10th January: I did it! I finally got a job on my 69th day in Australia!.......

[MARYROSE02]

......Except it was in 1979! $179 per week, with an American computer company - Data General - Yeo St, Neutral Bay. I only had $80 left out of the original $1,000 I brought with me from the UK.

 

I was living at one of the UNSW colleges in Kensington, New College, and then Warrane College. I had to get a bus down to Martin Place, then walk over to Wynyard for another bus over the Harbour Bridge. I was walking down to get the ferry back to Circular Quay one night, when I saw a private hotel advertising rooms, The Royal Hotel, 9 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay. Both my brothers joined me there, later in the year.

 

I should really start looking for another job in Sydney soon, as I've been out of work since early November. I seem to lack that 'will to work' that I once had.

[Marisawright]

I seem to lack that 'will to work' that I once had.

 

Me too. I think there's a lot of factors involved. One is that we're just getting older, but I think it's also that the whole work culture has changed.

[MARYROSE02]

Is it the ?psychological? Milestone of passing 60? (For me anyway!) I never really had any skills. Even learning to type I was never experienced, whether it was laying out letters, using a golfball! Word processor but when I first came here I really did TRY to get jobs. Now, I just send my CV on Seek and see if I get any replies. Just like internet dating but even more unsuccessful.

 

I have about $500 per week income with no rent and without working which softens the blow.

 

I started to type my auto biography aiming to do a1000 words a day. Now I'm just sitting on a rock at Nielsen Park.

[TerryDXB]

[h=2]10th January: I did it! I finally got a job on my 69th day in Australia!.......[/h]Here's a question that I'd love to ask someone in your position...

 

 

If you could take 'You in 1979' with the experience and qualifications that you had at that time, and fast forward to the present day, do you think you either could get in Australia today, or would you even want to?

 

No problems if you don't care to reply, its just that so many people in the UK, still seem to have a mental image of Australia being the land of milk and honey and just couldn't understand my decision to return to the UK - especially those whose only visit to Oz was backpacking in the early 90's and found it to be incredibly cheap (although they themselves chose never to move permanently)

[MARYROSE02]

I don't mind you asking me that question. I came here on a WHV but I treated it like I was emigrating. I got permanent residence via an amnesty for illegals in 1980. I was not illegal but I was inside the cut off date. I would never have been accepted for emigration then or now.

 

I think I came for an adventure, although I am least adventurous person u cd meet. I don't know why my parents did not try to talk me out of coming especially when my mate changed his mind about coming with me.

 

I never thought OZ wd be land of milk and honey and I was scared of Aussies. Based on dire warnings from blokes who had been here.

 

I don't know why I stayed here tho both my brother's followed me out here and I guess I just stuck it out tho I did go back to UK for 12 years. Just circumstances really losing my job and my parents still there. When they died I came back to Sydney. Life is OK with the same ups and downs wherever I have lived and now I live in Australia and there is nothing for me to go back to UK now.

 

It has always been hard to get permanent visas and I imagine some or many of the WHV who come here would stay if they could. Sometimes it does seem cheap here if the FX rate is favourable but that is just a bonus.

 

Why did u go back ?

[TerryDXB]

I am quite a realist and whilst my expectations weren’t too high, Oz just didn’t give me what I wanted. I have to admit that the money was fabulous – even converted to GBP at the going rate, my take home pay was at least 3 times what I was on in the UK. I embraced Oz 100% when I arrived, got the 4WD and the camping gear, but after 6 months of 'living the dream' I began to get ‘is this all there is’ thoughts..I need more than a fabulous beach on my doorstep and ‘better weather’ – being eaten alive by sandflies didn’t help. I loved living in shorts and t-shirts for most of the year, got used to, and took the stunning but repetitive scenery for granted. It didn’t take me long to decide when, after 2 years, I got a call asking if I’d be prepared to go back….

It was an adventure..an itch that was well and truly scratched and I don’t regret it for one moment..but I’m happily back in the UK – bought a house in a small village in rural Norfolk, and enjoying life. If nothing else, after my stay in Oz I really appreciate all the good things that the UK has to offer – the only thing I really miss are the fabulous sunrise and sunsets...but they do occur here as well

[Ozmaniac]

......Except it was in 1979! $179 per week, with an American computer company - Data General - Yeo St, Neutral Bay. I only had $80 left out of the original $1,000 I brought with me from the UK.

 

I was living at one of the UNSW colleges in Kensington, New College, and then Warrane College. I had to get a bus down to Martin Place, then walk over to Wynyard for another bus over the Harbour Bridge. I was walking down to get the ferry back to Circular Quay one night, when I saw a private hotel advertising rooms, The Royal Hotel, 9 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay. Both my brothers joined me there, later in the year.

 

I should really start looking for another job in Sydney soon, as I've been out of work since early November. I seem to lack that 'will to work' that I once had.

Ah, them was the days! I was working for DG then too but in Brisbane.

[MARYROSE02]

There's nothing wrong with going back to England, and you probably did more in your two years here, than I've done in twenty five years!

