you will be a Bum in Brisbane.
2. If you are here, give it a fair go and think positive. Yes Australia has some down sides. But don’t fool yourself, the UK has its share of down sides too. And if you don’t like it, just leave. No shame in it, no need to make excuses. You didn’t like it, and you went home. No need to write endlessly about how bad you think Australia is.
On balance, Australia has been good to me, despite the cost. I would do it all again.
I guess my point was lost somewhat in the background details. I didn’t plan on going to Australia. I was sent (rather unwillingly). I had no misconceptions, no prior ideas of some idyllic life. I just got off the plane and started work. And the frantic haze of work stopped me thinking about things until that night in the Plough, when I saw the Icehouse video.
So my point really is don’t sit in the UK thinking about how wonderful Australia must be. Because when you arrive you will find it isn’t utopia. Its just another country.
And don’t sit bitching when you are here because it isn’t perfect. No one ever told you it was. If you are disappointed, then its your expectations that haven’t been met. Rather than moan, work like I did, see the country, meet the people, make the most of the experience.
We live an average 22,000 days. To waste one dreaming about Australia, or moaning about it, is such a waste of a precious commodity.
PS – every migrant here takes up a precious visa. I know many many people in Asia, especially Thailand and Indonesia, who would sell themselves into slavery for a chance to get such a visa. I don’t think I could tell them that some people get a visa, then go home because they don’t like the radio channels.
So my point really is don’t sit in the UK thinking about how wonderful Australia must be. Because when you arrive you will find it isn’t utopia. Its just another country.
And don’t sit bitching when you are here because it isn’t perfect. No one ever told you it was. If you are disappointed, then its your expectations that haven’t been met. Rather than moan, work like I did, see the country, meet the people, make the most of the experience.
We live an average 22,000 days. To waste one dreaming about Australia, or moaning about it, is such a waste of a precious commodity.
PS – every migrant here takes up a precious visa. I know many many people in Asia, especially Thailand and Indonesia, who would sell themselves into slavery for a chance to get such a visa. I don’t think I could tell them that some people get a visa, then go home because they don’t like the radio channels.
Forgiving on ANZAC Day (a bit more of my story…)
A one stage I joined the army, following a family tradition. Went to Duntroon, passed out on that hated parade ground. Enjoyed the time, the comradeship, the new sights and experiences. Lot of British in the Australian Army at that time, I guess its our martial background. The Mess often sounded like a British Regional Accent Society AGM.
One year my CO decided we would march as a Regiment in the Sydney ANZAC Day parade. We spent the night before getting ready, got up at 3am and did a dawn service. Freezing cold in summer uniform of short sleeved shirts. The Padre passed around a bottle of rum to shop us shivering.
Very moving dawn service. Big lump in my throat at the Last Post. Ghosts on the parade square.
After the Dawn Service we had the traditional “gunfire breakfast”, coffee with lots of rum, then into the city on trucks. Formed up on a side street. Lots of waiting and hanging around. Saw lots of old friends. Then the CO yelled, we formed up and moved off.
Platoon by Platoon, Company by Company, the Regimental Pipes and Drums playing as the entire Regiment marched in perfect order down George Street, my fathers old Wilkinson in my hand. I glanced back out the corner of my eye as we made the turn off George onto Bathurst, and we looked damn good. I felt proud.
My girlfriend was waiting at Hyde Park. She was terrified. The Japanese in Sydney were always advised to stay indoors on ANZAC day. I was having none of that, and ordered her to watch me march and meet me after.
The Regiment split up and filled the bars. The CO, bored with the canned music, ordered one of the Sergeants to find the pipes and drums, and get them to play in the bar. The noise was deafening, drums and bagpipes shook the building. But it felt good. They were our pipes and drums, and we were immensely proud of them. My girlfriend was impressed and amazed.
Later we walked into another bar. As I was getting a drink an old veteran went up to my girlfriend and asked her where she came from. I saw his medals. Pacific Star, he had fought the Japanese.
She told him she was from Japan, and he paused, and then quietly said “long ago your grandfather and I tried to kill each other. I hope your Grandfather survived”.
He spoke some Japanese. He had learned it as a prisoner. I assume he had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, and it must have been hard for him, but he sat and chatted to my girlfriend without any hint of malice. She said he was a nice old man.
That night, as I lay in bed I thought over the events of the day. The Regiment marching, the pipes and drums, the bars.
But the highlight of the day was an old Australian who could justifiably have shunned my girlfriend, or even abused her, and I would have had no defence. Instead he acted like a man, and a gentleman.
Sometimes our greatest action can be to forgive and move on.
A one stage I joined the army, following a family tradition. Went to Duntroon, passed out on that hated parade ground. Enjoyed the time, the comradeship, the new sights and experiences. Lot of British in the Australian Army at that time, I guess its our martial background. The Mess often sounded like a British Regional Accent Society AGM.
