Christine Begg

Story

I was born in 1952 at Preston, Lancashire, England into a working class family. Proud Preston, as the town had been known for centuries. Preston began as a country market town. One theory is that the town was founded by monks around 670 A.D. and is probably how Preston got its name: it is derived from the word ‘tun (ie. Town) of the priest\’.

Like many other towns, Preston was transformed by the arrival of industry. One such industry was cotton and by the time I was born that industry was in decline. Growing up, I recollect it being rather a grim industrial town with large smoking chimneys, and damp weather that caused respiratory problems for me. Dad was a coal deliveryman and sometimes I thought he looked a bit like a gollywog seeing him walk home after a day\’s work. I now know there is some beautiful surrounding countryside, which I seldom had the opportunity to visit then.

Although I was quite a poor teenager in the1960s it was a great joy for me. There was such a lot happening, including man landing on the moon, the assassination of Kennedy, the Beatles rise to fame, and my favourite Ð Motown music. I could engage in my favourite passtime, dancing, quite cheaply.

At this time I was writing regularly to my cousin who had immigrated to Australia in the early sixties. I was very impressed reading about life in Australia and vowed I would go and live in the land of plenty too.

I met a guy at a soccer dance. He happened to share my views of wanting to leave England.

We married in 1971 and within three months we had arrived I Melbourne by plane. I remember the first thing noticed was the different cars, particularly the Holden Kingswood. I can still remember the registration of ours though it is long gone now. As it was late July when we arrived I felt cold for ages, constantly asking, ‘when is summer’? I also remember drinking the Aussie beer at the Aussie Rules Football and getting rather drunk not being used to the strength of the beer. Once summer did arrive I recall ‘chucking a few sickies’ in order to enjoy the lovely beaches. I was very proud and excited to be living in Melbourne, a place mentioned on the cosmetics I bought (New York, Sydney, Melbourne). I particularly liked living at vibrant St Kilda. I bought my clothes at the boutiques there. I was a passenger on that old fashioned train from St Kilda to the City. One place I worked was in the office of the large Coles store on Bourke Street\’

After about two years in Melbourne, I was still only 21, we moved to Townsville in North Queensland. We travelled by car all the way and I remember being stuck for about two days somewhere in Queensland due to floods, but we were not in a hurry and enjoyed the experience. On arrival in Townsville, we lived in a two man tent on the hard ground for a while (lots of our comfortable equipment having been stolen in Sydney). We got jobs the old fashioned way ‘knocking on doors’. We lived in various flats as well. My husband got work at the Queensland Nickel Mine. This was probably the beginning of more prosperity for us. My main job was as a legal secretary. We saved and were able to afford a trip to America and England in about 1975. We then came back to Townsville we bought a caravan to live in which helped with our savings plan.

About 1976 we moved to Canberra, towing that caravan all the way. When we got here that was the end of the poor Holden Kingswood that had served us so well. At the time our friends in Townsville said we would not be able to handle the cold of Canberra and would be back Ð we didn\’t. We settled for a while at the Southside Caravan, becoming part of a very friendly bunch of people working in the construction industry. Amongst other constructions, my husband worked on the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control System and New Parliament House.

Though still experiencing some ‘itchy feet syndrome’ we decided that Canberra was a great place to raise a family. We put a deposit on a home in Fisher and our son was born in 1978, followed by a daughter in 1980.

In 1980 we went to live South Sulawesi, Indonesia where the Canadian Company PT Inco had a nickel mine. We lived there for over five years, during which time our second daughter was born.

In the bicentennial year 1988 I became Australian Citizens. To date there are three grandchildren and I am very proud I came to live in Australia providing them with the privilege of living in beautiful Canberra, the Nation\’s Capital City.

Christine Ann Begg

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