Mel Hartley

Story

Hi, my name is Mel Hartley & this is my story. I was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on the 1st September, 1949 to Winifred & Maurice Hartley.

Having lost my Mother at an early age & my Father Parkinson\’s Disease in 1967, as an only child I decided at the ripe young age of 18 to seek a different lifestyle for myself & chose Australia as the place for this to happen.

This was at the time of the ten pound Assisted Passage to Australia Scheme & as luck would have it, instead of it costing me ten pounds to get to Australia on a QANTAS flight it would end up only costing me a five shilling taxi fare to the station in Sheffield. How about that! all the way from the U.K. to Australia by air for five bob.

On a stopover at Kuala Lumpar I met a guy called John Scotcher, who like me, was immigrating to Australia from the U.K. on his own. Back on the plane we commenced a firm friendship that has lasted for over 40 years.

Our arrival in Australia on the 8th October 1968 required the standard formality, off to the migrant hostel, finding jobs & finding your own digs. John & I moved into a couple of boarding houses that weren\’t brilliant but we eventually found a haven ‘Mrs Dixons’ boarding house in South Yarra. Mrs D as she was affectionately known was like a mother to many of her ‘boys’ as she called us – a woman who John & I would never forget. Mrs D also hit us with a cultural change like serving up savoury mince on toast for breakfast (fancy serving a couple of fresh young Poms anything else but a good old English breakfast!!!)

Realising that I would need to break away from Mrs Ds secure clutches, another guy & I decided to spread our wings & hitchhike to Darwin (John was content to stay in Melbourne) This opened up a whole new experience for a fairly raw Pom, & certainly introduced me to an ‘Australia’ & a way of life that I had definitely not been used to in the Ol\’ Blighty. This journey to Darwin (pre Cyclone Tracey) & back to Melbourne is another story in itself.

On reflection, my initial experiences in Australia were such that I decided that I would never seriously consider returning to the U.K. to live as a few Poms did within the 2 year probationary period. Australia was going to be my HOME.

Sometime later I met a wonderful person by the name of Christine Maddern who eventually became my wife & also gave me a new family (the Maddern clan) In 1973 Chris & I travelled to England & were married in the oldest wooden walled church in the world, St Andrews Church, located in Greensted, Essex.

On our return from travelling Europe Chris & I decided to uproot from Melbourne & relocate to the country, settling in Bairnsdale, Victoria. We lived there for approx. 5 years before moving to Castlemaine, Victoria where I had been offered a position as General Services Manager at the local Hospital. It was during this time that Chris & I had our two wonderful children, our daughter Jane was born in April 1980 & our son Sam was born in September 1983.

Following another job offer in a similar position our family then moved to Kyabram (near Shepparton) Victoria. We have lived there now for 25 years, I, in various positions at the Kyabram Hospital & Chris as a teacher.

When I left England all those years ago I didn\’t have any grass roots family to speak of but this all changed in 2006 when I received a letter from a Solicitor in the U.K. Lo & behold I had a half brother by the name of Keith Hartley who had been trying to get in touch with me. Unbeknown to me my dad had been previously married & had a son, Keith, WOW! A brother I had never known about. Keith & I got in touch & Chris & I travelled to England to meet Keith, his wife Sheila & family. We all got on fantastically well & it was a sad time when we had to leave return home. Keith was really keen for them to come out to Australia to visit us but unfortunately I received a phone call one day from Keith to tell me he had been diagnosed with cancer & before we could meet again, Keith died. The great thing about this part of the story is that Keith & I had actually met after all those years & that Chris & I had had the pleasure of meeting Keith\’s family.

At the time of compiling this history our daughter Jane & her partner David & our beautiful granddaughter, Charlotte live near the Gold Coast in Queensland, & our son Sam & his FiancŽ, Gemma (just recently engaged) live in Melbourne.

Chris & I are currently planning another trip over to Europe & England (we will meet up with Keith\’s family) but even though we have these trips back to England, to me Australia was always going to be home from the day I arrived & will always continue to be so.

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