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Migrantweb.com Hostels Forum Hostels were used to accommodate new Australians. 1950's-1970's
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stribe Active Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 227 Location: Runaway Bay Qld
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 3:30 am Post subject: |
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HI Nan, I sure do remember the huge bump going over the rickety old wooden bridge at Kororoit Creek, we knew it was coming and would fight for the back seat and laugh our heads off. I can actually see in my minds eye the 6th Grade teacher but for the life of me cant remember his name, it might come to me. I loved that school. We went to St Marys for a few weeks in 1960 as we arrived in November, and I hated it, the nuns were cruel, they would go into the toilet and check to make sure no lunches went down the toilet, and they loved the strap, the local Priest at the church came and saw mum and dad about us not going to church on Sundays, well in those days the buses were few and far between going to Willi on a Sunday, Dad through him out and took us out of the school. A few choice words were spoken, I was black affrunted (as my mum would say) To this day I have a thing about nuns, luckily they are not the same as they once were. _________________ If its to be its up to me |
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oceania Active Member
Joined: 20 Jan 2010
Posts: 111 Location: St Albans
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:43 am Post subject: |
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I also attended that school and remember the nuns checking that you ate your lunch and an empty bag went into the big bin, we got smart and when the nuns were not looking we would break off a bit of sandwich and throw it to the sparrows that flew around the big hall. So funny to think back on that and watch your lunch fly out the door straight past the nun on point duty. Father Cassidy was the priest then and I remember getting a letter from him to take home. The school wanted a percentage of Dads wage and he joined with a lot of other familys and withdrew there kids and sent them to the state school at north willy the following year. they stopped coming to the hostel then to serve mass on a sunday as a lot of families could not pay what was required for schooling there kids. and to think back I got the sack in Scotland from being an alter boy!!!!. |
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eileen Active Member
Joined: 30 Jul 2009
Posts: 121 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:23 am Post subject: |
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We too went to St Mary's and hated it. I can't remember anything only a lad bullying me, i was so afraid of him i gave him my lovely pray book that the nuns in England gave me before we left. What i wouldn't do now to find that lad!! _________________ Eileen Griffin |
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nan Active Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2010
Posts: 13
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:48 am Post subject: |
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Pat was it Mr Butterworth in the 6th grade |
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Susan Gillet Senior Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 355 Location: Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:46 am Post subject: |
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It would seem that we were one of the few Protestant families on the hostel. _________________ Resident of Altona Hostel, 1963-1965 |
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stribe Active Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 227 Location: Runaway Bay Qld
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:40 am Post subject: |
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Yes Nan it was Mr Butterworth I can still see hIm, I was going through all surnames I Knew it was a long one. Are you still good at geography I was better at maths. Do you remember Willi high. Used to wagg it all the yime _________________ If its to be its up to me |
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stormfour Senior Member
Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 506 Location: Melbourne, VIC
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:18 am Post subject: |
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Hey Sue we were a protestant family too,as I think most of the English families on the hostel were,I think it comes from our Heathen background,mind you from what I have heard about the Nuns at St Mary's I think we were better off.Judith tells some awful stories about that school,sound a bit like the Magdalene sisters _________________ Carol Myers Altona Hostel Dec 1962 - June 1964 |
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stribe Active Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 227 Location: Runaway Bay Qld
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:03 am Post subject: |
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In my most humble oppinion it was the school from hell. Straight out of the dark ages. We Heaneys hated it the Seaholme school was like a breath of fresh air _________________ If its to be its up to me |
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aussietrekker Senior Member
Joined: 06 Jul 2009
Posts: 790 Location: Geelong
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:06 am Post subject: |
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Odd thing is, we reckoned St. Mary's was soft after our school in Ireland! |
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eileen Active Member
Joined: 30 Jul 2009
Posts: 121 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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we Griffins only did a short spell at St Mary's mum could see we wasn't happy so put us in Williams town school, this was much better. _________________ Eileen Griffin |
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kayfrancis New Member
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Posts: 5 Location: Bourne End, England
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:41 pm Post subject: Peter and the Wolff |
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Hi Phyl...My sister Julie Myerscough went to Seaholme school, on the bus from Altona Hostel..she was in first grade...She talks about a play she was taken to see via school, Peter & the Woolf?....
