It is 37 years today since I arrived in OZ (3/11/78). What are your memories of your first day?

[MARYROSE02]

From my diary:

 

"We docked at Fremantle at 7am. When I got off the boat, I walked up to the station with 2 guys - 1 Pom and 1 Kiwi. My case weighed a ton. I regretted packing so much stuff. We took the train to Perth, & then a taxi to the YMCA - cost us $14 for a nite - 3 to a room.

 

My 1st impressions of Perth are really good. I like it and I want to stay. I went for a drink in the evening - the 1st pub I was really scared of being called a "Pommie Bastard" but some drunk, but it never happened & I relaxed after a bit."

 

I remembered a couple more things that I did not write in my diary. I was surprised to see girls who were meeting their family at the boat dressed up "to the nines". (Naive and unworldly Dave). And the first public toilet I went into on the dock had metal urinals!

 

I'm sure it was warm to hot, sunny, and cloudless, and I seem to recall, too, that out in the evening, the streets were like in "American Graffiti" with everybody driving along these grid-iron roads, and lots of people on the pavements.

 

Those two guys, Roger from St. Peter Port in Guernsey, and Tim, from Auckland, I met on the boat. I think I actually met Roger in the queue to embark on the boat in Singapore, MV Turkemenia I think, and a Russian ship.

 

I stayed in contact with Roger up until I think 2008 when he rang me out of the blue at my brother's house. He was living in Kings Cross for a long time. I went to see Tim in Auckland in 1983 and he took me out on his yacht. I was on the Canberra bound for San Francisco out of Sydney.

 

I stayed in Perth for a month but I could not get a job so I decided to try Adelaide, and got the bus there. I did not like it as much as Perth, and almost went back to Perth. (Someone at the hostel - Travel Mates in Newcastle Street - where we moved from the "Y” even wrote on the noticeboard "The Adelaide Kid is returning." Then I got talking to two Swedish guys who had briefly been on the same coach as me, and I arranged to meet them on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. I was also thinking of going home by Xmas, and I wanted to see the Opera House, the Bridge and Bondi Beach before I left.

 

What do you all remember about your first day in OZ?

[vickyplum]

My memory of arriving is not as interesting as yours!

 

Arrived 27 May 2015. For reasons I won't go into (they are not very interesting either!) my OH and I got different flights from HK, where we'd stopped over for a few days. They were only an hour or so apart, but due to Qantas engineering difficulties, he only took off shortly before he should have arrived... so I arrived at SYD to a flurry of text messages as to what had happened with his flight etc. Luckily he had contacted one of his brothers so I was picked up at the airport by him. We then returned back to the airport later that day, to get my OH - who was surprisingly NOT in stinking bad mood.

[Marisawright]

I emigrated with my first husband. He was sponsored by the Victorian Dept of Education and a condition of his employment was that he had to work in a country school.

 

We landed in Melbourne early in the morning, and my oh went straight to Nauru House to find out where he'd been posted, while I waited in the nearby library. After a short wait he joined me in the library and we tried to find the town he's been assigned to, in an atlas I found on the shelf. It was so tiny it wasn't even on the map!

 

We then got on a bus to Ballarat and were met there by the headmaster, who drove us to our new home. The parents of a teacher were away on a European holiday for four weeks, so he had arranged for us to "house sit" for them. It was odd to find the school had arranged everything for us, even though we'd had no idea where we were going!

 

As there was no public transport at all in the area, the headmaster also took us to the nearest big town the very next day, to buy a car.

[ramot]

My first visit to Oz was in 1990, my husband was working here, so my 9 year old daughter and I came for a month.

We landed at Cairns, and my husband wasn't there to meet us!!!!

He had the arrival time wrong, and had gone to the reef for a trip.

So transport was arranged for us.

 

A stretch white limo with sheep skin seats turned up!! Wow if this Australia I like it.

We then divided our time between an amazing hotel in Cairns and The Hilton on the Mall Brisbane.

It was a wonderful month, never to be repeated!!!!

 

Decided that we would move here permanently one day.

Finally made it Jan. 2003, when we retired here.

 

Love our life here.

