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Like many thousands of other British born & based people and families, my family and I emigrated to Australia on what was called the Assisted Passages, wrote Peter Cavill.
If and when approved by the Australian Government as immigrants, the cost of getting to Australia was £10 per adult person, or married couple with young children. Hence the expression in Australia, 'Ten Pound Poms'.
The name 'Pom/Pommie' is derived from the letters P.O.M.E. = Prisoner Of Mother England, dating back to poor souls who were convicted in England/Britain, and transported to the 'Penal Colony'.
In truth, it was one way, if not the only way, to ease the unemployment and housing problems that existed in those times; and an unlimited source of cheap labour. By comparison, very few people emigrated to this country of their own free will.
Many reasons for deciding and applying to emigrate to Australia are, and have been, given. The main three being employment, housing, and healthy lifestyle, i.e. almost constant sunshine.
The majority of emigrants are/were married couples with a family, and more readily accepted by the Australian Government. Their 'Populate or Perish' plea in the immediate post-WWII years was still evident in the 1960's, and to a lesser extent, in the 1970's.
My wife, Mavis (nee: Dudley, born 1941), and I decided to apply to emigrate in late 1966; following an advertisement in the English 'Daily Mirror' newspaper for timber mill workers in the country towns of Western Australia. At the time, we were living in Enfield, North Middlesex/London; where my wife, our two children, and I were born, raised, and had always lived.
Whilst I was unsuccessful in being sponsored by and for the timber mills, which included housing, the notion of taking this big step and gamble stayed with us. Further enquiries, coupled with formal applications and sponsorship, saw us being accepted as migrants, and being granted the Assisted Passage as a family of four. Our daughter, Julia, was born in 1962, and our son, Simon, was born in 1966; and I was born in 1938.
Selling our two-bedroomed maisonette was not a problem; trying to sell our unwanted household and personal effects( there was a limit on what we could take with us, and for free), meant virtually giving them away.
The profit on the sale of the maisonette, such as it was, was the only source of funds that we would have to arrive with in Western Australia.
The thought of leaving our families, friends, neighbours, and dear old Enfield, was not as hard as would have thought at the time, but, which would come back to haunt us years later. That is another story, I'm afraid.
On 6th July 1967 we left Southampton on the migrant ship, 'Fairsky', amid tearful and emotional farewells, and a fierce determination to make this gamble succeed. The same could have been said for all of the 1500 passengers on board.
The month-long voyage was marred by having only two short stops: half a day in Las Palmas; and a little over half a day in Capetown, South Africa, where the apartheid was most definitely and openly rejected by the passengers. Only a stern, but friendly warning by the ship's captain prevented many of us from being arrested for our vocal stand against apartheid.
On the voyage, many passengers and their families became good friends, supporting and encouraging each other at all times. Many migrants have continued this friendship to this day.
The novelty and excitement of this 'holiday cruise' wore off for most passengers as soon as we left Capetown for that long, non-stop haul to Fremantle, Western Australia.
Limited and alternative activities for the children on board (500), made it hard for the parents to maintain a daily and ongoing interest for their young children.
At long last we arrived at Fremantle on 3rd August 1967, mentally weary and sapped, but only too pleased to set foot on soil again. Those who had chosen Western Australia were taken to various government and private accommodations; the majority of the passengers having to board later on for their chosen destinations in the eastern states of Australia.
Those migrants with family and/or friends already in the country/state, had a massive head start over those like us, who did not know a single soul in the state, or country, for that matter.
Nevertheless, we knuckled down, made friends, found work, and had a house built, in less than a year. It really was a case of 'sink or swim', because the back-up welfare system for migrants in those days was virtually non-existent, unlike today's migrants -- legal or otherwise.
Almost 36 years on, we now have another daughter, Casey (born in 1974), a married son and daughter, and four grandchildren, all of them living and coping with their Australian lifestyles to the full.
My wife and I are now retired, and live fairly close to our family in the Perth Metro Area of Western Australia.
We have no regrets worth detailing, except to say that my wife and I do miss some of the things that still are uniquely English, and not found in Australia; and although we are now naturalised Australians, we are still first and foremost, English........and proud of it.
Pete Cavill, Western Australia, 2002
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