A while back my wife and I joined a bus tour to Jindabyne and one evening during dinner I overheard a conversation where one of our fellow travellers was relating to some others of her time as a child emigrating to Australia back in the 1950s.
It was sometime in 1957 that my father told me we were emigrating to Sydney, Australia, sheep and kangaroos immediately came to my 11 year old mind!!. It had been my dream to be a ballerina, attending dance classes 5 days a week, so I was not happy about this move, my parents said that it was to give me a “better life”.
We were given the option to leave the ship or set sail. My mother made the big decision to sail . I can remember my parents being very brave they probably shed tears away from me, as for myself I was worried about my bike, ballet costumes and presents!!. Our cabin on D deck, had a port hole , the water came up half way. There were 8 bunks to a cabin, tiny wardrobes (didn’t bother us as we didn’t have much ) I was an only child, so my mother and I waited for the other 6 women to arrive.