Carmel (Charles ) Taylor

Story

After WW11 my dad Peter Paul Taylor who served with the British Navy for 30 Years or more retired from the navy in 1948. After he left the navy he could not settle or find employment in Malta. He started thinking about starting a new life for us in an other country there was five of us kids and my Mother, Francis my brother John and my three sisters Carmen, Sandra, Doris and myself being the youngest Carmel. Dad had one of his brothers and a sister already in Australia, so they wrote to him and asked if he would like to join them, at first he refused because he really wanted to migrate to England.

The situation got bad for him in Malta, workers were being laid off all over Malta, and it was near impossible to get employment, so he decided to take the offer to go to Australia and join his brother and sister. So in 1950 Dad left Malta and sailed to Melbourne Australia with my eldest brother John, and my soon to be brother in-law Joe. He rented a room at his sister\’s house in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Dad got employment on the waterfront; Joe got himself a job with Victoria railways; my brother who was 16 years old and not knowing a single word of English was still unemployed. It took Dad one year to settle.

So after a year Dad sent for us so it was our turn to leave Malta. The five of us, Mum, my three sisters and myself left as 10 pound migrants, we left on a ship called SS Florentina, an Italian ship. It was going to be the last voyage for the ship, as it was used to transport live animals, so you can imagine the state of the ship. The Italian crew treated us splendidly, the food was the best we had in a long time, but the trip was far from good, we were hit with a typhoon and the ship actually went backwards. The trip took eight weeks to arrive in Melbourne. We nearly lost our mother as she got so sick. The Captain thought that mum might die and he would have to bury her at sea, which terrified us all. But God was watching over us and we finally arrived at Princes Pier in Melbourne on the 9th Septermber 1951 to start a new life.

We all moved in with Dad in Fitzroy, the 7 of us lived in one bedroom. It was not easy for our parents, but in 1952 we got a 3 bedroom Commission home in West Heidelberg, which after a few years Dad bought. Eventually my brother and sisters married and moved out of home. Carmen and Joe stayed with Dad, Mum and myself in the family home. It stayed our family home for 51 years.

Dad passed away in June 1962 then my eldest sister Carmen and her husband Joe ended up taking over the house and looking after mum and myself till I married in 1965 and moved out. Years later our Mother passed away in 1995. Then one year later, my brother in-law Joe passed away. After Carman losing her husband Joe, she decided to sell the family home and go to live in Epping, Victoria. I left Melbourne and am now living in Queensland with my five children.

Carmel (charles) Taylor

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