When you emigrate, you leave the known – and become an immigrant in the unknown.
When I was young (15year), I got my first job as a sailor. Later, on my return to sweden I signed in at a Hospitality school Hasselbacken in Stockholm. It was a 2-year education program with work practice and study, long hours. I needed to use all my savings as a sailor, to cover the cost of my educating, but it was well spent money! When I graduated, I received an offer to work in a French Bistro, named Oscar, in Helsingborg. The owner, Gunnar Moreau, had been one of my teachers at Hasselbacken.
This was all a good and exiting experience, but I had other plans for my future. I got married and we decided to emigrate to Australia, where I had been as sailor and loved the way of living there, “down under.”
I had no problems to get a working permission and visa at the Australian embassy, with my certificate from the restaurant school. My wife and her son Tommy, 9 years of age, were included in my visa.
It is not so easy to take the decision to emigrate. You need to leave other family members behind, without knowing if you ever will see them again. It took us some time to meet all our relatives to say goodbye…Most of them accepted our decision.
At this year, 1968, granted emigrates received a free travel from London to Sydney, by Quanta’s airline. The adventure had just started; 26-05-1968!
At the arrival in London, we booked in at a motel not long away from the Heathrow airport. In the morning, next day, we ordered a typical English breakfast. A good start of the day.
Our luggage went on a wagon, and we had to walk out to the airplane, a brand-new Boing 707. We were told by the cabin staff that the flight has two stops, first in Bahrain and after in Singapore before arriving at the Sydney airport. Totally a 24-hour trip, but with the time change, it was 34 hours.
The service and food onboard the airplane, was simply perfect! The cabin-crew were all young male Aussies and gave us a first-class treatment. I have been recommending Quanta’s since then.
About two hours before landing in Bahrain, we had a terrific experience. The plane came into a turbulent area and suddenly fell into an air pit about eight hundred meters! This was my first time on a long flight and for a second thought that we were falling to the ground. The crew came quickly and told me, “Don’t worry mate,” these things happen.
It was a relieve to arrive at Bahrain airport, after 7 hours flight. This was also my first visit to this little Arab country, but our stop was short, and we had only time to stretch our legs for a short while at the airport tax-free area.
Back onboard for the next flight to Singapore and we were served a nice Australian fillet steak. What a fantastic service!
This time our flight went smoothly, without incidences. Arriving after another 6 hour and a half in the air, to the airport in Singapore, that now was an independent republic after the separation from Malaysia in 1965.
This time we had a 3 hour stop, enough time to do some shopping. When we stepped out of the airplane, we were surprised by the hot tropical air, almost +40*C!
Finally, after boarding we sat down in our seats for the destination of our journey, Australia! The crew now told us, that it was a direct 8-hour flight to Sydney.
After over 24 hours total traveling time, we finally arrived to step down on Australian ground, at the Sydney airport, 29-05-1968. Now we had to deal with a 10 hours’ time change, “jet leg”, and the start of the custom inspection of documents and luggage. Finally, when all this had been done, we were told to boarder an old bus that would take us to an immigration center.
This was our first surprise!
When they told us that the bus first was going to make a stop so that we could have a rest, I wondered about where are we were going now? A bumpy ride started when we left Sydney behind us and got out in the bush! It was not exactly a comfortable bus; I had seen similar in old movies. Nex surprise was at arriving to the first stopover, an old military camp constructed with curved tin roof, in the middle of nowhere! This place was just horrible, but our custom guide told us that we were leaving in the morning to our “new” home, Bonegilla Camp, at the boarder to the state of Victoria. It felt like we were transported like animals. I could not sleep at all, just thinking about my responsibility to my new family and how they felt.
The morning finally came with a terrible noise from strange birds, called Kookaburras! They had a laughing sound that at first was annoying, but later we got used to it.
We arrived at Bonegilla camp, surrounded by a high fence and a guarded gate, it was a scaring sight, like the entrance to a country jail!