One year my CO decided we would march as a Regiment in the Sydney ANZAC Day parade. We spent the night before getting ready, got up at 3am and did a dawn service. Freezing cold in summer uniform of short sleeved shirts. The Padre passed around a bottle of rum to shop us shivering.
Very moving dawn service. Big lump in my throat at the Last Post. Ghosts on the parade square.
After the Dawn Service we had the traditional “gunfire breakfast”, coffee with lots of rum, then into the city on trucks. Formed up on a side street. Lots of waiting and hanging around. Saw lots of old friends. Then the CO yelled, we formed up and moved off.
Platoon by Platoon, Company by Company, the Regimental Pipes and Drums playing as the entire Regiment marched in perfect order down George Street, my fathers old Wilkinson in my hand. I glanced back out the corner of my eye as we made the turn off George onto Bathurst, and we looked damn good. I felt proud.
My girlfriend was waiting at Hyde Park. She was terrified. The Japanese in Sydney were always advised to stay indoors on ANZAC day. I was having none of that, and ordered her to watch me march and meet me after.
The Regiment split up and filled the bars. The CO, bored with the canned music, ordered one of the Sergeants to find the pipes and drums, and get them to play in the bar. The noise was deafening, drums and bagpipes shook the building. But it felt good. They were our pipes and drums, and we were immensely proud of them. My girlfriend was impressed and amazed.
Later we walked into another bar. As I was getting a drink an old veteran went up to my girlfriend and asked her where she came from. I saw his medals. Pacific Star, he had fought the Japanese.
She told him she was from Japan, and he paused, and then quietly said “long ago your grandfather and I tried to kill each other. I hope your Grandfather survived”.
He spoke some Japanese. He had learned it as a prisoner. I assume he had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, and it must have been hard for him, but he sat and chatted to my girlfriend without any hint of malice. She said he was a nice old man.
That night, as I lay in bed I thought over the events of the day. The Regiment marching, the pipes and drums, the bars.
But the highlight of the day was an old Australian who could justifiably have shunned my girlfriend, or even abused her, and I would have had no defence. Instead he acted like a man, and a gentleman.
Sometimes our greatest action can be to forgive and move on.
#25
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Wimmera/Mallee
Posts: 115
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
The cost:
Missing the passing of two grandparents. Learning about the loss of one via a fax from the office, handed to me at a hotel reception desk in some outback mining town. No mobile phones and no email made things harder then.
Missing my nephews growing up. Not being there for them when they needed a streetwise uncle to lean on when things went wrong.
Missing my crazy sisters series of marriages and divorces. Maybe that’s not a cost.
Missing my parents getting old. When I left they were my age now. I missed having a beer with my father when he retired, that sort of thing.
Missing a seismic shift in England in the last 25 years. Culture, economy, financially. I had a few beers with some BE guys last Thursday, and I felt a stranger among my own people. I had to ask for explanations of simple things.
I am not alone.
I ran into a guy in the Sportsmans Bar in Jakarta in 04. Maybe 05. I remembered his face from Dubai. Rugby player. An expat all of his life, he is now a nomad. I guess I am the same. Australia is a nice place but it isn’t home. Neither in England.
That’s the real cost.
Missing the passing of two grandparents. Learning about the loss of one via a fax from the office, handed to me at a hotel reception desk in some outback mining town. No mobile phones and no email made things harder then.
Missing my nephews growing up. Not being there for them when they needed a streetwise uncle to lean on when things went wrong.
Missing my crazy sisters series of marriages and divorces. Maybe that’s not a cost.
Missing my parents getting old. When I left they were my age now. I missed having a beer with my father when he retired, that sort of thing.
Missing a seismic shift in England in the last 25 years. Culture, economy, financially. I had a few beers with some BE guys last Thursday, and I felt a stranger among my own people. I had to ask for explanations of simple things.
I am not alone.
I ran into a guy in the Sportsmans Bar in Jakarta in 04. Maybe 05. I remembered his face from Dubai. Rugby player. An expat all of his life, he is now a nomad. I guess I am the same. Australia is a nice place but it isn’t home. Neither in England.
That’s the real cost.
#26
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia
Posts: 47
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Despite the (obvious) bitterness of always being a stranger in the US, and being cut out of my kids lives after the divorce, I have absolutely no regrets about moving to Australia.
As has already been so eloquently said, Australia is what you make it, so make it bloody excellent regardless of the cost.
#27
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,872
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Really nice to read your update of 25 years.I spent 30 in Oz and remember Bob Hawke's time very well.Australia was alot different back in the good old days!Very interesting read and thanks for sharing!
