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Born 5/1/1924 at 121 Hutton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, Maurice Bassett recalls some fond memories from the 1960's, when he and his family were living at Stevenage.
We sailed for Australia on the SS Oronsay in August 1962, and arrived at Melbourne at the end of September. On the way out we called into Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Penang, and Perth.
We had received a letter at Bombay, from a friend who had a sister in Melbourne, telling us that it was better to get off the ship at Melbourne than go to Sydney and live in a hostel. She said there was plenty of work and it would be no problem to get a job. They would meet us off the ship and rent a house for us.
We wired them from the ship to go ahead and informed the ships purser we were getting off at Melbourne and could we get all our goods and chattels off the ship there and not Sydney.
It was quite a job getting them to off load our goods because the place they were stored in the hold was bound for Sydney. Anyway after telling the immigration officer we were getting off at Melbourne regardless they said, 'Okay, but you are on your own now, don't come to us if you have any problems.'
We were met at the docks and taken for a trip round Melbourne as it was quiet, a Sunday, a good time to do this.
We were found a flat at Frankston, and on the Monday morning we went to town to look around. While I was there I went into the Employment Exchange, as it was called then, and asked them if any work was available in the area.
'Nothing in the engineering trade unless I went to Dandenong,' they said. I was willing to do anything and there was a job at the local service station (Lanes Motors) so I said I would take it.
After seeing Jeff Lees, the manager, he said ok you have a job, when can you start? I said, 'In he morning, Tuesday.' So here I was, second day in Australia, and going to work already.
Jeff Lees was drowned or taken by a shark while fishing in Port Philip Bay; his body was never found.
The wages were pathetic at that time: £20 a week (40 dollars) but I did some weekend work at home, repairing cars to make a bit extra money. Twelve months later I went to Cheltenham and worked at 'Casecraft Robunt' (now gone) as a toolmaker doing work on plastic mounding dies.
I also designed and made jigs for the manufacture of the Saxa salt bottles, Old Spice containers, and other products. The company sold out to Kiwi NZ and I obtained employment at Custom Moulders where I was in charge of the tool room and maintenance workers.
I did some design work on the jigs and fixtures to produce the Commonwealth Elephant money box and the National Bank money box in the form of a safe.
My first wife, Barbara, was suffering from chronic rheumatism of the spine and the doctors thought it might be better to live in a warmer climate. So with this in mind we moved to Queensland where the employment situation was not good.
I went out on my own, repairing vehicles and made quite a good living but I was never satisfied with the location nor the position I had placed myself in.
Doctors are not always right and my wife's complaint did not improve; also physiotherapy in Queensland was hard to come by. There was such a waiting list at the hospital that it would have taken weeks to get treatment, so we had to resort to private treatment.
This cost the earth and was not the answer, so we decided to move back to Victoria where I could get a job quite easy in my trade. I applied for and got a job at Celthene in Ricketts Road, Mt Waverly, as an engineer in charge of plant and equipment, i.e. multi coloured printing presses and other plant associated with bag making for Arnott's biscuits.
At the age of 60 I retired on a DVA (dep of vets affairs) pension. We sold house at Boronia and moved to Dalesford, which we thought might be away from the city crowds. It was, but it also was very cold in the winter.
Maurice Bassett, Queensland, Australia, 2001
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