Migrantweb.com Hostels Forum

[nails]

Hi Susan and Carol
I got a private message from Jill Myerscough her mum & dad are only in Melbourne for a short time sorry Susan but no Friday, Carol if you want to come into the city with me let me know ASAP it will have to be next Monday or Tuesday I can give them a call and see if they are available on one of those days
Linda
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Linda Myers Altona Hostel 1962 TO 1964

[stormfour]

Tuesday will be best for me,I have a meeting this tuesday and a test on wednesday work on thursday and friday then that leaves monday and tuesday only free for next week,as I have to go to sodding work,I really want to retire ,but I cant stop spending money.....someone please make me stop !!!!!!!!!
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Carol Myers Altona Hostel Dec 1962 - June 1964

[aussietrekker]

Oh I know how you feel- I also work to support my habits (usually the next Star Trek convention).

[jillbac]

Hello Girls!..Mum & Dad are looking forward to meeting up with you on Tuesday...Let me know how you get on..If you reconised them or not, as to me they havent changed?....Just a few more laugh lines..(Only I cant remember them laughing that much??? ).....
Does anyone remember Anne Daintree and her brother Alan, Mum and Dad Janet (Jan) & Alan? They are good friends of our family and still live in Aus, although they origionally could not settle and came back to UK then back to Aus, then to New Zealand?? then eventually settled in Aus?....
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Wonderful happy memories!

[Susan Gillet]

Sadly, that happened to quite a few migrants. They couldn't settle in Aus, but then when they want back to UK found they couldn't settle backt there either so tended to go back and forth till they were finally forced to settle in one place, and they were often not very happy. That could have so easily been us as my Mum was very unsettled until we were finally in our own house, then she was much happier.
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Resident of Altona Hostel, 1963-1965

[aussietrekker]

My poor Mum never settled, and became more depressed and reclusive as the years went by. She couldn't go back in her own lifetime, as Northern Ireland had become a war zone. She never lived to see peace, and died in 1981 aged 56.

[stormfour]

That is so sad Judith,My Mum never settled either she went back home in the early 70s after my Dad died and then returned to Australia in the early eighties because she missed us all,but she never liked Australia even then,but she needed to be with her family.She died in 1998 and was never happy here.But once the move is made the damage is done.
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Carol Myers Altona Hostel Dec 1962 - June 1964

[Clarebear]

Not once can I recall my mother and father saying they wished to return to England. Even in the first year (1960) when they experienced so many traumas. ie my grandmother passed away in England, and my parents lost their savings through a dodgy deal, they stuck it out.Post war UK was depressing and offered no future in their opinion.

Australia had a wonderful climate, and plenty of work. They embraced this country all their lives and I'm still grateful for the opportunities it has given me.

While I understand homesickness can be all consuming, migration to Australia in my experience and those of my friends, made all the difference to our generation. My life and lifestyle is the envy of my cousins.

[stribe]

Home to my mum was Always where she was and I don't remember her being homesick one day of her life, she always loved wherever she was. She followed me up to Queensland and died in my house she loved Queensland, she loved the lifestyle up here. She was never tempted to go back and I am very glad of that.
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If its to be its up to me

[stormfour]

Yes it made a whole lot of difference to us as kids,but our parents ,well,mine anyway,had a very close family and my Mum had a lot of brothers and sisters that she had left behind in England,and having not long since experienced a war,which fortunately we have never done so,then that just made them closer and more dependent on each other.So whilst Australia had more to offer them than England could ever possibly do,the pull of family ties is always there,as for us kids,well we had our family with us,so we just loved the adventure.
I always felt sorry for my Mum in a way,because as I said before ,once they had made the move to Australia,then the pull of both countries set in,the family and home from England and the better life opportunities in Australia!!!
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Carol Myers Altona Hostel Dec 1962 - June 1964

[eileen]

My mum was never homesick, dad was. Mum and us kids loved our life in Australia. We came home to England in 1965. I remember when we landed at Southhampton me and my mum was standing on deck looking at the docks, it was cold, damp and dark it was awful. I could see the men working on the docks they looked real down in the dumps just like i felt.
Dad followed us home some months later to find he had made a mistake coming home, sadly we didn't go back and dad died a young man of 45 yrs.
Lucky my sisters returned with their families and in thee end my little old mum did manage to go back to land she loved. She was there when she died on 23rd Dec 2001.
I often wonder what my life would have been like if we had stayed over there, but it's was not meant to be. i am still where its cold and damp.
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Eileen Griffin

[Susan Gillet]

Such sad stories of tug 'o' war feelings for people. I'm just so thankful that my parents were able to settle. We have all been so much better off for it.
My auntie who was supposed to migrate with us pulled out at the last minute and had a bub not long after we came here. She finally visited us in the late 80's or early 90's and said she wished she hadn't been such a wimp way back then..................hind sight is a wonderful thing. lol
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Resident of Altona Hostel, 1963-1965

[jillbac]

Although we moved home to U.K...(and from my personal point of view I would have loved to have grown up in Aus)...it was a very good move for our family. Mum & dad started their own business...They worked extremly hard which resulted in a very sucessful business, which has enabled them to travel all over the world...and to visit Aus when ever they want to..so getting the best of both worlds if you like! They always say it was their experience in Aus which gave them their drive and determination!...
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Wonderful happy memories!

[nails]

Hi everyone
Carol and I went to meet up with John & Doreen Myerscough on Tuesday, what a fantastic day we had, we didn't want to leave them at 5pm, we could have stayed and chatted well into the next day BUT alas all good thing come to an end!!!
They remembered alot of the parents but not our generation it is only that I looked after their children that they knew me, didn't remember Carol at all, not that you would have known they chatted to her like an old friend as well even though they didn't remember her. Susan, Pat, & Eileen they remember your parents very well, they have sent and taken alot of their memorabillia to the Immigration Museum, so for me it is another trip into there to have a look I have been once before but now it will have alot more interest for me after this forum and meeting up again with Doreen & John.
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Linda Myers Altona Hostel 1962 TO 1964

[Susan Gillet]

Hopefully they'll put some photo's on here when they get back home.
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Resident of Altona Hostel, 1963-1965