[Guest]

My 7th anniversary is fast upon me - 30th November 2008. After 2 red-eye flights, I arrived blinking at Brisbane airport to be met by my partner and our (then) 2 year old daughter. I'd stayed behind in London to finalise the clearing of our house and to work my notice on my job.

 

It was a massive clash of emotions, delight at being reunited with my family, and despair at it being in Australia! After a brief family hug, my O.H. quickly told me that we couldn't head back to her folks' place where they'd been staying for the past 5 weeks as she'd had a row with her mum, so we had to drive around for a bit in order to let her mum calm down. In the end we drove around for so long the car overheated and we had to call the RACV out!

 

I remember being completely over-dressed for the weather (jacket, trousers, proper shoes) and how bright the light seemed after London's November skies. It was like someone had turned the brightness dial up to 11! The warmth quickly disappeared though once we eventually arrived back at the in-laws' place. I'm not saying that they've never really taken to their daughter taking up with an Englishman (and one who's never shown any enthusiasm for Australia to boot) but I immediately felt about as welcome as Samuel L Jackson at a Klu Klux Klan christmas party! When my head eventually hit the pillow, my last thought was "somehow, I don't think that this is going to work!"

 

Happy days! :wink:

[MARYROSE02]

I emigrated with my first husband. He was sponsored by the Victorian Dept of Education and a condition of his employment was that he had to work in a country school.

 

We landed in Melbourne early in the morning, and my oh went straight to Nauru House to find out where he'd been posted, while I waited in the nearby library. After a short wait he joined me in the library and we tried to find the town he's been assigned to, in an atlas I found on the shelf. It was so tiny it wasn't even on the map!

 

We then got on a bus to Ballarat and were met there by the headmaster, who drove us to our new home. The parents of a teacher were away on a European holiday for four weeks, so he had arranged for us to "house sit" for them. It was odd to find the school had arranged everything for us, even though we'd had no idea where we were going!

 

As there was no public transport at all in the area, the headmaster also took us to the nearest big town the very next day, to buy a car.

 

I Googled "Nauru House" (Melbourne's "MLC Centre" in Sydney!?) which was actully owned by the Govt of Nauru. I wasn't sure whether he was posted to Nauru or that was the name of the town. What was the name of the town?

Edited November 3, 2015 by MARYROSE02

[Quoll]

Arrived 30 March 1979 - spent the night at the Lakeside Hotel in Canberra which was then the equivalent price of a 3* in Glasgow we had stayed at immediately prior - much better facilities in comparison. Got the keys to our student house and moved in straightaway with child and two backpacks. Bought a Mini LS within a few days and DH began his thesis.

[MARYROSE02]

My memory of arriving is not as interesting as yours!

 

Arrived 27 May 2015. For reasons I won't go into (they are not very interesting either!) my OH and I got different flights from HK, where we'd stopped over for a few days. They were only an hour or so apart, but due to Qantas engineering difficulties, he only took off shortly before he should have arrived... so I arrived at SYD to a flurry of text messages as to what had happened with his flight etc. Luckily he had contacted one of his brothers so I was picked up at the airport by him. We then returned back to the airport later that day, to get my OH - who was surprisingly NOT in stinking bad mood.

 

I don't agree that your arrival experience is less interesting than mine. You experienced something unplanned for one thing, and you could probably expand on that experience for another - e.g. "embellish" your OH's "displeasure?" (Never let the facts get in the way of a good story?" I have a friend here whose first night in Australia was in the YHA hostel at Central in the same room as me in 2010. He "embellishes" that experience to say that not only was I the first person he met in Australia, but he also thought I was a caretaker cleaning the room - too old for the YHA! I usually "embellish" by saying I got into my room and found all my bed clothes tipped on the floor and he in my bunk.

 

Had you been to Sydney before? Did you know your brother-in-law? Why you got separate flights? All good material there for an anecdote. How has the first six months here been too?

[Marisawright]

I Googled "Nauru House" (Melbourne's "MLC Centre" in Sydney!?) which was actully owned by the Govt of Nauru. I wasn't sure whether he was posted to Nauru or that was the name of the town. What was the name of the town?

