I still have a lot of memories being on that boat and I think the journey took us around 7 weeks to get to Australia, stopping of at countries and going through the Suez and Panama canals.
Me and my brother had so much fun, as that ship was huge and we found it so easy to keep ourselves occupied for all those weeks- but I think it was harder for my parents, as we were stuck in that small cabin for 7 weeks – so there was a lot of tension and fall outs, but I am not surprised – exciting adventure for kids, but a nightmare for parents .
Well, we finally arrived in Australia, Brisbane and were met by our Uncle John and Auntie Julie, and taking to their home until our apartment was ready – I don’t remember how long we stayed with them, but I remember moving into flat 2, brassey street , Brisbane and the first ever wooden house I have ever seen- with an outside toilet.
But he heat ! wow – hitting 40 degrees some times and it hardly rained – I remember one time when it did rain, my Dad hosed us down before we went to school and we were dry when we got there & one time when we went shopping the eggs fell out of the shopping bag and they started frying on the pavement.
Me and my brother had no problems fitting into this new life, as kids usually do ! new school, new friends, new apartment etc. – and we were getting used to the heat.
Xmas was a bit different, waking up, with just our pajama bottoms on, no signs of snow and hoping Santa found his way to us to another country on the other side of the world.
Our Dad, played a wee trick on us, and he hide all our presents in another room- so when we got up, there were nothing in the Livingroom – Dad told us, I think Santa couldn’t find our house – Wow ! you should have seen our wee faces – but then our Dad, said ” lets check around the house” and we did – and when we opened the spare bedroom – there they were – Santa had found us and did leave our presents.
We only had another Xmas in Australia, as we were heading back home to Scotland – I think it was our Mum, that wanted to go home- as she missed her family so much and she certainly didn’t and couldn’t fit into this new life- the heat was far too much for her and she was wanting home.
My Dad had saved up money and he was planning to build a house beside our Uncle John’s house, but instead he used the money to get us all back home to Scotland.
So back on the boat and once again another adventure for me and my brother, leaving Australia in the distance and bringing along our memories of this country and our boomerang !
I haven’t been back to Australia again – those 2 years that we were there, went so fast and when we arrived back in Scotland, it was like we never left – our friends still remembered us, we went back to our old school and we moved into a new house- not too far away from our old house.
Australia was like a 2 year holiday for us and I still have very fond memories of this country, but I was so glad we came home again.