 

I think perhaps the hardest thing for many people migrating to Australia is to adopt the mindset that they 'live' here. They are not on 'holiday,' nor just here for a couple of years to 'see how it goes.' Of course, if you are on a temporary visa, WHV, 457, well, your mindset is already set to 'temporary,' but if you have a permanent visa, and you're still talking along the lines of 'giving it a go for a couple of years', or 'I'm not going to live here forever,' well, there's nothing wrong with this outlook, except that you are not making a committment. I don't know. Perhaps it is like getting married, and using the same words, 'this is not forever', 'I'll give it a couple of years?'

 

I'm not saying I'm better than anybody else, but I do 'live' here. This is my (permanent) home. That's why I went back to England for twelve years, yet still returned again to Australia. I've 'gone native' if you like.

[MARYROSE02]

DG in Brisbane!? I prob sent things by courier up there although I can't remember any names. They flew me to Box Hill in Vic for training. What happened to DG? Swallowed up by another big co?

[Bobj]

2 days in Australia...Smellbum, got a job @ £11 a week in Dalgety's big woolstore, Altona. Oct 1963. It was so big, the wool buyers used bicycles to get from the office to the selling floor.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[Ellie 2]

We arrived one August morning in 1966. Were awakened the next morning around 5 am by someone hammering on the door. It was a guy we'd never seen before who heard my OH was arriving and organised a job for him- both chippies. The wage was $45 a week.

[Ozmaniac]

DG in Brisbane!? I prob sent things by courier up there although I can't remember any names. They flew me to Box Hill in Vic for training. What happened to DG? Swallowed up by another big co?

I went to Lowell in the US for training and also had many trips to Box Hill for various meetings and short training sessions. I went to Yeo Street a couple of times but can't remember any names from there. DG did well until the mid 80s and tottered on until it was taken over by EMC in 1999.

[MARYROSE02]

It was a multi-national work force, mostly Aussies but 3 from US & a French guy. We had 3 apprentices who may have been the first in OZ in the industry. I was out of my depth to be honest, running the store, failing to control the engineers coming in to take parts. 'Trading Post' like 'Exchange & Mart?" was one of our big customers. It was a glamour industry but they 'let me go' after just over a year. Later I lived with my brothers down Yeo St. I also worked in similar job but not so much responsibilty for Honeywell in N Ryde. One of my brothers worked for HP for a long time here and in US. I am still nostalgic for my time in Neutral Bay.

[MARYROSE02]

1966! Wow! I remember asking a guy who worked for Royal Mail and started in 1963, "Before or after The Great Train Robbery" & "Which Beatles song was in the charts? ('May have been "after" and "From Me To You!")

 

So, "Was it before or after The World Cup" and "Which Beatles record was in the charts?"

 

Most of the books I read about Oz before coming out were from 60's or earlier.

 

We should all be writing our memoirs! Actually, I have just started last month and managed 10 000 words.

 

Like old man, I have dozed away the arvo sitting in arm chair from about noon and it is almost 7! I shall drive down to Bronte or Clovelly for a swim now.

[MARYROSE02]

I Googled the history of Dalgety, Bob! Ended as Pig Improvement Co? Then swallowed up finally by West Farmers but Lasted 150 yrs?

 

I reckon ' She Loves You' or maybe 'Can't Buy Me Love?'

[fifi69]

Lovely reading snippets from the people who came in the 60, 70, 80s.

 

All must have been so different.

 

I nearly came here in the 70's as a tiny tot with my parents as £10 poms, but my dad bottled it the night before we were due to leave.

 

Just like the film sliding doors, different paths lead to different adventures.

[MARYROSE02]

My parents had chance to migrate to Canada in 1967 I think. Mum got job as teacher in Saskatewan but Dad was worried where he wd get job. I think we, the kids, used to rail at them for denying us the chance to go there. It is a HUGE step into the unknown tho. It was for me!

[M1cha3la]

I love reading snippets from back then too thanks for sharing :cute: I bet your memoirs will be a great read. Do you have any pictures? I bet it all looked so different too.

[Naomi from Manchester]

Now I'm just sitting on a rock at Nielsen Park.

 

Like Piffy?

[Naomi from Manchester]

Btw, MaryRose, they had potato and gravy flavoured gelato at N2 Extreme Gelato the other day. A step too far, even for me!

[MARYROSE02]

I 'sneer' at the long queues for Messina each time I drive down Crown St. There is another gelato place towards Oxford St. I got in there with nobody there and as I came out the line had started.

Piffy? I'll have to Google him or her!

[Naomi from Manchester]

Sneering! Love it! My 18yr old self would probs sneer at me now.

 

You don't know Piffy? Maybe it's a Northern thing. Piffy on a rock bun. It means just sort of not doing much.

[MARYROSE02]

"I simply can't believe that I've been made to stand here like Piffy on a rock until some barmaid notices I'm gasping for a pint". Overheard in "The Rovers Return"! (Liam Gallagher in a special guest appearance tho he went off script and added a few @&€$!?)

[MARYROSE02]

I did come down Crown too on way back from Bronte. Always a happening little strip between The Dolphin and The Clock tho I never go in them. I am in Trinity for dinner. Been in here a 1000 times.