 

No he wasn't posted to Nauru, that was the name of the building where the Victorian Dept of Education was. The town was way out in the Wimmera region of Victoria. We lasted a year there, made some lovely friends who are still friends today, but I am such a city slicker and I hated living in the country.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Marisawright

[MARYROSE02]

Arrived 30 March 1979 - spent the night at the Lakeside Hotel in Canberra which was then the equivalent price of a 3* in Glasgow we had stayed at immediately prior - much better facilities in comparison. Got the keys to our student house and moved in straightaway with child and two backpacks. Bought a Mini LS within a few days and DH began his thesis.

 

What was the thesis on? I'm presently trying to think of a "hypothesis" (my first ever) for a report I'm doing as part of my OU unit at Murdoch University.

[MARYROSE02]

No he wasn't posted to Nauru, that was the name of the building where the Dept of Education was.

 

What about the name of the town in Victoria though? I'm itching to Google it!

[MARYROSE02]

My 7th anniversary is fast upon me - 30th November 2008. After 2 red-eye flights, I arrived blinking at Brisbane airport to be met by my partner and our (then) 2 year old daughter. I'd stayed behind in London to finalise the clearing of our house and to work my notice on my job.

 

It was a massive clash of emotions, delight at being reunited with my family, and despair at it being in Australia! After a brief family hug, my O.H. quickly told me that we couldn't head back to her folks' place where they'd been staying for the past 5 weeks as she'd had a row with her mum, so we had to drive around for a bit in order to let her mum calm down. In the end we drove around for so long the car overheated and we had to call the RACV out!

 

I remember being completely over-dressed for the weather (jacket, trousers, proper shoes) and how bright the light seemed after London's November skies. It was like someone had turned the brightness dial up to 11! The warmth quickly disappeared though once we eventually arrived back at the in-laws' place. I'm not saying that they've never really taken to their daughter taking up with an Englishman (and one who's never shown any enthusiasm for Australia to boot) but I immediately felt about as welcome as Samuel L Jackson at a Klu Klux Klan christmas party! When my head eventually hit the pillow, my last thought was "somehow, I don't think that this is going to work!"

 

Happy days! :wink:

 

You've been here almost seven years then. Have things improved/got worse? Is Melbourne better/worse than Brisbane?

 

I was just thinking as I looked in my diary for 1978, a Collins' desk diary I had at work, and realized it is the link between two lives, the English one ending after 24 years, and the Aussie one, not knowing how long it would last. It's sad too in parts, looking back and thinking how I (searching for a "metaphor?") ripped the tree of my life out of the ground, and threw the seeds as far as I could, ripped up my parents' lives too. It seems to have been a warm spring and summer then, as I was swimming in May. My brothers' band "Phoenix" were on the road and I recorded their gigs.

 

Our whippet "Sandy" (really my Nana's dog) had to put to sleep on 29th August, and Dad buried him under the apple tree in the garden. Nana lived with us and I came home from work to see her sitting with my Mum. "I've lost my pal" she said. I must have been thinking about doing things I might not do again, as I did a circuit of the Isle of Wight, ferry from Soton to Cowes, bus, train, bus again to Yarmouth and Mum and Dad picked me up in Lymington.

[roborac]

Arrived in Adelaide on the 9th June 1982, after a long awful journey with Garuda airlines , me and my husband and two teenage girls 13 and 15 met by Robs husband and sister in law Could not get over why people were wearing winter clothes when we thought it was so warm They took us up to tea tree plaza a couple of days later , a local shopping center which i thought had to be the city because it looked so Posh !! Another first , seeing parrots flying around. Thursday late night shopping and people mainly children in shopping centers wearing PYJAMAS All the different names for fruits and veg that i hadn,t seen before Got here at the beginning of the week by the end of the week we had the girls enrolled at school , got a car , Rob got a job and on the Sunday went house hunting and picked one out , and we still live in it now

[Guest]

You've been here almost seven years then. Have things improved/got worse? Is Melbourne better/worse than Brisbane?

