Catherine Quirie
| First name | Catherine |
|---|---|
| Last name | Quirie |
| Country of Origin | SCOTLAND |
| Date of Birth | 7031943 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1954 |
| Submitted by | Catherine McDougall |
Story
I was born at Woodside and had 2 sisters Ann and Eva . My parents Stewart and Eva or ‘Cis’ as she was known decided to emigrate as they thought it would be a better future for the family.
We left Aberdeen and went to stay in London for a month and see our aunts before our trip on the SS Strathaird . We had a wonderful time on the ship and I learned to swim in one of the 3 pools, it was hard to get me to go for meals but I was lucky I had a stewart who looked after me and brought food to our cabin especially breakfast. We had a kind of school and attended most days, but it was more a fun time as we sang and played and met the other children.
Arrival
We arrived in Fremantle and went on a train to the town, I remember it was like a wild west train that I had seen in the movies it had a strange whistle. My mother thought someone very important died as lots of curtains and blinds were closed in the houses, little did she know she would do the same to keep out the sun and heat. We had never seen so many varieties of fruit and we came back to the ship loaded with bags of fruit.
The children disagreed on Melbourne or Sydney being the Capital city but we were all wrong.
We arrived in Sydney in May and we went on top deck as we didn’t think the ship would fit under the Harbour Bridge but amazingly we did.
We waited anxiously for my Uncle and family to collect us as we were to stay with them in Guildford (they had emigrated a year before from Aberdeen. John his wife Cath , my mother’s sister and my cousins Vicky and Richard Livingston ). They took us to many beaches and my sisters and I swam all through that first Winter, people used to ask if we were in training and were taken aback when we said no it is just so warm. Eva and I went to Blaxcell Street school and after the first day I said I’m not going back, the girls are all women – I was a very small 11 year old compared to a lot of Australian girls.
I live in Canberra with my husband Ian McDougall whose family came in the 1800’s from Skye and Kenmore in Perthshire. We have a great family of five children and six grand-children.