Bernie's view
Active member
If you are not Bob Mortimer then watch he doesn’t nab this story for WILTY
Anybody got any experience of the Ten Pound Pom scheme?
- Thread starter Redwurzel
- Start date
Boro
Well-known member
Yep know the one. Still like that with the fly-in fly-out workers although I'm sure living conditions much better now! Iron Ore from WA is still Australia's biggest export. Another old (and corny) movie from 1966 is 'They're a weird mob' about an Italian migrant's experiences after arriving in Sydney and trying to find work. Probably on youtube.
I did FIFO out of Perth for just over 2 years (2011-2013). Its a tough life but well paid for it.
It's a single mans game really (which I wasn't).
A lot of young lads do it for a couple of years and save up for house deposit or to go travelling. Met quite a few lads with degrees who would choose to go and drive a dumper on the mine for a few years before they went into their studied profession. Actually met one lad who was a qualified doctor but was earning almost 3 times his starting doctors wage by working on the mine.
Also a lot of divorced men up there trying to get themselves a new start. Divorce settlements massively favour the female in Oz if they take majority custody if children. Often 70%.
My parents, sister and myself were ten pound poms on two occasions.
The first time we set sail on the Strathmore in 62. I will never forget the colourful streamers that the passengers threw overboard
to their loved ones below or the tears as the streamers snapped as the ship pulled away from the dock.
A young girl aged about ten then started to sing Somewhere over the rainbow which ensured that everyone was in tears except
for me as I was only eight years old and didn't understand the circumstances or the situation that was at hand.
The tears didn't stop after we disembarked in Perth.
We were sent to a hostel on the swan river and it was several months before my parents found work and we moved to suburbia.
Each and every night after all us kids parents returned to the hostel after another day of trampling the city and suburbs for work,
we kids witnessed our parents crying and singing songs from our homelands and questioning why the Australian government had
brought us to this country, which was to only bring more tears.
We moved to Sydney 18 months later and things started to fall into place for us all but the decision had already been made to return
to England once our three year stay had been fulfilled. Apparently, if one didn't stay for the three years, one would have to repay
the Oz gov't the cost of ones fares.
It was within a few months of being back home and having caught up with family and friends that my parents questioned themselves
about their return to England and why? when things had been go so well for us in Sydney.
My parents reapplied to be given a second chance but to no avail.
Instead, they applied to emigrate to America which was accepted and off we went again when I was now thirteen.
It was due to the death of my Nan that my mam returned to England to bury her mam and she decided that she didn't want to
come back to the US. She rang my dad to get me and my sister on a plane home as soon as he could get the money for the fares.
One day after we had all been reunited for a couple of years, my dad came home from work and asked "how would you kids like
to go back to Australia?"".
My parents had again applied to the Oz gov't to be ten pound poms and this time they were successful as my sister and myself
were now of working age and in demand.
I have literally hundreds of stories about our experiences and could go on and on for hours but apart from my dad who didn't
settle and returned to England alone, the rest of us did and have led very happy lives here in Oz.
For me, as an eight year old, the whole experience was absolutely wonderful.
Running around the ship with kids from the UK and Europe many of which we couldn't understand but that means little to ones so young.
Calling into ports of call such as Lisbon, Naples, etc the Suez canal and Colombo with people talking and wearing stuff one so young had
never seen before.
The hostel nightmare that my parents suffered was nothing like my experiences.
We were right on the river, the local kids taught me to swim, spearfish and play a game of football and a ball the shape of which I had
never seen. We swung on ropes from trees into the water and saw animals and creatures that were bewildering in size and shape.
Every day was a new experience, there was so much to see and do and I had so many tales to tell my parents at days end, totally unaware
of the suffering and guilt that my parents held.
Sydney was more of the same, beaches galore and even more things and places to explore, life was wonderful and I can honestly say that
by the time I arrived back in Oz as a fifteen year old in 69, I didn't miss anything about my homeland other than the Boro a few friends and
my remaining grandparents.
Keep in mind though. By the time I had arrived back here in Oz as a fifteen year old, I had said goodbye to my grandparents and friends so many
times that I become immune to it. I started and left school in England, Perth, Sydney, England, Philadelphia, England until finally back to Oz.
It was certainly disruptive but I loved it and the life that it eventually gave me. It was just the "norm" for me, always on the move.
Later on when I have more time I shall give you an insight in how we were treated by locals.
