SS Asturias

I remember crossing the equator and still have the certificate of enrolment by King Neptune. I also remember my parents making me go to school classes which some zealous migrating teacher decided was a good idea!

Then we arrived at Freemantle. Australia here we are ! I think it was 24th December and was it HOT. We got off and did the tourist things including Kings Park. Christmas day was celebrated at sea and the menu I recall was a bit special.

Next stop Melbourne and then onto Sydney where we disembarked.

From the ship and onto a train and up to Bathurst migrant reception centre. It was a disused Army camp. Long rows of huts and I shared a room with a John Henbest who was about the same age as me. It was very hot but we children did not seem to care and spent our time exploring the surrounds every day.

My father had nominated Sydney as the place he wanted to live. He had been communicating with a friend who had migrated earlier and with whom he had worked with at Rolls Royce in Derby and he had told him there was work in Sydney. We had brought a 1938 Morris 8/40 with us on the ship and my father had to train back to Sydney after a couple of weeks to collect it and drive back to Bathurst after it had been cleared by Customs.

We were then advised that Adelaide was where we were going to be sent, given money the equivalent of the train fare and drove the car to the Finsbury migrant Hostel ! This was January 1952 and it took us 3 days and 2 nights over a lot of unmade roads, which the 1938 Morris wasn’t built for, but we made it and so we became South Australian migrants.

We came over the top of the hills surrounding Adelaide at night and there was a huge spread of lights of the city, even in 1952, which looked so inviting. We drove into the city centre where my father asked directions to the Finsbury Migrant hostel and eventually we arrived at 10.00pm much to the dismay of the hostel Manager who had gone to bed.

I started school at Woodville High in February, father quickly got a job and we remained in South Australia and never looked back.

My father died in March 1986 aged 71 and my mother in July 2009 aged 95.

As at the date of my writing this I am aged 75, my wife of 50 years is Judy who is Australian aged 70. I have 2 sons David and Scott, David is married to Amanda and they have 3 sons (my grandsons) Alexander aged 10 and twins Nicholas and Thomas aged 8.

“My family, Frank, Harriet and me (Derek aged 12), left Derby early one November 1951 morning by train, through London and onwards to Southampton, to embark on our journey to Australia. Having never been anywhere outside UK, it was indeed a voyage of adventure.

Harriet was quite sea sick until we reached Valetta Malta. I cannot recall going ashore but we took on about 500 passengers (all male) and they slept in hammocks in the front of the ship, well below decks, whilst we “enjoyed” the 8 berth cabins males on the Starboard side and females on the Port side. There was a small porthole which we were instructed not to open in Port as unauthorised people may crawl through.

We were allocated alphabetically thus we had all “H’ surnames in our cabin. There was only a hand basin in the cabin and all other facilities were communal. The food on board I thought was amazing having never eaten anywhere with a menu before.

When we reached the Suez Canal we could only travel in convoy with many other ships and at night we stopped, there were British troops stationed alongside the Suez Canal. Aden was next where we were allowed to get off and our legs were very wobbly after being so long at sea, then Colombo . Both Aden and Colombo were hot and dirty places and had strange smells. I was much later to learn this was the smell of Asia.

'Proclamation Certificates' from King Neptune - presented to the family upon crossing the Equator

On the road between Sydney and Adelaide, January 1952