#28
Australia's Doorman
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: The Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia
Posts: 11,056
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
So the point of this post: A lot of BEs seem unhappy in Oz. “20 years behind the UK”, “Life on Mars”, “cant wait to get home” etc. Others seem desperate to get here, and in the desperation overlook that this is a different country. It’s not another county of the UK. It’s a bloody big, relatively unpopulated country, where life is what you make it.
#29
Just Joined
Joined: Mar 2008
Location: Hyde, Cheshire
Posts: 3
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
Forgiving on ANZAC Day (a bit more of my story…)
A one stage I joined the army, following a family tradition. Went to Duntroon, passed out on that hated parade ground. Enjoyed the time, the comradeship, the new sights and experiences. Lot of British in the Australian Army at that time, I guess its our martial background. The Mess often sounded like a British Regional Accent Society AGM.
One year my CO decided we would march as a Regiment in the Sydney ANZAC Day parade. We spent the night before getting ready, got up at 3am and did a dawn service. Freezing cold in summer uniform of short sleeved shirts. The Padre passed around a bottle of rum to shop us shivering.
Very moving dawn service. Big lump in my throat at the Last Post. Ghosts on the parade square.
After the Dawn Service we had the traditional “gunfire breakfast”, coffee with lots of rum, then into the city on trucks. Formed up on a side street. Lots of waiting and hanging around. Saw lots of old friends. Then the CO yelled, we formed up and moved off.
Platoon by Platoon, Company by Company, the Regimental Pipes and Drums playing as the entire Regiment marched in perfect order down George Street, my fathers old Wilkinson in my hand. I glanced back out the corner of my eye as we made the turn off George onto Bathurst, and we looked damn good. I felt proud.
My girlfriend was waiting at Hyde Park. She was terrified. The Japanese in Sydney were always advised to stay indoors on ANZAC day. I was having none of that, and ordered her to watch me march and meet me after.
The Regiment split up and filled the bars. The CO, bored with the canned music, ordered one of the Sergeants to find the pipes and drums, and get them to play in the bar. The noise was deafening, drums and bagpipes shook the building. But it felt good. They were our pipes and drums, and we were immensely proud of them. My girlfriend was impressed and amazed.
Later we walked into another bar. As I was getting a drink an old veteran went up to my girlfriend and asked her where she came from. I saw his medals. Pacific Star, he had fought the Japanese.
She told him she was from Japan, and he paused, and then quietly said “long ago your grandfather and I tried to kill each other. I hope your Grandfather survived”.
He spoke some Japanese. He had learned it as a prisoner. I assume he had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, and it must have been hard for him, but he sat and chatted to my girlfriend without any hint of malice. She said he was a nice old man.
That night, as I lay in bed I thought over the events of the day. The Regiment marching, the pipes and drums, the bars.
But the highlight of the day was an old Australian who could justifiably have shunned my girlfriend, or even abused her, and I would have had no defence. Instead he acted like a man, and a gentleman.
Sometimes our greatest action can be to forgive and move on.
A one stage I joined the army, following a family tradition. Went to Duntroon, passed out on that hated parade ground. Enjoyed the time, the comradeship, the new sights and experiences. Lot of British in the Australian Army at that time, I guess its our martial background. The Mess often sounded like a British Regional Accent Society AGM.
One year my CO decided we would march as a Regiment in the Sydney ANZAC Day parade. We spent the night before getting ready, got up at 3am and did a dawn service. Freezing cold in summer uniform of short sleeved shirts. The Padre passed around a bottle of rum to shop us shivering.
Very moving dawn service. Big lump in my throat at the Last Post. Ghosts on the parade square.
After the Dawn Service we had the traditional “gunfire breakfast”, coffee with lots of rum, then into the city on trucks. Formed up on a side street. Lots of waiting and hanging around. Saw lots of old friends. Then the CO yelled, we formed up and moved off.
Platoon by Platoon, Company by Company, the Regimental Pipes and Drums playing as the entire Regiment marched in perfect order down George Street, my fathers old Wilkinson in my hand. I glanced back out the corner of my eye as we made the turn off George onto Bathurst, and we looked damn good. I felt proud.
My girlfriend was waiting at Hyde Park. She was terrified. The Japanese in Sydney were always advised to stay indoors on ANZAC day. I was having none of that, and ordered her to watch me march and meet me after.
The Regiment split up and filled the bars. The CO, bored with the canned music, ordered one of the Sergeants to find the pipes and drums, and get them to play in the bar. The noise was deafening, drums and bagpipes shook the building. But it felt good. They were our pipes and drums, and we were immensely proud of them. My girlfriend was impressed and amazed.
Later we walked into another bar. As I was getting a drink an old veteran went up to my girlfriend and asked her where she came from. I saw his medals. Pacific Star, he had fought the Japanese.
