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Since 1951 when I first immigrated to Australia with my family at the age of 9yrs, things have really changed in this beautiful country of ours. I became an Australian Citizen on 15th March, 1972 and the change over the years has been immense.
My memories of the easy going way of life I recall as a child are precious to me as I see the change of lifestyle evolve, some good, some bad.
My memories are of playing outside in the beautiful sunshine for most of the day, as long as I was home for dinner, there was no concern that I was in any danger. Unfortunately in the suburbs now I see children playing games on their mobile phones, or i pads subsequently inside for most of the day, or under the supervision of their parents, and there is a concern for the safety that we took for granted. Children seem to want everything in life, but most are not prepared to work for it.
My second concern is for our democratic way of life. I always felt we lived in a free open country, where we had control over our life in general. Australia has always been a land of opportunity, if you work hard at yours goals, you will achieve them. The reality is that now we are so regulated and taxed in everything that we do, freedom of speech is a thing of the past, it no longer feels like a democratic country. Covid 19 has opened our eyes to just how much we are regulated now, and opened our eyes also to the Constitution that allows State Premiers to dictate to the rest of Australia, so much so that WA (Western Australia) seems like another country. I had previous to Covid 19 felt that our Prime Ministers was our leader, but Covid has shown us that that is not the case.During Covid 19 politics became more important than the health and wellbeing of Australian citizens.
Climate change and Carbon taxes seem to regulate our way of life. As an older Australian, floods, bushfires, storms etc. have always been a way of life for Australians. In our famous Australian poem “My Country” by Dorothea Mackellar, which is taught in our Australian schools, these words stay in my memory:
‘I love a sunburnt country
A land of Sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains’
We all have become accustomed to the summer bushfires. Australians have always known not to travel to the Northern Territory during the wet season when the roads will be flooded, and the intense heat in the summer has always been a way of life in Australia for me. It was 112dg.fagrenheit on my wedding day in 1962. I can still remember sweating so much that my wedding dress was sticking to my skin. I find it difficult to agree that we are warming. The young ones think I am living with my head in the sand, but I think the young ones are being indoctrinated. So I guess we can all agree to disagree.
With all that off my mind, I am still so grateful that I live in a beautiful country. I see my children working hard to achieve their goals in life, and my grandchildren coming of age to obtain their first after school jobs and learn the value of money. All is not doom and gloom in Australia, there is still promise of a bright future for a future Australians.
Penelope, aged 9, and her family emigrate from the UK to Australia. This book covers her journey onboard the ship and her family's friendship with a Greek family. This friendship continues in Australia throughout their life's journey.
The book includes the life effects of being interfered with as a child, and the ups and downs of adopting children. Along the way there is mystery, murder, love and disappointment.
Patricia Gibbons keeps you intrigued and in wonder of what is to come.
An exciting read!
Enjoy an Excerpt
September 19th, 1951, was my ninth birthday. The P&O Liner Ranchi pulled away from Tilbury Docks in the United Kingdom, bound for an unknown future in Australia, its engines roaring through the water, drowning out the singing from our friends and family gathered at the dock to bid us farewell. I could hear them singing and attempting to harmonise their favourite Vera Lynn war tune, ‘We’ll meet again’ as well as ‘Good night, Irene.’ The sights and sounds will stay in my memory forever.
My name is Penelope (the family calls me Penny), and the immigration of the family to Australia was a sad day for me, but a day of excitement and wonder for my mother Ada and my two sisters, Shirley, who was sixteen, Kate, fourteen, and my elder brother John, who was eighteen.
Dad had made the journey to Australia two years before, and mum longed to see him again on our arrival in Melbourne, Victoria. It was not long before this when Dad returned to the United Kingdom from the war. The family had been evacuated from our house in London when the Germans bombed it. We had so many unpleasant memories of the bombings in London, the air raid shelters, the Germans bombing our school, and finally having to evacuate to the country. After the war, when Dad arrived home, he decided there was a better life for us all in Australia.
Being in the Royal Air Force, it was not a difficult thing for Dad to ask for a transfer to The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and make the trip to Australia to set up house for us all in this new land. Dad had met several Australians while fighting in the war, and he grew to like their sense of fun and their outlook on life. They painted a picture of Australia in Dad’s mind as a land of opportunity, a great place to start a new life. As a number of his mates were stationed at the Point Cook Air Force base in Melbourne, he applied to be posted there, and it was granted. So on September 19th, 1951, we were on our way.
The trip to Australia took six weeks. We travelled through the Suez Canal, and it was an adventure for all the family. The giant liner was a huge playground for us. There were immigrants from the United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, and other countries on board, and one of the Greek families – The Papadopoulos family – became good friends with us all. They had three sons and a daughter. The boys were Sebastian, ten, who became my first boyfriend; Alex, who was just the right age at eighteen to be a friend for John; Theo, a good looking dark haired typical Greek boy of seventeen years, who was to become Shirley’s onboard romance, and last but not least, was a fifteen-year-old girl called Mia who was the right age as a friend for Kate who was very outspoken, Mia was quite shy and Kate bossed her around. It seemed to work out fine between them, and they became inseparable.
About the Author:
In her teenage years singing and dancing were also one of Patricia’s loves and she appeared in a number of stage performances.
Patricia successfully bred Rottweilers for 42 years, and wrote her first book The Rottweiler In Australia about the first 20 years. She published this book back in the mid-1980’s. After becoming an All Breeds Dog Judge, Patricia judged Championship Dog Shows all over Australia, and she travelled overseas to judge in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Malaya, the Philippines and China.
Patricia has a Diploma in Classical Homeopathy and Bach Flower Remedies.
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ReplyDeleteLooks like a good book.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover and the book excerpt.
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