Migrantweb.com Hostels Forum

deniseblack · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:37 pm Post subject: BUNNERONG MIGRANT HOSTEL

MY FAMILY MOVED TO OZ IN APRIL 1964 WHEN I WAS 11...THE ELDEST OF 5 CHILDREN....WE WENT TO MATRVILLE PRIMARY AND THEN MYSELF AND MY NEXT SISTER YVONNE WENT TO MAROUBRA BAY HIGH. MY FAMILY HAD 2 STINTS AT THE HOSTEL...THE 1ST IN 10 BLOCK THEN THE 2ND STAY IN 6 BLOCK.....
WHILE WE LIVED IN 6 BLOCK, MY SISTER YVONNE AND I SOLD THE NEWSPAPERS IN THE CANTEENS AND WALKING FROM BLOCK TO BLOCK SHOUTING \"PAPERS! MAGAZINES"...TEHN BEFORE SCHOOL WE HAD TO TAKE WHAT WAS LEFT ALONG WITH THE CASH TO THE NEWSAGENTS AT PAGEWOOD.....I HAVE SOME VERY GOOD MEMORIES OF OUR TIME THERE...FAMILIES THAT SPRING TO MIND.....THE GARDNERS FROM BLACKPOOL,,,THE PEPPERS, WHO I BELIEVE MOVED TO ENGADINE AS DID THE STUBBS FAMILY....AND THE FOX'S JIMMY AND PAULINE......I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM ANY OF THEM IF THEY ARE STILL ABOUT......DENISE BLACK (VICKERS)
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Denise Black (nee Vickers)

Robert (Bob) Taylor · Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 7:27 am Post subject: Bunnerong Hostel

Hi Denise, great to see you posts about Bunnerong.
We were there in 60/61. I went to Matraville School in 1960 and South Sydney Boys in 61.
I remember the primary school clearly.The girls were separated from the boys at the back. We did get to mingle at Square dancing during school cumulated in a dress up big dance night
Other stand out memories were getting the cane for the slightest misdemeanor, came as shock when I first arrived.....because in England it was virtually never adminstered.One other memory was the greater discipline around getting your reading ,writing and arithmetic spot on compared to UK.
The Hostel was a complete shock and change of culture but once you got over it,the pleasures of the weather,the beaches,trips in to Sydney and around the Harbour....all served to make it an absolute event and memory never to be forgotten to this day.
We were in 10 block south...nos 1055/1056.
I did go back in Christmas/ new year 1969 ...it was all intact still, looked and smelt the same....cooking stale smells, oil smells from the boilers,and a sort of unique atmosphere of dust, humans, and baked sand.
I think it was closed and demolished not long after that.

Cheers, BOB.