Agnes wrote on Jun 13^th, 2016 at 12:31am:


I don't know if pleasant would be the right word.  Families were separated, with mothers and children going in cabins that were shared with other mothers and children, and fathers in cramped basic quarters near the engines.  It's all you could expect, I suppose, for £10.  My mother hated just about every minute of it but I'm not sure what my father thought of it, as he never spoke much.  For the young children like myself (I was almost 5 at the time) it was all a great adventure, and I can remember quite a lot about the trip.

Agnes wrote on Jun 15^th, 2016 at 8:40pm:


The Assisted Passage scheme was initiated immediately after WWII by the Chifley government, as an increase in population was seen as imperative if Australia was to prosper in the post-war years.  The use word "Pom" (which I've always thought of as referring to the English, rather than to the British as a whole) in the commonly used title of "£10 Poms" was not entirely accurate as, aside from English, there were Scottish, Irish and Welsh immigrants who came out on the scheme, as well as immigrants from other countries within the Commonwealth, such as Malta and Cyprus.  I don't know how long the scheme went for, but I think it ran for at least 20 years.

My father was a high school art teacher, and we came to Sydney because that was where the position he was to be appointed to was.  I'm not sure if there was any choice in the matter.  After a brief stay in a boarding house at Dulwich Hill, we were sent to the "housing settlement" at Bradfield Park (now known as East Lindfield) which was a recycled Air Force camp.  Quite an experience and one that did not endear the idea of living in Australia to my mother.

My first recollection of Australia was alighting from the boat to get a taxi to Dulwich Hill.  I was very keen on cars and could identify most by name (Riley, Rover and Armstrong-Siddeley were a few of my favourites) but when I saw the taxi, I couldn't figure out what it was.  I later learnt that it had been an FJ Holden.

Agnes wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 11:12am:

True, I am interested in cars, although my interest is more in the history of motoring and, as far as cars are concerned, my interests are mostly confined to the years prior to 1975 or thereabouts.  I have very little interest in performance cars of any sort.  My interests lie more in everyday vehicles of past eras.  Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris don’t really interest me.  Morrises, Austins, Wolseleys and Hillmans do.

Agnes wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 11:12am:

My father completed a Diploma in Art at Dundee Art College in the late 1940s and followed that up with teaching qualifications (I can’t recall exactly what they were).  I remember him telling me that a lot of Australian art teachers in the 1950s and 1960s were not trained at art colleges but were just trained teachers who were interested in art.  An art teacher in Australia who had any qualifications in art was apparently a bit of a rarity back then.

Agnes wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 11:12am:

I am Scottish, not English, and the fact that I had a rather prominent accent led to me being singled out (both by fellow students and by teachers) as being a bit different and to being the butt of a few other pupil’s jokes.  The result was, I suppose that, although I did have some friends, I ended up being a bit withdrawn and sensed that I didn’t quite belong.  The irony of it is that, when I went to live in Scotland for a while in the late 1970s, I felt like I didn’t belong there either, as I had been brought up in a rather different environment.  Needless to say, I came back to Australia after a couple of years and am well and truly settled down here now.

Blues Point Road, North Sydney in 1959.  The large block of flats is still there, but is now dwarfed by the surrounding buildings.

I adore this picture- beautiful, could see it as a painting in fact, lovely.  This in Australia..?

And now for something different, as they say - and this time nothing like black and white: a window display in The Royal Arcade in Melbourne.

Bad karma- it was that bad huh? anyway some of those old cars would be worth a bit now.