 

I was just thinking as I looked in my diary for 1978, a Collins' desk diary I had at work, and realized it is the link between two lives, the English one ending after 24 years, and the Aussie one, not knowing how long it would last. It's sad too in parts, looking back and thinking how I (searching for a "metaphor?") ripped the tree of my life out of the ground, and threw the seeds as far as I could, ripped up my parents' lives too. It seems to have been a warm spring and summer then, as I was swimming in May. My brothers' band "Phoenix" were on the road and I recorded their gigs.

 

Our whippet "Sandy" (really my Nana's dog) had to put to sleep on 29th August, and Dad buried him under the apple tree in the garden. Nana lived with us and I came home from work to see her sitting with my Mum. "I've lost my pal" she said. I must have been thinking about doing things I might not do again, as I did a circuit of the Isle of Wight, ferry from Soton to Cowes, bus, train, bus again to Yarmouth and Mum and Dad picked me up in Lymington.

 

Oh infinitely better. I can now wear the clothes I arrived in! If they still fit! :smile:

 

Life in Melbourne is a world away from my experiences on the Gold Coast. It's still unsettlingly alienating in many ways, but the weather, architecture, and diversity do help to give it some degree of familiarity. But, it's still someone else's city, someone else's culture, not mine. I envy everyone who feels at home here, but I know that what I currently have is as good as it gets here and that one day I'll go home and re-connect to what's mine.

 

Fingers crossed! :smile:

[Guest]

M.R., you should think about writing a book on your experiences of living between two countries. It might be a helpful catharsis. :smile:

[MARYROSE02]

Oh infinitely better. I can now wear the clothes I arrived in! If they still fit! [emoji2]

 

Life in Melbourne is a world away from my experiences on the Gold Coast. It's still unsettlingly alienating in many ways, but the weather, architecture, and diversity do help to give it some degree of familiarity. But, it's still someone else's city, someone else's culture, not mine. I envy everyone who feels at home here, but I know that what I currently have is as good as it gets here and that one day I'll go home and re-connect to what's mine.

 

Fingers crossed! [emoji2]

It's an interesting way of looking at Melbourne as someone else's culture, city? I feel as strong a connection to Sydney as to Southampton through shared values and history. I guess that is why I will defend both.

 

The longer you stay away from a place, the harder, in my experience, it is to rediscover your roots. My life in Southampton from 1996 to 2008 was a completely different experience from "Zero Hour" to 1978. Similarly, since I came back to Sydney I had to re-connect a second time here. Migrating three times I call it.

 

My brother Neil would in my opinion be incapable of adjusting to life in Southampton because he has been back twice in 36 years and it is alien to him, and far more so than to me.

[MARYROSE02]

M.R., you should think about writing a book on your experiences of living between two countries. It might be a helpful catharsis. [emoji2]

Catharsis? Is that the right word? In the 80s and 90s when I made constant trips back to the UK, perhaps, but now, seven years since I left, the longest time I've ever been away, having let my British passport expire, and with zero desire to return even for a holiday, writing such a book has merits but not as a "catharsis."

 

One odd fact is that I am probably more interested in the UK than at any time thru watching Tottenham games, Sky News UK, and the UK papers on line.

[MARYROSE02]

Changed pubs and change in outlook. Perhaps catharsis is not such an alien concept. I've always been sentimental and nostalgic, hence my frequent returns to the UK. But I only went back for 12 years because I lost my job and my parents were still alive.

 

It's an interesting crowd in the Strawbo for 2 am on Wed morning. Some look as if they are still celebrating the Melbourne Cup, dressed to the nines, but not all. It's like NYE in here!

[MARYROSE02]

[MARYROSE02]

Arrived in Adelaide on the 9th June 1982, after a long awful journey with Garuda airlines , me and my husband and two teenage girls 13 and 15 met by Robs husband and sister in law Could not get over why people were wearing winter clothes when we thought it was so warm They took us up to tea tree plaza a couple of days later , a local shopping center which i thought had to be the city because it looked so Posh !! Another first , seeing parrots flying around. Thursday late night shopping and people mainly children in shopping centers wearing PYJAMAS All the different names for fruits and veg that i hadn,t seen before Got here at the beginning of the week by the end of the week we had the girls enrolled at school , got a car , Rob got a job and on the Sunday went house hunting and picked one out , and we still live in it now

 

I went back to England with my Mum in December, 1984 with Garuda. (I don't know why my Mum chose Garuda? That's wrong! She was looking for the cheapest way to come. I wish she had flown business class and sod our inheritance!) Anyway, we flew from Sydney, to Melbourne, to Denpassar (sic?) to Jakarta, to somewhere in the Middle East, to Geneva, and finally to Gatwick, or perhaps Heathrow, 36 hours instead of 22/23?

