http://wereyouthere.blogfreehere.com/ en-us BlogFreeHere.com This section is for people who want to catch up with others from their past.  It requires a name, a place and a date.  (These can be approximate)

This first entry is for people who came to Australia from England in June 1963 on board the Castel Felice.  This my own special quest.

We made friends with a very special family Peter and Vallery Waller-Wilkins and their son and daughter.  They later purchased a property in Queensland (Mount something or other).

We visited once with our caravan and our 4 children.  I remember Peter going potty about us running over a small part of his lawn.   

Val had her mother staying in a granny flat and I was so envious that they had settled in a nice home in a nice community and they had their family with them.  We had already decided to come back to Australia and I longed to be in their position.

We did have a chance to reminise about the journey out to Australia.   

We all arrived broke but as they had a family they were allocated a place at the migrant hostel in Broadmeadows,  Victoria.  We luckily managed to persuade the authorities to let us stay just for a week at one of the camps and were relieved to get a place in MARIBYRNONG Hostel, Victoria.
What a relief as we had no money, nowhere to stay and no work.  I am a bit irresponsible to be honest and just looked on it as a big adventure.  (A bit like the previous year when we had been hitch hiking around Spain, Portugal and Morrocco)  But John started to feel very stressed.  Reality bit hard.

It was a shock on that first day and though the accommodation was adequate we felt very lonely and isolated.  We planned to hitch-hike to our new friend's hostel in Braddmeadows.    We really had no idea how far away everything is in Australia.
Miles and miles of long empty roads.  It was scary.

Once on the main road we  managed to get a lift from a lorry with an fantastic Italian who insisted on taking us to his home.  They really made a fuss of us and gave us proper Italian Spaggetti Bolognaise (the first time I had ever tasted it).  Then, after several servings he gave us a lift straight to the hostel. 

Peter and Val were really pleased to see us.  We only got to spend a couple of hours as we had to find our way back to MARIBYRNONG Hostel before dark.   

We  managed to get  away from the hostel within four days, visited a contact we had, a brother of a friend of johns sister called Harry.  Although he didnt know us from Adam he helped us find a flat and even offered John a temporary job helping him with a big plumbing contract. 

]]> http://wereyouthere.blogfreehere.com/were-you-there-emigrating-to-austr.html wereyouthere@blogfreehere.com http://wereyouthere.blogfreehere.com/were-you-there-emigrating-to-austr.html Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:22:30 +1100