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[NorlaneDonna63]

Lived with my parents Bobby and Phyllis English and brothers Paul and Chris and sister Patricia in hut G1 at the front (opposite the swings).

All crammed into 3 tiny rooms. The "living room" was my parents' bedroom with a sofa bed which had to be made up each night. I also remember going for baths in the toilet blocks made out of corrugated ironand spiders running amuck.

My father was very homesick and my mother had three jobs in bars and so couldn't wait to get back to Ireland.

The creek was our favourite playing place (and nearly drowned in the quicksand a couple of times!).

Does anybody remember them burning the back field every year to get rid of the snakes? Happy days haha.

[aussietrekker]

This is spooky- I recognised the name Phyllis English straight away- not from Norlane but from Bangor! I remember Mum telling me that you were thinking of going to Australia the same time as us...we all went to school together at St.Comgall's. I remember you and your brothers very well, one of your brothers wore glasses. I think you were a year or so below me. My name was Judith Houston, and we lived up Silverstream. Mum and Dad were Eddie and Annie, brother Martin and sister Colette. We came to Melbourne in 1964 and stayed. I live in Geelong these days, not far from the Norlane hostel. We were in the Altona hostel, but the experiences were exactly the same, including the fold-out bed. Mum and Dad didn't reach old age, what about yours? I go back to Bangor every year or two, still love the place but love Australia way more.