Ebor
Well-known member
My In Laws went back in the late 60s. Two out of four kids were born there (including my wife who has Citizenship as a result*). My mother in law found it very hard, F-I-L out farming many, many miles away from the homestead/small community and not home for weeks at a time. She was basically on her own looking after 4 small kids. Sounds like it was a really hard life. She came back to the UK, as she hated the 3 year experience, with a reluctant F-I-L in tow. He loved it and would've stayed. It was very much a male dominated place, pubs that wouldn't include women and when they eventually did, in a separate room etc.
We went back 5 or so years ago to see where my Mrs had been brought up and it didn't look like it'd changed since the 50s! (It's about an hour and a half from Cairns). It looked like somewhere from the US Wild West
*And so my daughter has Citizenship as a result and is emigrating there at the end of the year with her boyfriend. To either Cairns, Brisbane or Melbourne. I think Brisbane is the best option for them, we have family there. They are so fed up with getting nowhere over here. No chance of buying a house even though they work really hard. I hope it works out
We went back 5 or so years ago to see where my Mrs had been brought up and it didn't look like it'd changed since the 50s! (It's about an hour and a half from Cairns). It looked like somewhere from the US Wild West
*And so my daughter has Citizenship as a result and is emigrating there at the end of the year with her boyfriend. To either Cairns, Brisbane or Melbourne. I think Brisbane is the best option for them, we have family there. They are so fed up with getting nowhere over here. No chance of buying a house even though they work really hard. I hope it works out
I think that the poster "Boro " summed up our first hand experiences upon arrival, perfectly.
It was like being on another planet in comparison to our lives in Redcar. Like he says, news from back home took an age to reach us. Nobody except for the wealthy
had a home phone and so a call to or from Australia had to be pre organised by the use of a public phone booth. I look back fondly of fighting with my dad to get to
the pink sports gazette and other newspaper cuttings after his mam had mailed them by way of sea. The news was several weeks old by the time we had them in our hands
but they were the most treasured items to arrive as far as we were concerned.
"Boro " also mentioned that the Aussies didn't take too kindly upon hearing us whingeing unwashed Poms complaining about everything and anything that wasn't as good
as "back home ". and again, that is also true.
I think it's just human nature for new arrivals to compare everything and anything and I must have been told a zillion times to " b***r off back home then " whenever I did.
The Aussies used to love nothing more than to wind us poms up and the more we bit, the more they loved it and continued to.
Unlike my dad, I loved it too. I couldn't wait to get to work to wind them up whenever the aussies lost a sporting game against any opposition. I used to love the give and take
and no matter how much time they would spend winding me up, I knew for certain that those guys would have my back if ever it were needed. In reality, I loved them and they loved me.
It takes a while to understand the aussie psyche but eventually he did which turned out to be a defining moment in his life which changed his attitude towards aussies completely.
Sitting around the dinner table one night, I noticed that my dad wasn't interacting and looking miserable. This wasn't unusual as he suffered from migraine and spent his working day
as a turner working his lathe under a hot tin roof at a local factory.
Hey dad, what's up ? leave your dad alone, he's not happy, my mam quipped. I could very easily see that and asked again. He just shook his head and said " nothing son don't worry
about it" C'mon dad what is it ? That was all that was needed for him to spill his guts and it was quite scary.
" This young lad at work. Every day, every bl**dy day I go to work, I say good morning to everybody, everybody, and every day, every bl++dy day, his response is always the same.
My dad is now standing upright with his fist clenched when my sister says "sit down dad " Dad sit down".
"Every day, every Bl**dy day . Ow ya goin ya pommie p**fter Ow ya goin ya old pommie pr*ck. I'm gunna put this through him as he shows his clenched fist.
Naturally, I burst out laughing, when again, my sister, "Sit down dad, Dad Sit Down.
He looks like he is about to put that fist through me.
When I stop laughing and get some composure back, I smile at him and say " Dad, he likes you, that means he likes you.
"What? What? He likes me ? How the hell do you work that out? He likes me ? Calling me a Basta*d , P**fter, pr*ck, are you kidding me?
Dad I get it all the time, don't fall for it. I hear it all the time. The thing is dad, they do it to themselves too. I told him that some customers come into our shop and the customer
will say G'day ya old fart to my boss and my boss will respond with something like "Not bad ya baldy old ba*tard. It's what they do dad it's not just you that it's aimed at. Its just
the Aussie way.
A couple of months later I come home and there in the kitchen is my mam at the stove with my dad behind her with his arms around her waist. When he notices me , he says
Hey son, you wouldn't believe what happened at work today. You know that young lad that I was telling you about ? You wont believe what he asked me this morning.