 

There was nothing wrong with Garuda, as long as you having a stopover, which I did on the way back to Sydney, having 11 nights in Bali, but it took too long as a direct flight.

 

You have been in the same house for 33 years? It sounds like everything worked out fine? I spent one week in Adelaide, the first week of December, 1978, and it would have probably suited me better than Sydney. There were two young guys in my cabin on the ship from Singapore to Fremantle who said they were going to cycle home to Christies Beach. I finally got to Christies Beach in 2009. I did not try and contact them though, assuming I still had the address. Where were you from in the UK? Or Ireland?

[Guest Bora]

First time around when me and Mrs B went travelling through OZ for 8 weeks - landed in Cairns from Singapore and was greeted by a friend of Mrs B. She took us back to her House in a quiet street not far from the other end of the esplanade pool and I made the fatal mistake of sitting down on her couch, then gradually slipping 45 degrees, then a little more till I was sound asleep for days on end it seemed. I was woken by an enormous sound of an Aeroplane coming into land (the house was directly underneath the flight path....or so it seemed....I might be wrong). Exhausted, de-hydrated, and boiling hot (it was Early Dec) I leapt to my feet collapsing to the floor in a protective ball convinced the plane was about to crash into the house. Panic struck, and feeling delirious I gathered myself and splashed myself down with cold water.

 

Some 4 hours later my Wife and her friend breezily came in whooping and waving bags in my face. Annoyed that I had been left alone in a strange house for hours on my own sleeping of the effects of jetlag, I ranted and raved about how thoughtless they were and how flimsy the fly screened door seemed as it slapped behind them when they came in, and that anyone could have come in and done me over. Of course this was all out of context and I felt stupid a few days later, that the emotions and irrational behaviour kicked in. Desperately fighting off the groggy effects of my coma like sleep, we went out for dinner and a few beers in that famous Backpacker place where the name completely escapes me.

 

A good night sleep entailed till I was woken in the early hours by my Wifes friend having Sex with her boyfriend. He must have been blessed with a baseball bat, as I lied there, not moving, not daring to breath or make a sound, just staring into the darkness in an unfamiliar room on the other side of the world as the wall behind my bed trembled listening to a man who I had not yet met making love to a woman who I hardly knew. Breakfast was.....full of eye contact!

 

Second time around, induction at new company.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Marisawright

[wattsy1982]

First time we (my wife and I) arrived in March 2008 on a WHV we were met at brisbane airport by a friend of mine from back home who had moved there about 6 months before us with his girlfriend at the time.

 

We were tired but excited so during the drive back to the gold coast we decided to all go for a drink.

 

It was a friday night and very warm (compared to the UK in March anyway) and we went to a pub called "Robina Tavern" and after trying to get a pint but settling for a schooner we went and sat outside on the decking and I was instantly looking for snakes and spiders...convinced that they would be under every table and chair!

 

I remember my wife losing an earing on the deck of the tavern and me telling her there was no way I was going to look for it....again, convinced a snake/spider would get me!

 

Shortly after the first drink the tiredness hit us and we just wanted to go back to our hotel to sleep (must have only been 10pm)

 

We were woken the next day at midday by my friend ringing our hotel room inviting us to a bbq at his girfriends parents house, after a quick shower we met him downstairs and made our way to the BBQ via Dan Murphys....my first experince of the walk in fridges.....still love them to this day!

 

Once at the BBQ we skyped both sets of parents to let them know we had arrived safely and it felt like ages since we had seen them....probably been 2-3 days!