She told him she was from Japan, and he paused, and then quietly said “long ago your grandfather and I tried to kill each other. I hope your Grandfather survived”.
He spoke some Japanese. He had learned it as a prisoner. I assume he had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, and it must have been hard for him, but he sat and chatted to my girlfriend without any hint of malice. She said he was a nice old man.
That night, as I lay in bed I thought over the events of the day. The Regiment marching, the pipes and drums, the bars.
But the highlight of the day was an old Australian who could justifiably have shunned my girlfriend, or even abused her, and I would have had no defence. Instead he acted like a man, and a gentleman.
Sometimes our greatest action can be to forgive and move on.
Britain's loss is Australia and S.E Asia's gain.
It was a pleasure to read such a considered and thoughtful post.
#30
Re: 25 years up, and I would do it all again.
The Price of Minerals.
Long ago I was part of a team working on a project. An army of engineers, platers, boilermakers, electricians, fabricators, welders, formers, concreters, builders and many more sweated and toiled in the outback.
Slowly a giant leviathan took shape in the Never Never.
Teams of men would labour day and night in the assembly zones, slowly constructing some strange component. Finally it would be dragged out and hauled into place, and its purpose would become apparent. Such is the nature of huge projects. Seemingly chaotic, piece by piece, hour by hour.
We lived hard. Some harder than others. Four to a motel room, caravans. I think some even lived in tents. We got drunk and partied. We were multinational band of brothers to make Henry proud.
We had a team of Maori riggers. They were a rough bunch, and yet I found them amicable. I was warned not to cross them when they had been drinking. I never did.
Early one evening I was in my $50 a night motel room. I remember I had drawings all over the bed, trying to understand something. There was a knock and two Maoris came in.
“Need your car boss”.
I had a nice car, courtesy of avis. Leather and aircon. It only moved the short distance from the motel to the site, and I often loaned it to anyone who needed a car. Most of the guys had Utes or vans.
The Maoris had never borrowed it before. I looked at their faces and saw a look for the first time. I recognise it now as shock, horror and desperation. I threw them the keys.
Minutes later I saw them put one of the Maoris into the back seat, in the manner than the police put an arrested man into a car. My first thought was he must have killed someone and they were doing a runner. He hadn’t.
His daughter had been run over in New Zealand.
They rushed him to an airport. Someone managed to get him a flight.
She was dead before he even left Australia.
The next day the Maoris didn’t work. They went off and did whatever they do when a death occurs.
The father never returned. The others changed, although I can’t explain how. The whole site did in a small way. The parties seemed less fun.
Maybe someone put a curse on the plant. It closed soon after commissioning.
I stand in the Establishment, or the Ivy, and I hear bankers and stockbrokers talk about our booming economy. About the minerals resources they are trading.
They don’t know the cost.
Long ago I was part of a team working on a project. An army of engineers, platers, boilermakers, electricians, fabricators, welders, formers, concreters, builders and many more sweated and toiled in the outback.
Slowly a giant leviathan took shape in the Never Never.
Teams of men would labour day and night in the assembly zones, slowly constructing some strange component. Finally it would be dragged out and hauled into place, and its purpose would become apparent. Such is the nature of huge projects. Seemingly chaotic, piece by piece, hour by hour.
We lived hard. Some harder than others. Four to a motel room, caravans. I think some even lived in tents. We got drunk and partied. We were multinational band of brothers to make Henry proud.
We had a team of Maori riggers. They were a rough bunch, and yet I found them amicable. I was warned not to cross them when they had been drinking. I never did.
Early one evening I was in my $50 a night motel room. I remember I had drawings all over the bed, trying to understand something. There was a knock and two Maoris came in.
“Need your car boss”.
I had a nice car, courtesy of avis. Leather and aircon. It only moved the short distance from the motel to the site, and I often loaned it to anyone who needed a car. Most of the guys had Utes or vans.
The Maoris had never borrowed it before. I looked at their faces and saw a look for the first time. I recognise it now as shock, horror and desperation. I threw them the keys.
Minutes later I saw them put one of the Maoris into the back seat, in the manner than the police put an arrested man into a car. My first thought was he must have killed someone and they were doing a runner. He hadn’t.
His daughter had been run over in New Zealand.
They rushed him to an airport. Someone managed to get him a flight.
She was dead before he even left Australia.
The next day the Maoris didn’t work. They went off and did whatever they do when a death occurs.
The father never returned. The others changed, although I can’t explain how. The whole site did in a small way. The parties seemed less fun.
Maybe someone put a curse on the plant. It closed soon after commissioning.
I stand in the Establishment, or the Ivy, and I hear bankers and stockbrokers talk about our booming economy. About the minerals resources they are trading.
They don’t know the cost.