This place had been a military training camp during the second world war and made by wooden barracks on poles, now used to “welcome” immigrants. We were checked in by a police officer and handed a key to our room, in one of the barracks. He welcomed us to our new country, Australia, with a big smile.
When we opened the door, the first thig we saw was a “few” Crickets (huge cockroaches)! It did not scare me, but my wife started to scream and run out! I had seen these creatures before as a sailor, but never had them in my room. I found a can of insect-killer and made sure all was gone before I called her to come in again. Not a particularly good start of our first day at Bonegilla.
Suddenly a siren sounded to call us the dining room that was situated in a larger building in the middle of the camp. There was a long queue outside the entrance, this was just like an army camp. Arriving to the food counter we were given plates with huge meatballs and fried potatoes. I do not know what it really was but a neighbor fellow, at the table, told me that it was Dingo meat…. My wife asked what he had told me, but never answered exactly with his words. It was a horrible dish! We had tropical fruits for dessert, to forget the taste of the meat balls.
I heard a Swedish family talking at another table and went to present my family to them. It was a family with two kids and the husband told me that they had been in the camp for 6 weeks! He also told me that they wanted to live in Brisbane and work as a cook, but the immigration had told him that no work was available in the hotel sector in Queensland. But he had received an offer to work at a car factory in Sydney!
I was incredibly surprised when I heard him telling us the story about the work situation in Brisbane, as that is where we were heading. I knew this town well after being there, when I worked on a Swedish vessel called M/s Broland and we had a prolonged stay in port because of a harbor strike. This cannot be true and said to him that there are always work in restaurants if you are a professional.
What had happened in such a brief time after arriving at the camp, made me angry. I had after all, a huge responsibility against my new family and did not like to let them down. This same day I went to talk to the officer at the entrance gate, to tell him that we wanted to leave the next day.
First, he told me that was not possible, but when he understood that I was determined to do so, he informed that we had to sign a document saying that I was now responsible for my family! This was fine for me, and he could not scare me with the fact that we had to pay our trip by train to Brisbane. But I was also well informed that if I can show a work and house contract before a period of three months, our costs would be refunded!
This was my decision and was not going to fail!
My wife was incredibly happy to hear me saying that I had arranged to leave the next day.
Early in the next morning, we came to the railway station after a short bus ride. I felt so happy about my decision that we finally were free to travel on our own. The ride to Brisbane was long, but this did not matter, a beautiful landscape with gumtrees and Koala bears sitting on the branches made us busy watching. We even saw small kangaroos jumping around at the ground, in the woods.
The landscape here gave me a feeling of freedom that I have missed since I was a sailor.
We arrived at the Brisbane central station in the morning. A station officers recommended a hotel situated on a hill, close to the town center. The easiest way was to grab a cab!
The Tower Mill Motel features a striking circular form, distinctive concrete sun-shading and a restaurant on the top floor.
The prices at this hotel were high, so I booked only for three days. Later in the evening we had dinner on the top roof restaurant and wen the headwaiter came to our table, I presented myself, and asked him if he knew any hotels looking for waiters. He was surprised by addressing him so direct, but later told me to visit the employment office at the five-star hotel, Lennon’s, giving them his recommendation. We became friends that evening.
First thing in the morning, I walked into the back door at Lennon’s Hotel with my CV including the restaurant school certificate. After the interview, they told me to come back in one hour. It was sixty long minutes, but I walked around the streets close by to not be late. This time I met the restaurant manager who asked me if I could start the next day!
I told him that I had no problem and signed my first employment contract in Australia!
At my first day at work one of my new mates recommended a house to rent, in a nearby area.
Things happened so fast that after only three days stay at the hotel, I had signed the contract to rent a small three-bedroom bungalow and our life in Brisbane was settled!
I had successfully completed my tasks as an immigrant in Australia!
I will be back with an storyteller regarding my longest trip on a cruise liner from Sydney to Genova.
Thanks for reading.
Windmush/Curt