When I arrived at work he was waiting for me and he came up and asked if I could do him a big favour. He told me that he was getting married next month and that his father had
died when he was a young teen and that he would have loved to have had his father as his best man and would I do him the honour of filling in for his dad.
Oh Dad, that's wonderful, I told you that he liked you, did you say yes?
Of course I did son, I bl**dy cried, he had to put his arms around me, we both bl**dy cried.
I wrapped my arms around my Dad, I was so proud of him. We both shed a tear and he said I still can't believe it, I was going to kill him a month ago and here I am, going to be
his best man.
Welcome to Australia Dad, they don't hate us, they just love to wind us up and they sure as hell know, to their amusement, that it works and works well. Particularly for the new arrivals.
It was like being on another planet in comparison to our lives in Redcar. Like he says, news from back home took an age to reach us. Nobody except for the wealthy
had a home phone and so a call to or from Australia had to be pre organised by the use of a public phone booth. I look back fondly of fighting with my dad to get to
the pink sports gazette and other newspaper cuttings after his mam had mailed them by way of sea. The news was several weeks old by the time we had them in our hands
but they were the most treasured items to arrive as far as we were concerned.
"Boro " also mentioned that the Aussies didn't take too kindly upon hearing us whingeing unwashed Poms complaining about everything and anything that wasn't as good
as "back home ". and again, that is also true.
I think it's just human nature for new arrivals to compare everything and anything and I must have been told a zillion times to " b***r off back home then " whenever I did.
The Aussies used to love nothing more than to wind us poms up and the more we bit, the more they loved it and continued to.
Unlike my dad, I loved it too. I couldn't wait to get to work to wind them up whenever the aussies lost a sporting game against any opposition. I used to love the give and take
and no matter how much time they would spend winding me up, I knew for certain that those guys would have my back if ever it were needed. In reality, I loved them and they loved me.
It takes a while to understand the aussie psyche but eventually he did which turned out to be a defining moment in his life which changed his attitude towards aussies completely.
Sitting around the dinner table one night, I noticed that my dad wasn't interacting and looking miserable. This wasn't unusual as he suffered from migraine and spent his working day
as a turner working his lathe under a hot tin roof at a local factory.
Hey dad, what's up ? leave your dad alone, he's not happy, my mam quipped. I could very easily see that and asked again. He just shook his head and said " nothing son don't worry
about it" C'mon dad what is it ? That was all that was needed for him to spill his guts and it was quite scary.
" This young lad at work. Every day, every bl**dy day I go to work, I say good morning to everybody, everybody, and every day, every bl++dy day, his response is always the same.
My dad is now standing upright with his fist clenched when my sister says "sit down dad " Dad sit down".
"Every day, every Bl**dy day . Ow ya goin ya pommie p**fter Ow ya goin ya old pommie pr*ck. I'm gunna put this through him as he shows his clenched fist.
Naturally, I burst out laughing, when again, my sister, "Sit down dad, Dad Sit Down.
He looks like he is about to put that fist through me.
When I stop laughing and get some composure back, I smile at him and say " Dad, he likes you, that means he likes you.
"What? What? He likes me ? How the hell do you work that out? He likes me ? Calling me a Basta*d , P**fter, pr*ck, are you kidding me?
Dad I get it all the time, don't fall for it. I hear it all the time. The thing is dad, they do it to themselves too. I told him that some customers come into our shop and the customer
will say G'day ya old fart to my boss and my boss will respond with something like "Not bad ya baldy old ba*tard. It's what they do dad it's not just you that it's aimed at. Its just
the Aussie way.
A couple of months later I come home and there in the kitchen is my mam at the stove with my dad behind her with his arms around her waist. When he notices me , he says
Hey son, you wouldn't believe what happened at work today. You know that young lad that I was telling you about ? You wont believe what he asked me this morning.
When I arrived at work he was waiting for me and he came up and asked if I could do him a big favour. He told me that he was getting married next month and that his father had
died when he was a young teen and that he would have loved to have had his father as his best man and would I do him the honour of filling in for his dad.
Oh Dad, that's wonderful, I told you that he liked you, did you say yes?
Of course I did son, I bl**dy cried, he had to put his arms around me, we both bl**dy cried.
I wrapped my arms around my Dad, I was so proud of him. We both shed a tear and he said I still can't believe it, I was going to kill him a month ago and here I am, going to be
his best man.
Welcome to Australia Dad, they don't hate us, they just love to wind us up and they sure as hell know, to their amusement, that it works and works well. Particularly for the new arrivals.
bungydinsdale
Well-known member
Yep, my father-in-law is a ten pound pom here in NZ. He was teacher in Liverpool, met a Kiwi women there and they came back here on a boat for 10 quid. He had to commit to work for, I think, three years at a school in Mangakino, which had a new town getting built at the time.
