Yvonne Maarse(now Read)

Story

Yvonne Maarse was born in the Netherlands to an English-born mother and Dutch father. At age 19, she travelled to London to stay with family friends whilst improving her English-language skills and furthering her fledgling career as a hospital pharmacy assistant. Two years later she met Richard Read just a few weeks before he was leaving for Sydney. Although they hardly had time to get to know each other very well, she went to Heathrow Airport to farewell him and they promised to keep in touch. Exchange of letters grew in frequency to the point where Yvonne informed Richard (with very little notice) that she had applied to emigrate to Australia and would be arriving in Sydney in early July, 1970……exactly nine months since they had last seen each other. Whereas English migrants departing London paid a flat fee of 10 Pounds, Yvonne had paid 11 Pounds, One Shilling and three pence because she was migrating from Holland!

Yvonne was booked on an Air Caledonian Boeing 707 flight chartered by Qantas to transport migrants to Australia. Her mother travelled with her from Holland to say goodbye at Gatwick Airport. After take-off, there were re-fuel stops at Karachi and Singapore before arrival in Sydney at 6am on Sunday July 5, 1970. As the young couple embraced in the arrivals hall, there was little doubt that this was the beginning of a union for life.

Richard had already purchased a 1963 model Ford Falcon XL station-wagon. With a mattress and curtains, they set off on a three-year working holiday right around Australia. They rented apartments whilst having working stints in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney but otherwise parked in caravan parks in centres as diverse as Cairns, Darwin, Adelaide, Ayers Rock and Hobart and many towns in between. At journey’s end, a decision was reached that Brisbane would be where the couple would settle permanently. First, however, was the priority of a trip to the Netherlands where Richard would be introduced to the family and where they would be married in Yvonne’s local church in the presence of her extended family and many of her closest friends. The sun shone brightly in Aalsmeer on Monday May 28 1973.

In 1977, the couple moved into the modest house that they had built in a northern Brisbane suburb. Yvonne resigned her job at the Mater Hospital when their son Andrew was born in November 1979. Daughter Vanessa was added to the family in March 1982. From 1986 through 1998, Richard’s broadcasting career took the family first to Malaysia and then to Hong Kong. When they returned in 1999, Richard virtually retired and Yvonne resumed her hospital pharmacy career after a break from work of 20 years.

Richard & Yvonne downsized in 2006 and now live in a small apartment in the Brisbane CBD.Both children are university graduates but no longer live with their parents. In 2009, after being a permanent resident of Australia for 39 years, Yvonne finally became a proud Australian citizen in a glittering ceremony at Brisbane’s City Hall thanks to a small amendment to the citizenship laws of the Netherlands which allowed her to retain her Dutch passport and become an Aussie. In truth, she had been “Australianised” long before that but was never able to vote in Federal, State or Council elections.

Yvonne is now employed as a pharmacy technician in the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital but plans to retire by 2012 so that she and Richard can travel extensively whilst still healthy and active.

Yvonne’s is one of Australia’s many successful immigration stories.

[Brisbane, July 30, 2010]

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