hevs

I sent the link to my friends mum in W/A for "the Garretts have been here a year" thread.(http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262982) She had emailed me saying she hadn't heard how we were going for a while, so me being the lazy git i am posted the link. She read it and had a browse of the site and this was (most) of her response........

Heather, saw your site and wasn't the least bit offended. Even the truest of the bluest couldn't have taken offence. I will say though, that it has given me a lot to think about. My parents were both born and bred in Staffordshire, England and migrated to Australia when I was eight. Your story has given me a greater insight into what it must've been like for them. Especially in the light of the fact that they didn't have a home phone for the first ten years that they lived here (Brisbane), and letters took weeks and weeks by sea mail. All the news from 'home' was ancient by the time they got it! They knew one family when they came to Australia, and we lived with them for a few weeks before we found a place of our own.

Mum and dad are both fairly quiet and retiring types so socialising couldn't have been easy for them. Then dad won a heap of money on a horse and with the help of neighbours, built himself a pool in the backyard. The neighbours were never asked to help, they just turned up with shovels in one hand and a carton in the other. All the neighbourhoods kids, plus my brother and sister and me, swam in that pool. When the pool was just a hole in the ground, we filled it up with water and swam in that. We got our arses kicked off course, because the water had to be pumped out before progress could continue. We swam in it when it had sides but no floor, we swam in it before the Besser blocks were properly rendered, and we swam in it before it was ever painted. Everyone was so relieved when it could be legitimately filled and didn't have to be emptied (again). Especially us kids, we had no skin left on our bums.

From then on, our place was the place to be on weekends, and mum and dad made many friends that they are still in contact with, and they are in their 80's now.

All of this has also made me consider what it must've been like for the colonials who first came here. Nothing familiar at all, no family, different climate, no towns or cities, no shops (GOD FORBID), what would they have had to look forward to, what must life have been like for them. They would probably only have had news when the ships called in. Imagine living and dying in this way. They must've been made of some pretty tough stuff to have survived at all.

Well, as you can see, my mind has been wandering far and near today, and I thank you for prompting my journey.
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Just thought i'd share that cos i know there's a few of us struggling with the settling in etc and that really cheered me up. It also made me realise how bloody easy we have it compared to all those years ago, so i am about to face the day in a more cheery fashion and start to get very excited for the arrival of the first pommy visitors on friday

Pollyana

Thats really interesting Hevs - makes you think doesn't it. I often try and imagine what it must have been like years ago - no SMS texts, no instant phone calls, mail taking months. And we think we have it tough.
When we go up to MILs (3 hours from Brisbane, inland)its fascinating to try and imagine the first settlers making their way across completely unknown land. They must have had REAl guts.
Is she going to post on the site herself? Might have some good insights for us!

hevs

never thought to ask her Pol, might just do that!!

Pollyana

Well, she could certainly post as someone who knows what life is like - no-one could argue that she wouldn't post realism!!!

glittababe

What a lovely thread. Makes you think and appreciate how hard people worked to pave the way for us! I so rely on text's, photo/video messages (via the phone - fab invention), emails and just the phone! Only received a couple of letters since we've been here and if that was the only contact I had with family in the UK, I'm sure I'd be feeling lonely! Best wishes X

kath n kim

Thanks for that...! Yep, I've been wodering too, what it would have been like for those people who came over here before all this high-tech stuff was brought out, that makes it so easy for us all to keep in touch
It was lovely to read this thread, from someone who does know! (And I thought we had it tough ) It would be lovely if she WOULD post, and give us all something to REALLY think about!

Rosie n family

They were so brave, my lot came out in the 1850's as tin-miners in Cornwall to mine for gold in Ballarat (nr Melbourne) We've looked up their records and we cant go back too far as the records are so sketchy (some were signing their names with a X) This great grandfather out of desperation left his wife and young family and then sent for them to join him 12 years later. His grandson grew up, and through the help of scholarships, became a chemist who helped discover (he wrote a book about it) Asprin. Hes still alive (my grandfather) and is 96. Im very proud of him and Im very glad he found the opportunity in Australia for that.

bundy

That's so good to read, thanks for posting it Hevs.

Mr B's mum and her family went over to Oz when she was 5 - there were five of them, mum, dad and three kids aged five and under. The knew nobody out there, had no idea what they were heading to and so picked to move from Wallsend, Newcastle UK to Wallsend, Newcastle Oz (still makes me laugh). I often wonder what it must have been like, climbing aboard that ship with only the unknown ahead. They went on to have another 3 children out there and now that side of the family is thriving. It's only since coming over here that Mr B has got to know the pommie branch and he loves it.

kath n kim

What lovely histories........
Anyone else got any ancestors who came over here???