Then his daughter in the early 1980s went to the UK to trace his family etc and met me (Cost me bluddy 642 quid to get here though)
Then his daughter in the early 1980s went to the UK to trace his family etc and met me (Cost me bluddy 642 quid to get here though)
Paterson
Well-known member
Actually, it may not be true. Or at least in relation to Oz. He did go there, in his mid-twenties, but on reflection the monkey business might have been before he left.If you are not Bob Mortimer then watch he doesn’t nab this story for WILTY
His parents died when he was about twenty, leaving him a house and a load of money. So, what's the first thing you would do? Buy a monkey of course. Probably from Harrods rather than Keithlands. After the nipping incident and the subsequent extractions I doubt he and Gummy got on well enough to travel to Oz together.
Abel Tasman
Well-known member
My dad was a ten pound Pom who came over to Aus in 1973 worked in the mines in Western Australia and eventually moved to NZ in 1976. He’s been here ever since, married an Australian and worked in the leisure industry in Wellington. He’s now retired and enjoying life With touch wood his health. My sister born in NZ is in London where she has been for 21 years. A reverse in family travels.
Emmersons_BrazillianDong
Well-known member
Lovely memory that mate
Boro
Well-known member
Brilliant! A great moment!
Aussies do think differently, a country made up of people who have taken a risk to settle there so I guess over 200 years the psyche is going to be different to an old country. I loved the blue skies but just as much the positive attitude and built in optimism of the culture. It took a while to cotton on.
- Straight away when I came I noticed that if you mentioned you'd like to do something then next time you saw them they'd ask if you'd done it. If not they'd want to know why you hadn't. They expect you to get on with things not just talk about it. And never make excuses.
- In the workplace if you weren't qualified or didn't have experience for something it didn't matter. Go on have a go, you'll be right mate or a boss saying you're OK I'll give you a go son, you'll be right, see how you go. Not the English thing of a 100 reasons why it wouldn't work.
- When they ask how are you? or how you going? The answer is always 'good' never 'mustn't grumble' or 'alright'. If you don't say good then they want to know why.
- Also like Teesside they know in some ways they are a long way from anywhere and maybe not the centre of the universe and take the **** out of themselves, but they're still fiercely proud underneath and won't take any sh*t from people who try to look down on them. That's the classic Ashes thing.
- Then they always talk about where the country is going, where it will be, what it can be in the future. Never look backwards with all the nostalgia stuff like England. That's a massive one and is a real positive.
Subtle things but a lot of opposites to UK that take time to get a grip of for new arrivals.
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One more thing that I would like to add to that, although I had already experienced it whilst on the ship and that was multiculturalism.
I mentioned previously how us kids from all over Europe would run riot on the ship, exploring every corridor and stairwells and had the time of our lives.
It mattered not that we all didn't understand each other, who needs to be able to talk when playing hide and seek, table tennis, deck games etc etc ? and it
was very much the same when we arrived in Perth and started school.
The school was dominated by pupils from all over the globe which was a total reversal of the school that I had attended in England. It really was a completely
different world and one that was so much more enjoyable.
It's always puzzled me how us kids had no problem making friends with people of differing religions, colour of skin or ethnicity but the so called grown ups did.
I spent fifty years in a multicultural workforce here in Oz and it's been a highlight of my life and certainly one of the best things about Australia.
Glover_elbow
Well-known member
Some great stories on this thread
Rayman
Active member
My wife has written this for you!
"My family emigrated to Australia in 1950 when I was two and my sister Margaret was 4 years old.
We returned four years later.
We were from Rochdale, Lancashire and lived with my grandma in her rented two up two down house that had outside toilet, no running hot water or electricity, just gas lights in the house and flag floors.
The ship was huge and it took 6 weeks at sea. I don’t remember the outgoing journey, but remember the homecoming one very well. There was a cinema, a nursery, shops, dining rooms and swimming pool on the ship and all the food was included.
We stopped at all the main seaports, and I vividly remember going through the Suez canal.
We had been homed in an immigration hostel in Gepps Cross, Adelaide and were housed in Nissan huts as in the £10 Poms programme. I remember the stifling heat, there was no air con in 50’s Australia. The hostel had a large canteen where my mum worked part-time and we all went for our meals.
There were communal wash and toilet facilities. As kids we had a great time with the other children there, our fellow migrants were from all over Europe and I remember playing with friends from Germany and Italy.
