Re: Back in the Day
 

I myself would vote for "pomegranate" as the origin, Morpeth. Too many Australian-born people had convict ancestors to have used the POME abbreviation with any enthusiasm! This reminds me of some "fraffly" well-spoken Englishman entering Oz and asked at the border if he had a criminal record, and replying that he didn't know it was compulsory.

Re: Back in the Day
 

I found this online "According to British Naval records the term "Pommie" came about from the red "pom-pon" on the top of the hats of British sailors who were involved in the transfer of prisoners to the Colonies. It was used as a derogatory term, but has since become a generalised term for British people. The term pommy or pom is commonly used by speakers of Australian English and sometimes speakers of New Zealand English, South African English and Afrikaans."

I must say whether it was very derogatory depended a lot on the situation/context and tone of voice. I was there around time of Gough Whitlam, and at least among adults British immigrants were blamed for many of the strikes so I did hear adults using the term in a definite derogatory fashion, however for us teenagers never a big issue when used. My cousin often would be introduced with the word used, though his children who themselves have sometimes used the term to describe others.

Re: Back in the Day
 

PS: Penny Plummer was, at that time, being driven around in a Jensen Interceptor (Mk 2). I happened to overhear her driver claiming to a female enquirer claiming a top speed of over 150 mph. Being a typically obnoxious, know all teenager I pointed out "135 mph, down hill, with the wind behind". Driver not best pleased!

ETA: My third attempt at making autocorrect accept "Jensen"!

Re: Back in the Day
 

Pommie lol... Theres a strange phrase used to annoy Jamaicans, calling them 'first off' or FOB [first or fresh off the boat - fresh is still a racial slur - not used to local customs having just arrived.

Comes originally from slavery, the slave route ships took was called the triangular trade. The first caribbean port of call was Jamaica in the north and it was the practice of some captains to drop off any complaining or escapee attempting slaves there first, this grew into a myth that jamaicans are all aggressive, and its hereditary.

Re: Back in the Day
 

In this "Woke" era, it's hard to keep track of what's kosher and what's not. (Is it kosher to say "kosher", there? I'll take a chance!) Back in the day, to call somebody a "queer" was a no-no; today, some of the GLBQ+ crowd insist on it. Go figure! I was a child during the immediate post-war (WWII) years, when new immigrants to Australia were called by names that might well count as "racist" today. The Spanish name "Diego" was applied to some Mediterranean men, and "Luigi" to others; they were dismissive, but I wouldn't call them racist. Would anybody on this thread call them racist? I hope not!

"Displaced Persons", back then, were abbreviated to "DPs". Refugees from Poland and the three Soviet states up by Leningrad were lumped together as "Balts". Again, dismissive, because they were outsiders, but not racist as any of us understood the word back then.

In my part of Australia, we hadn't discovered the N-WORD, so never applied it to any non-white person. The Indonesian word for "mate" was appropriated for that, and reportedly it is now taboo, in Oz. In the US, the N-WORD has of course long been taboo, but in recent times has been replaced by a J-WORD, which I daren't identify here, for obvious reasons. It's hard to keep up. The funny thing is - well, the sort-of funny thing is - that all taboo words are replaced by currrently-innocent words sooner or later, and the whole ritual repeats again and again. Even the word "woke" is banned in some quarters.

Re: Back in the Day
 

I watched a really pretty amusing UK TV chat show that showed how absurd its all becoming. A guest said that London was a lot less english these days because of the recent influx of peoples from asian and middle eastern countries, this means that less than 50% in London are indigenous. He was warned by the presenter that he was being racist and couldnt say london was less english because a lot of the immigrants identified themselves as english or british at least.

The guest replied - its not about colour or race, what if the 50% were scottish, would it be ok to say London was becoming less English then? The presenter had no answer, it seems demographics now define cultural definitions.

Re: Back in the Day
 

Yesterday my credit card raised a fraud alert on my card (actually it was ok). Anyway I phoned them & call was handled by somebody called Rosie. She is now 60 odd. 44 years ago she had an experimental knee operation in Budapest (after falling off a horse), carried out at the army hospital here. Since then she has run marathons, ridden a bike from J o' G to LE, ridden horses, etc. Knee still perfect (other one rubbish apparently!) Remember this was during the Soviet period.

Re: Back in the Day
 

It is ridiculous. I know people from different parts the world who visit London , and say the same thing.

.

Re: Back in the Day
 

I remember an incident from (I think) the 1970s, of a Scotsman who advertised in a UK newspaper for a cook who knew how to make haggis: "Only native Scots need apply". He was hauled up before the Race Relations tribunal or whatever it was!

