Migrantweb.com Hostels Forum

[hdickinson]

I migrated to Brisbane from the UK and arrived on the 22nd July 1969, aged 23. I came by myself as the girl that was was coming with me accepted her boyfriend marriage proposal and stayed in the UK. I spent one night at Yungaba Hostel and found it hard to sleep that night. We had a cubicle each, the walls of which didn't reach the ceiling so there was little privacy and the noise of traffic rumbling over the Story Bridge was very loud. The building itself was beautiful.
We had a cooked meal at 5pm and that was my first introduction to baked pumpkin. I hated it, but love it now.
The next day I was rescued by a friend of my father's who had migrated a few years earlier and I spent the next month with his family until I found a job and a shared flat.
For 3 weeks I returned each working day to work with the employment office, to no avail. Eventually I walked along George Street in Brisbane where all the Government Offices were and walked into the DPI (Department of Primary Industries) and asked to see the recruitment officer. I had an immediate interview there and was sent to the wilds of Yerongpilly to the DPI field station for a further interview and got the job. I was a trained laboratory technician and ended up working at The Sheep and Wool Laboratory at Yerongpilly for 4 years.

I stayed here, married, had children and am proud to be an Australian, but I do understand migrants that returned. I think it is the fate of most migrants to love two countries, the old one and the new one, and sometimes you are torn between the two.