Notts emigrants to Australia


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I often wonder how many Notts people emigrated to Australia? I went to Ellis Tech school and with my family emigrated to Australia in 1956. My Dad was in the RAF during the war and after hearing about Australia from Aussies in the forces decided that after the war we would emigrate. Not so simple, we were declined a few times because he at the time he was running a fish and chip shop in Nuthall Rd.and the Australin Goverment did not want fish and chip shop owners?, It wasn,t until he got a job with QANTAS that we were accepted. The drama continued when the Suez crisis began,several departure dates cancelled until finally we sail on th MV Fairsea from Southampton and were actually the last ship through the Suez,followed by two gun boats which closed the canal.Our first accomadation was at a place called East Hills Hostel, we had left the English winter to arrive in the Aussie summer, Nissan corrugated huts, no air conditioning and only an ice box to keep food. Mother was not happy!!!. I loved it, fishing and swimming in  Williams Creek. Over the years I have tried to make contact with old school mates that I played football and cricket with without any luck.I recognized photos from the Ellis forum of teachers that taught me.

                         It,s funny how your allegiance changes, at 13 when we emigrated I was mad about the English cricket team,but now I am true to Australia in all sports.

Now married 55 years to my wife (Welsh) with 3 children and grand kids.

So I just thought I would post this brief to see if any others have similar stories to tell?

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If my father had managed to persuade my mother, we would have emigrated to Oz around 1965. Dad had been in the Navy during WW2 and spent time in Fremantle. He liked it very much and always wanted to go and live there. 

 

My mother refused, so we didn't go. I could have had an Aussie accent by now!

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kj 792, are you still in Sydney?

I am a ten pound pom and in my opinion it was one of the best 10 quid that Australia ever spent.

Came out in the mid seventies to Sydney and have to admit if I had have gone to one of those hostels in East Hills or in Wollongong then I would have been on the first flight out. 

We too left the UK in winter and the first full day in OZ was 100 deg F. The light meter in my camera went to places it had never seen before. Went to the beach VC10 legs and all except that it was a 747

My wish was to have a house with a sea view and a pool in the garden. Never could afford a sea view in Sydney but soon got a pool

Bought our own place in the Shire and never looked back, good jobs in manufacturing that took me all over Australia and the world. 

Now retired and enjoying life, especially the family and grandkids and yes I finally got the house with the sea view and the pool.

Still can't bring myself to support the Aussies in the cricket, more so after sandpaper gate.

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I wanted to go to Oz in the late 60s.  I had an old pal there who did well and loved it.  My late wife would not go. She thought she'd never see her folks again.  She was a smart woman at compromise, though, and said she would consider Canada.  I'd never given it a thought.  I thought only Eskimos and Peguins lived there.  :biggrin:  I did a bit of research and was pleasantly surprised.  Long story short.  Off we went and never looked back.  She could fly home to see mum and dad if she wanted, and I adapted to the winters ok.  Nowt against Oz. I often wonder how it would have gone if we'd emigrated there.  I'm in the good old USA now, but my heart is still in Canada.  We  became citizens.  That's all another long story, but I'd do it again if I were 25 again.

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Hi All, Thanks for your postings.I still have images of my Dad riding his bike to work wrapped up against the cold,worked for Avro aviation in Nottingham.We had little money as was the case with many at that time. Things had to change for him and us after the war, Australia was the answer. It changed his whole life around,job with Qantas,able to buy a car,etc. Sadly he died aged 63, a result of smoking as many did during the war. Sydney was where I worked but now live on the Mid North Coast near Forster,a most beautiful place to be,lakes, beaches,unspoiled countryside, and great golf!!!. When I started my trade course at Ultimo Technical Collage,they couldn,t understand me,so I made the effort to speak "Aussie" Nobody picks me now as a "POM". My wife and I are now Australian.

                                    Never been to Canada but I would suspect in some ways it would be like Australia.

Yes Ostalgian many did go back, East Hills in those days was "Bush" and very hot and some could not cop it, mind you if you went back in less than two years you had to repay your fare to Australia. I often comment on the refugee camps up north with airconditioning,medical facilities, meals etc, and they are complaining all the time, I have sympathy for them but I wonder how they would have copped the Migrant Hostel at East Hills.By the way East Hills is now a suburb of Sydney with great housing and infrastructure.

                              The bush fires and drought this year have been tragic,one burnt near us but the amazing helicopters and planes ambushed the blazes, I watched the choppers suck water from the local dam and dump on the fires, all in unison and poor visibility..  

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I'd do it all over again too Loppy

Australia has given us a good life but as with anyone who has emigrated it is more about the attitude of the people that left the UK and most have done well in many countries and would probably done well if they had stayed in the UK too.

