Alexis and Clary van Noppen

Story

OUR JOURNEY.

Here we are, memorised on this Bridge, fifty years after we came Down Under !

We met as teenagers in 1940 at the start of WW2, when our country, The Netherlands, was occupied by Germany. Five years later we came out unscathed and started to build our life together. We married in 1947 and by the time we decided to emigrate in 1959, we had Annemieke, Martin, Ottelina and Alice.

On the 7th of August 1959 we boarded MS Willem Ruys. We sailed via the Mediterranean through the Suez canal, past Colombo, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney to Wellington,where we landed on September the 11th of that year. From there by ferry to Christchurch, where a job and house were waiting for us, which were the Labour Government requirements of the day. However, while we were at sea, the woolfirm where Lex was promised work, had merged with a bigger firm and a job was no longer available. Our sponsor found work for Lex as a sorter in a Woolscour, ten miles north of Christchurch, with a house next to it. Then Lex had an accident in 1960. He was on the first floor, dragging a full bale, when he slipped on the greasy floor. Next to him was the trap-door where the wool was dropped to the groundfloor, ready to be scoured. There was a safety chain over the opening, where Lex came to rest with the 420lb bale on his left knee. It was a miracle how this chain saved his life. A broken cartilage in his knee was later removed in hospital.

After two years we found life in NewZealand with a growing family not compatible with our former life in the Netherlands. We went back in July 1963, this time on the Southern Cross, through the Pacific Ocean and the Panama Canal. It was a move many more migrants made; it is estimated that about a third went home permanently. However, we found out, as others had, that this was not an option, especially when the circumstances had not changed in the meantime and we had changed.

Two years later we were back in NewZealand, this time with six month old son Reinoud, who was followed in 1965 by Nancy Barbara, born in Christchurch. The children grew up, then left New Zealand for an ‘OE\’ (Overseas Experience) Only the eldest and youngest daughters, Annemieke and Barbara went back eventually to live permanently in New Zealand. Son Martin returned to the Netherlands, while Reinoud, Ottelina and Alice had all found places in and around Melbourne.

We decided to make our last move Down Under and landed at Tullamarine on the 15th of May 1986.We found a place in Pakenham, southeast of Melbourne and loved life in country Victoria. We took up worthwhile hobbies such as woodturning, spinning and weaving and travelled around Australia to visit family in South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia and loved the diversity of the Australian landscape.

In 2000 we moved into a retirement village in Berwick and had occasional visits from the family members who live in New Zealand and the Netherlands. The culmination was in March 2007, when the whole family came together for our Diamond Wedding celebration.

We are happy to have come to Australia, to this versatile and vibrant country we call home.

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