Re: Back in the Day
 

I've just posted a comment on the Barbie Forum in the Australian section, on the topic of race and colour, which some visitors here might find interesting. Of particular interest to me as a former Australian, is the recent blossoming of the "First Nation" movement, based on the North American movements - Canada and the USA. It's fifty years since I last lived in Oz, and back then there wasn't anything at all like that, that I recall. Aboriginals were out of sight and out of mind, in the cities and most towns. There was no political movement, and the days of "the stolen generation" were not long gone. I can't even say whether aborigines had the right to vote, back then.

I'm wondering how newcomers to Australia - the British expats for whom this website exists - react to the recent developments. Anybody care to comment?

Re: Back in the Day
 

It was the same situation when I lived in Perth in the 70s, I rarely came across Aboriginals.

Later I lived in a U,S, state where there were Indian reservations with Casinos. The tribal elites did well not the others,People would go through all sorts of attempts to prove some Indian blood to clam tribal status or even 'associate' status, in order to claim benefits. Sadly in some areas of the reservations almost third world conditions.One wonders instead of activists always complaining, if more should be focused on economic development that would do more to break the cycle of poverty. ( Somewhat like mining towns in the UK with know 2 or 3 generations reliant on benefits).

Re: Back in the Day
 

Small world, Morpeth! Linda and I lived in Perth in 1971, while she was at the teachers' training school or whatever it was called. We lived in Claremont, and played tennis at the Dalkeith Tennis Club. Mixed with expats, mostly, including some "refugees" from the Bahamas where we had just left.

We enjoyed the year, though it was a financial disaster for me. The highlight for us was being part of a "safari" expedition of six or seven cars up to Port Hedland on the inland route and back on the coast road. Did you ever get up that way?

Re: Back in the Day
 

Yes definitely a small world- I was in Attadale across the water from Claremont- maybe a 15 minute drive via Freemont across Swan River.Right next to Clarement was Cottleslow where we went to beach often, and all the 'surfies' from school went all the time.

I have fond memories of Western Australia, Australia was called the 'Lucky Country' at the time. California lifestyle without the problems or congestion. ( have family who live in Brisbane).Who knows maybe I saw you at the time hah.

I was made to enter the cadets, while at the same time I was in a rock band. Great place for musicians, all the pubs in those days had live music, so always could make a few quid to pay for our equipment payments. Even learnt to play Aussie Rules. Interesting place, like someone put Brits and Americans in a blender, then added a dash of Irish. Boxing after school was frequent- often if teacher caught boys arguing or fighting about something, we were made to stay after school and box each other. Friday night was drinking night, Saturday to take out girls, but being in a band we did both on both nights. I certainly had more freedom than I ever gave my three children, but a different time, safer, and rules/limits were more clear. A lot of slang we used then would be quite politically incorrect today.

In general it seemed a very egalitarian society. Though like Germany seems students were tracked early, as schools identified fairly early who they thought were university potentials. Education was good though, I received my Leaving Certificate there.

I remember a place on St George Terrace, it didn't serve alcohol legally, but would charge by the hour for a glass, so one would just sneak in one's bottle.

Never got up to Port Hedland.

Re: Back in the Day
 

Yes, you would have heard us shouting at the Tennis Club! I'm trying to recall where our flat was. On the corner of the Highway and Bernard Street, perhaps. There was a little shop over the highway that I used to go to every day to buy a "Financial Review" (trying - and failing - to play the stock-market successfully!), and one day the man behind the counter apologised that "the overseas papers haven't arrived yet". I don't know whether he meant it as a joke, or not, but he kept a straight face! What do you reckon?

I was at boarding-school for six years in Brisbane, and worked there in 1957/8 and 1962/3. I last visited in '95, staying with my brother and his family. I liked Brisbane, although its area was always too much for me. I passed up on a couple of nice girls back in the day, because they lived beyond my cruising limits!

Re: Back in the Day
 

Something else for "Back in the Day" - telephones. When I were a lad... except for holidays in civilisation, my exposure to phones was limited to our "party line", out in the bush, shared by twenty or so farms. Each farm was allotted a morse-code identity. Ours was Hannaford 2-S. The 2 was our line, the S was our number. Our set was attached to the wall in the lounge. When we heard three short rings (three turns of the handle by the caller), we knew it was for us, and answered it by talking into the speaker on the wall. Even if we were visiting a neighbour, we recognised the ring and answered it there. If it rang for someone who we knew was away, we answered it and told the caller. "Sorry, the Camerons are all away for the week. Who's calling? Oh, it's you Dave {Dave was the chap who ran the exchange down at the railway siding who was also our district's mailman). Who wants them?" If we knew the caller we might ask Dave to connect us and we would pass on the news. If we didn't, or if they were calling from somewhere distant, we saved everybody the horrendous cost of a "trunk-line" call and let Dave handle it.

It's a whole new world for phones today, isn't it? Privacy, for a start! On a party-line, we could secretly listen to everybody's conversations. If we wanted, which we didn't.

Does anybody else here on BE remember party-lines?