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That's right Oz.  Somebody warned me before I left the UK.  "Don't tell 'em, this is how we do it in England, you'll get told, so go back there, then."  I never did.  I always wanted to try to fit in and be accepted.  They're like most folks.  Meet them halfway and you are soon accepted.  Sense of humor and ability to laugh at yourself is a big help too.

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I worked for Renison Bell when I first arrived in Oz, in Tasmania.

There was one of the other electricians who hated Poms, irony was, his Dad was a Pom!!! Anyway, he was determined to get me to bite and for the first few weeks whenever I was in the workshop same time as him, he was in my face telling me how bad Poms were, I just nodded my head and agreed with him, problem was, the more I agreed with him, the more angry he became, until he flew into a rage and spat the dummy, much to the amusement of the other leckos on the staff.

One of the other younger leckos had curly hair and let it grow until he looked like a white gollywog, I nicknamed him Golly, he took no offense whatsoever, then on morning I said "G'day GW" and he came up to me and said "I LIKE THAT!! G'day John"  The obnoxious little elec heard it and shouted "G'day GW"  GW walked over to him, grabbed him by the throat and said "If you call me GW one more time I'll floor you"  To which the obnoxious lecko said "But the Pom called you GW" To which GW responded, ONLY my friends call me GW and the Pom's a friend... The rest of the lads were in total laughter.. I'd been accepted as one of them.

I don't think the obnoxious lecko ever bothered me again.

There was one who I befriended from the start, I was put with him until I could find my way around, he showed me the "ropes". He used to say he was going to teach me "strine", everything I said he corrected me, until I could say it in an Oz accent...LOL

One evening I was in one of the local pubs, and this little old feller said "You from England"?  I said yes, this feller just couldn't get over someone coming so far away to live there, very few if any Poms in that part of Tasmania.

Turns out he and his Brother farmed a few acres just outside town, and I found out he'd never been more than 15 miles from home all his life.

Made a lot of friends there including some Maori's who worked in the process plant.

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A FB friend is a Geordie, I asked his wife, an American, how she manages the accent, she said she's used to it now. They live in Birmingham, Alabama.

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I find the Yanks really like my accent. Some have told they like to come when I preach because of it.  I don't think it would matter if I read Mary had a little lamb.  Makes me feel accepted anyway.  Mrs L was once told (jokingly) by a co worker she only married me for my accent.:biggrin:   A lot of Nottingham has come back since I've been on here.  Always refer to my dogs as Meducks.  :Shock:

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I sometimes wonder how my accent has altered, almost five years in North Yorks, ten years down under and thirty years in the US.

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I'm told that I speak French with an English accent and that I speak English with a French accent.

 

Listening to myself on recordings, I still detect a slight Hucknall 'twang' in both my French and English but I'm sure that one would have to be Hucknal born and bred (and of my era) to notice it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi All,

         You have probably seen all of the reports regarding the bushfires in Australia. Where I live on the Mid North Coast of NSW between Forster and Taree. Only 5 weeks ago we were almost evacuated because of fires near us.Driving down to Sydney 400ks south the temperature reached 47  degrees Now we have in 3 days had more than 20 inches of rain.Since spring I had not mowed our lawns once(normally twice a week) Now after the rain I have stuff growing everywhere and mowed twice in 4 days!!!! Our farmers are loving it,after the crippling drought they are once again"farming". Sad part is that our golf course is closed "to wet". Before the rain it was just brown,not a patch of green anywhere,in just 3 days you would not believe the transformation. But thats Australia it,s happened before and will happen again.

                              I just thought I would give an insight into life in Australia. I love it!!! 

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Welcome kj792 to our friendly site,

I sure that most of in the us UK watched the bush fires in Aus. I take my hat off to you, none of us have any idea what it must be like, it's ok watching on tv but you are there. Visited Aus twice must admit if I was 4??? years younger I would be there instead of the UK. Yes you do get fires, high temp's but what a life, sorry to hear about your golf course, why not try green bowling opps sorry if you can'r get on the golf course no chance  of getting on a bowling green. Any way a big welcome looking forward to your post's.

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This poem by Dorothea Mackellar just about sums up this country especially verse two

 

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

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Oz, I really enjoyed reading the poem - it''s descriptive and emotive.  But because I've never visited Australia, let alone lived there, I think I'll stick with the Britain of the first verse, which does still exist in some parts of the country, thank goodness.   But my country isn't just these things, of course -  there is the growing divide between the rich and poor causing unrest and uncertainty about the future...   

I know I'm getting political again but it's SO sad.

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Phil, I think that's overly simplistic with communities and society in general having become the way they are.  You're lucky.... I never even got a christening spoon (or mug for that matter).  I am on the Cradle Roll' of a little chapel which is no more, though!

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Simplistic is not the same as simple!

Simplistic means treating complex issues and problems as though they were much simpler than they really are.   

For example:   A child may say something like "If some people are poor, why can't they (the government) just print more money to give to them"

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