I remember seeing a play called Peter and the Woolf as well. This confirms it for me as I couldn't remember whether I saw it in Australia or whether it was when we returned to England! I can remember really enjoying it. I seem to remember getting there on a coach or something and waiting with a load of other kids in a foyer or hall or something. I often remember that play but just couldn't remember the circumstances, so thank you for confirming it for me that I saw it in Aus! Kay |
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caroline Active Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 97 Location: west sunshine victoria
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:41 am Post subject: |
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Ohhhhhh ST MARY'S,I can still hardly bare to think about it, AWFUL I thought it would have been like my school back in Scotland, my god was I wrong.I would never in my life had believed that nuns could be so awful, the day my mother took us out was one of the happiest days,I wonder what was wrong with them , maybe they just did'nt like Migrants, but they certainly were not like any nuns I had come across before.xxx |
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aussietrekker Senior Member
Joined: 06 Jul 2009
Posts: 790 Location: Geelong
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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They were all very liberal with giving out a whack, the girls got it mostly for talking, and the boys got it for anything. The principal, Sister Gertrude Mary had a strap which she'd named SAMMY. From what everyone has said on previous posts, perhaps the nuns had lifted their game by the time we got there in April 1964, (once the bulk of the hostel families had defected) as my sharp memory doesn't recall anything vicious happening to anyone, certainly not in my class of grade 6/7/8, and I didn't observe migrants being treated any differently. But having said all that, I'm ashamed to admit my belief that myself and the rest of the family were treated with favouritism by the nuns at St. Mary's because we were Irish. The sisters of St. Joseph had their origins in Ireland, and we were made very welcome for probably the wrong reasons. This was also felt in subsequent schools. There were only two other Irish families at the time, the Findlays and Higgins, and McManus who were half-and-half.
I've heard some dreadful stories secondhand over the years, mostly from my father in law who went there in the 40's with his sister and brothers. |
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aussietrekker Senior Member
Joined: 06 Jul 2009
Posts: 790 Location: Geelong
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:00 am Post subject: |
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and from my mate Cherie who was the first friend I made in Australia, and we're still besties. Cherie had a much older sister who was a bit of a worry. The day Cherie started St. Mary's in kinder (they had a kinder back then for a while), she was brought out the front by the principal, given a whack and told "don't do what your big sister done".
Why did they behave this way? In recent times I've been hearing a lot from some remaining local nuns, as they have a convent behind our house and are our neighbours .They've changed a lot over the years for the better, and often speak out about what it was like for them, which they would never have done before. I have been told many things. They often were the victims of their own "pecking order" in the convent, and were just as bullied from within. Some of them had been pushed into this unnatural lifestyle as early as age 14, for all the wrong reasons. When it came to PMT or menopause, they were forbidden to take any medication, and were supposed to just "offer it up to God". So the poor children were on the receiving end of all their frustrations. Some of the older ones were definitely coming down with Alzheimer's as well, and shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near children. That's another story. Anyway, they are almost an extinct species now, same as the priests, and it's well that they're out of the schools. They can still pray till the cows come home for "vocations" but it's just not happening. I reckon God has seen enough of their wickedness and decided to exterminate them. There are still some unacceptable things going on in Catholic schools today, especially here in Geelong. Best thing I ever did was to put our girls in the government system where there is WAY more accountability. |
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caroline Active Member
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 97 Location: west sunshine victoria
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:56 am Post subject: |
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I enjoyed reading your post Judith,and I myself came across nuns that I very much liked, I taught country and western line-dancing up until 2003,and we had a nun who used to come to our Deer Park class,she was a brilliant lady, and we were invited to the mother house in Taylors Lakes at the time, to celebrate a christmas in July with them,they told us that christmas for them was a time of year that was hard for them to have a get together as they belonged to different orders,that once a year they held a little celebration just for them,we had a fantastic time that day,but back to ST. MARY'S I had the head nun for my teacher and she was Irish, but I thought it would've been ok, as my grandmother was Irish,but oh noo.I think maybe my mother not being a Catholic helped, when she came to take me out of school my teacher was going to stop her, till mum told her she would sweep the streets with her if she did'nt get out of her way, I thank god for my mum, and I am glad that maybe they did take a good look at themselves, because a lot of migrant students got pulled out of the school.xxx |
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