Alfred Micallef

Story

Alfred Micallef was the second born child of Joseph and Theresa Micallef. He was born on 4 January 1947 in St. Julian\’s Bay, Malta.

His father, Joseph, had migrated to Australia with his brothers in 1949 and Alfred along with his mother, Theresa, and older sister Stella followed on in 1950 on the Greek-registered ship, SS Cyrenia, arriving in Freemantle, WA on 20 May 1950. When the ship next berthed in Melbourne, they were met by his father, Joseph, and proceeded by train to Queanbeyan NSW, where they resided with Joseph\’s brother Charles for two years until they moved to their own government-owned house in Narrabundah ACT.

Alfred commenced his schooling at St. Gregory\’s Catholic School, Queanbeyan, in 1952. He completed his secondary school education at Telopea Park High School, Canberra. He inherited a strong perfectionist ethic from his father and this was reflected in his approach to many of life\’s challenges and chores. This was borne out by the immaculate way he kept his motor vehicles Ð right from his first car as a teenager and his attention to detail in gardening.

Upon completing his schooling, Alfred was appointed to a public service position with the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Canberra, where he stayed for most of his working life, only broken when he was called up for National Service as a twenty-year-old. Like all National Servicemen at that time, he spent two years full-time in the Australian Army. He was deployed as a motor vehicle driver and spent a good part of this time posted to defence facilities in Canberra. Fortunately, he was not obliged to participate in the Vietnam War, unlike many of his fellow National Servicemen.

During his National Service stint, Alfred married his fiancŽe, Vivian Guenot, who was also a migrant to Australia (Vivian was born in Germany of an Estonian mother and French father). Their wedding ceremony was conducted in the Roman Catholic section of the Anzac Memorial Chapel, Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT, on 23 November 1968.

Alfred and Vivian were allocated a government house in the Canberra suburb of Page, which they subsequently purchased and set about establishing an award-winning landscape and gardens. They also modified their house to suit varying family needs as required. There gardens have featured in the ACT Australia\’s Open Garden Scheme and they still open up their gardens for public viewing to assist worthy charities such as Camp Quality.

Over the years Alfred has varied the layout of his garden, with it predominately featuring a Japanese tea room and various tasteful adornments including water features, providing an authentic Japanese theme in a peaceful setting.

Both Alfred and Vivian have become keen anglers and spend quite a bit of their leisure time fishing in the Snowy Mountains and South Coast regions of NSW.

They had two children, son Scott, born 27 January 1971, who died tragically on 9 May 1999, and Michelle, born 12 February 1973.

They are the proud grandparents of four grandchildren: James, born 9 October 1993; Yuri, born 23 October 1996; Jackson, 18 October 1995; and Shannon, 5 March 1998.

This branch of the Micallef family is a great example of multiculturalism at work in the Australian community.

– prepared by Stella Keenan (nee Micallef), 27 November. 2007.

< Back to the Stories