Freda, Ken, Alister David & Philippa Jane BRIGGS

Story

Freda was offered a challenging position to establish new early childhood teacher education degree and child care courses at the State College of Victoria at Coburg. At that time there were no Australian degrees in this field and Freda was unusual in that she had a Masters Degree and a history of establishing new courses.

1974/5 was also a depressing period in England due to miners’ strikes, the picketing of power stations and factories and the lack of electricity for homes in the middle of winter. Inflation and mortgage rates were at an all-time high, salaries were pegged and we thought that Australia offered better opportunities for our children.

Freda was booked on a flight from London at 3pm. First, there was an overnight gale that completely blocked the MI motorway and damaged railway signals. She decided to travel by train but the 6am arrived at 9.0 and reached London hours late. Catering staff were on strike and there was no food on the train or at the aipoprt; Passengers boarded the plane on time but it took off 4 hours late because a Frau Schmidt from Frankfurt failed to board but her luggage was in the hold. This had to be found and removed and we learned later that her suitcase contained a bomb set to go off over the Atlantic by the German Red Brigade terrorist group. Then the crew left and we had to wait another 1.5hours for their replacements. At LA the plane turned round and pasengers were abandoned. Given that it was New Year, most flights were full and Freda arrived in Melbourne several days later via San Francisco, Hawaii, Fiji and Auckland. By that time her baggage was lost. Ken stayed behind to sell the house and Alister sat his university exams. Philippa, aged 14, decided to fly out alone to join her mother. Although she had a visa for permanent residency, immigration detained her because she wasn’t accompanied by her father. ‘We know people like you’, they said to her mother.’You come into this country and go on social security benefits’. The fact that Ishe had a senior lectureship and a salary of $20,000 a year made no difference. Ken and Alister travelled in July 1976 when there was another caterers’ strike. The plane went to Rome to collect food and they were then stranded in Bombay arriving in Melbourne two days later..

When Freda arrived, it was 40C and windy. The phone boxes in Brunswick had all been vandalised and she was unable to phone the UK. BA staff had said they would send messages to relatives explaining what had happened but didn’t and the family was very worried. After the austerity of the UK, Melbourne was like fairyland with T-bone steaks at 79C a kilo, wine at $1.50 a bottle and meals at the same price.

We paid $30 a week for a new apartment, bought a Burwood house for $48,000 and a Triumph car was paid for with a VISA card. However the banks refused to provide a mortgage to a woman, albeit one in a secure position and beyond child-bearing age. We had to wait until ‘the man of the house arrived’, even though the man of the house didn’t have a job to come to.

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