We had family outings to the seaside and to a lovely park on the river Torrens where they had black swans. There were also occasional large outings by bus arranged for the hostel.
I was in the nursery on the hostel at first and then we went to a little convent school within walking distance of the hostel. It was built round a quadrangle with the infants and juniors on one side, going up in age round the quad with the older pupils coming in to help us with various lessons such as reading. There were about 10 children to a class.
I remember seeing groups of Australian aborigines outside the hostel who were treated very much as 2nd class citizens by most people. But as a child I don’t remember much about attitudes from Australians towards us although my mum said that there was a lot of moaning and whinging from some of the poms, if it rained for example and other complaints about the hostel facilities. Also on the ship, the food was included but lots of food wasted by the passengers who just took more than they could eat and then just tossed it overboard.
Dad hadn’t wanted to come back, and my mother said most people thought we came back because of home-sickness, but it wasn’t that, she just couldn’t bear the heat. The £10 agreement was for the outgoing journey on condition you stayed for 2 or more years but we had to pay for the return home.
Arriving back at grandma’s on a dark and rainy night was a total culture shock for me and my sister, as was going to our local school - a huge Victorian building with 30+ to a class! Ah well."
"My family emigrated to Australia in 1950 when I was two and my sister Margaret was 4 years old.
We returned four years later.
We were from Rochdale, Lancashire and lived with my grandma in her rented two up two down house that had outside toilet, no running hot water or electricity, just gas lights in the house and flag floors.
The ship was huge and it took 6 weeks at sea. I don’t remember the outgoing journey, but remember the homecoming one very well. There was a cinema, a nursery, shops, dining rooms and swimming pool on the ship and all the food was included.
We stopped at all the main seaports, and I vividly remember going through the Suez canal.
We had been homed in an immigration hostel in Gepps Cross, Adelaide and were housed in Nissan huts as in the £10 Poms programme. I remember the stifling heat, there was no air con in 50’s Australia. The hostel had a large canteen where my mum worked part-time and we all went for our meals.
There were communal wash and toilet facilities. As kids we had a great time with the other children there, our fellow migrants were from all over Europe and I remember playing with friends from Germany and Italy.
We had family outings to the seaside and to a lovely park on the river Torrens where they had black swans. There were also occasional large outings by bus arranged for the hostel.
I was in the nursery on the hostel at first and then we went to a little convent school within walking distance of the hostel. It was built round a quadrangle with the infants and juniors on one side, going up in age round the quad with the older pupils coming in to help us with various lessons such as reading. There were about 10 children to a class.
I remember seeing groups of Australian aborigines outside the hostel who were treated very much as 2nd class citizens by most people. But as a child I don’t remember much about attitudes from Australians towards us although my mum said that there was a lot of moaning and whinging from some of the poms, if it rained for example and other complaints about the hostel facilities. Also on the ship, the food was included but lots of food wasted by the passengers who just took more than they could eat and then just tossed it overboard.
Dad hadn’t wanted to come back, and my mother said most people thought we came back because of home-sickness, but it wasn’t that, she just couldn’t bear the heat. The £10 agreement was for the outgoing journey on condition you stayed for 2 or more years but we had to pay for the return home.
Arriving back at grandma’s on a dark and rainy night was a total culture shock for me and my sister, as was going to our local school - a huge Victorian building with 30+ to a class! Ah well."
Boro
Well-known member
wow brilliant memories.
Boro
Well-known member
Yes absolutely this. It's taken for granted everyone you meet will have come from somewhere else or their parents or grandparents will have and it's normal. Sitting around a work table with 10 different nationalities is common.
Maybe off topic now but I remember early days asking an Aussie work college who looked Chinese what his background was and he said no idea, I'm 5th generation Aussie from the gold rush days I think mate. Another who was muslim Lebanese, mate I'm 100% Lebo and 100% Aussie. When you have a strong national identity without historic hangups people latch on and are proud to be there, the mixing pot and all that, always loved Australia for that & it's richer for it.
Redwurzel
Well-known member
Cheers everyone - we had the £10 Pom discussion this morning and I used some information on here which definitely enriched the discussion.
Football in Australia is a good example of diversified immigration into Australia e.g.
Craig Johnston - Scottish parent(s)
Mark Viduka - Croatian parents
Mark Schwarzer - German parents
Paul Okon - Italian/German parents
Football in Australia is a good example of diversified immigration into Australia e.g.
Craig Johnston - Scottish parent(s)
Mark Viduka - Croatian parents
Mark Schwarzer - German parents
Paul Okon - Italian/German parents
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