 

---

 

On arriving back here a second time on PR visas this time in July 2013 (with 2 kids in tow) we again landed at brisbane on a friday night and headed to my wifes brothers house who then lived in Miami on the Gold Coast. We all went straight to bed and I had plans to walk to the beach the next morning to watch sunrise.........waking up at 11am the next morning kind of put pay to that! Even the kids slept in til then!

 

After 'brunch' we walked to the beach and as the blue ocean came in to view I remember thinking "we live here now" filled with excitement and optimism we went about our day and as the days/weeks passed we got boys sorted in kindy, sorted a car and found a rental, one that we are still in until our house that we are building is ready..march next year.

 

Fast forward almost 2 1/2 years and the excitement and awe of the ocean has kind of worn off and 'things' dont excite me that much anymore and the important factors in life such as family, friends, 'home' familiarity and the sense of belonging are now forefront in my mind.

 

We are going home for a holiday in June next year so that will be our check point and once we arrive back in Australia we will decide where our future lies and should it be back home we will have 12 months to get things sorted, save up and apply for citizenship (mainly for our boys sake)

 

Who knows what these next 18 months will bring or how/if they wlill change my thoughts but it will be interesting to see!

 

Dan

Edited November 4, 2015 by wattsy1982

[Alaska]

My first time was back in 1996 on a WHV. I had dreamt about coming to Australia for so many years - I was like a dream come true. When we landed I was euphoric that I had actually made it - I was straight out of uni and it was a big adventure. I *may* have kissed the ground at the airport in celebration of making it :yes: . We got picked up by a company who drove us around to see the sights on the way to the hostel. The sun was shining and Sydney looked amazing! I can remember thinking that the Opera House looked pretty yellow though!

 

When we emigrated, it was a bit of a different story. Arrived in Brisbane with the kids - all exhausted and also hungry. It was muggy and raining. DH left phone on plane. Had to find internet to find hire car confirmation to find an email saying there had been a mix up. Then trapped my thigh skin on a split plastic chair. Found that a mini tube of Pringles were $4 which tipped me over the edge. May have cried a little bit.

It did improve though!

[flag of convenience]

First time around when me and Mrs B went travelling through OZ for 8 weeks - landed in Cairns from Singapore and was greeted by a friend of Mrs B. She took us back to her House in a quiet street not far from the other end of the esplanade pool and I made the fatal mistake of sitting down on her couch, then gradually slipping 45 degrees, then a little more till I was sound asleep for days on end it seemed. I was woken by an enormous sound of an Aeroplane coming into land (the house was directly underneath the flight path....or so it seemed....I might be wrong). Exhausted, de-hydrated, and boiling hot (it was Early Dec) I leapt to my feet collapsing to the floor in a protective ball convinced the plane was about to crash into the house. Panic struck, and feeling delirious I gathered myself and splashed myself down with cold water. Some 4 hours later my Wife and her friend breezily came in whooping and waving bags in my face. Annoyed that I had been left alone in a strange house for hours on my own sleeping of the effects of jetlag, I ranted and raved about how thoughtless they were and how flimsy the fly screened door seemed as it slapped behind them when they came in, and that anyone could have come in and done me over. Of course this was all out of context and I felt stupid a few days later, that the emotions and irrational behaviour kicked in. Desperately fighting off the groggy effects of my coma like sleep, we went out for dinner and a few beers in that famous Backpacker place where the name completely escapes me. A good night sleep entailed till I was woken in the early hours by my Wifes friend having Sex with her boyfriend. He must have been blessed with a baseball bat, as I lied there, not moving, not daring to breath or make a sound, just staring into the darkness in an unfamiliar room on the other side of the world as the wall behind my bed trembled listening to a man who I had not yet met making love to a woman who I hardly knew. Breakfast was.....full of eye contact!

 

Second time around, induction at new company.

 

That would be The Woolshed I expect l expect in the centre of town. Amazingly still going. Spent many a night in there as they had cheap meal/booze deals back in the 90's.

[Guest]

No he wasn't posted to Nauru, that was the name of the building where the Victorian Dept of Education was. The town was way out in the Wimmera region of Victoria. We lasted a year there, made some lovely friends who are still friends today, but I am such a city slicker and I hated living in the country.

I'd be interested to know the name of the town. I'm not too far from the Wimmera.