Charles Micallef
| Town/City | Chapman ACT |
|---|---|
| First name | Charles |
| Last name | Micallef |
| Country of Origin | Malta |
| Date of Birth | 12/7/2020 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1949 |
| Submitted by | Helen Milne |
Story
Charles Micallef was born in Malta on 12 July 1920 to Maltese parents, Ricardo and Rosina Micallef. He was one of eleven children, and the family was poor.
In 1943 during the Second World War and at the age of 23, he and his brother Joseph went to Egypt as Maltese shipwrights. There they worked on British warships in Alexandria as part of the British war effort.
During this time he met Melita Vassallo, an Egyptian girl whose parents were Egyptian-born but also of Maltese descent. His brother Joseph had already met her sister, Theresa Vassallo. The two couples became engaged and later married in Alexandria.
On 7 April 1945 Charles and Melita had a daughter named Helen. A year earlier Joseph and Theresa also had a daughter named Stella who was born on 16 February 1944. At the end of the war in 1945 they all returned to Malta and the two brothers resumed duties at the British Naval Dockyards.
Four years later an opportunity arose for Charles, Joseph and a third brother, Emanuel to migrate to Australia and to take up employment there in the building industry. This was part of the massive post-war immigration programme conducted by the Australian Government. A difficult decision presented itself for Charles and Joseph because if they took up this opportunity it would mean they would initially have to leave their wives and children behind in Malta. On the other hand they felt that remaining in Malta offered no career future for them.
Eventually the decision was made and in 1949 the three brothers and 247 other men left Malta. These men were mostly Maltese though there were approximately ten Englishmen also. They travelled on board the SS Asturias and arrived in Fremantle, WA on 26 February of the same year. They then sailed on to Sydney, NSW and disembarked at Waterloo. At 4pm that afternoon all of the 250 men boarded a steam train headed for Canberra. Packed like sardines they arrived at 7.00am the following morning and were then transported by bus to the RAAF Base in Fairbairn.
Having arrived in Canberra they were originally housed with other male migrants in tents at the RAAF Base. From there Emanuel was sent to work at Smiggins Holes to help with the building of offices and houses and was provided with accommodation there. Meanwhile Charles and Joseph moved to rented accommodation in Queanbeyan and it was during this time that Charles purchased a block of land there on the corner of Crest Road and Kinkora Place. With some help from his brother Joseph, he built a house which became home for the two brothers and their families for the first two years. Then Joseph was allocated a government house in Narrabundah, ACT and he and his family left Queanbeyan.
As time passed it was amazing how cosmopolitan the neighbourhood of Kinkora Place became. New homes sprang up all around and the occupants consisted of Lithuanians, Italians, Poles, Germans, Scots and other Maltese and most, if not all were part of the post-war immigration programme.
Charles was a carpenter by trade. Upon arriving in Canberra he spent the first year working on various housing projects for the Housing Commission. He next was involved in helping to build the extensions to the Duntroon Military College. Again he worked on housing projects but this time down the South Coast, going home to Queanbeyan only on weekends. When he later joined Parks and Gardens he probably didn\’t imagine that this would be where he would remain for the rest of his working days. He was very content there and was involved in the building and maintenance of amenities in all Canberra\’s parklands and institutions. Two of his projects that come to mind are the Weston Park Recreation Centre in Yarralumla and the school grounds of St Clare\’s College in Griffith. Just two of the many projects he worked on in Canberra.
In his own home he built almost all of the furniture inside the house and the playground equipment outside. His other interest was gardening. His backyard consisted of a variety of fruit trees and a large vegetable garden, while the front was a display of flowers and shrubs. After retiring from Parks and Gardens he spent almost all his time attending to this garden.
He died on 19 April 1989 at the age of 69, two years after the death of his beloved wife Melita. He left behind four children Ð Helen, Roslyn, Susan and George and six grandchildren Ð Natalie, Derek, Dean, Luke, Matthew and Timothy.