Christine Lovatt (nee Evans)

Story

I arrived in Australia in September 1974, aboard the SS Britannis, with my friend Eleanor, for an exciting adventure. We had finished our nurses’ training at Guys Hospital in London and wanted to work somewhere warm and sunny.

I was born in South Kensington, London and grew up in Carshalton, Surrey. My mother was an Irish nurse and my father was a Welsh engineer.

We came on the Assisted Passage Scheme, which seemed like a great idea to us, only 40 pounds for a month-long voyage. We had to promise to stay for two years, which we agreed to. If my mother had known I would stay permanently, she would never have let me come!

The journey was wonderful, aboard the Britannis. Lots of seafood to eat, games to play and a glass of Tia Maria was only 17 cents. (I still had 40 pounds in my pocket when I arrived). We called in at Las Palmas, Capetown, Fremantle, Melbourne and finally Sydney. We stayed awake on the last night, coming into Sydney Harbour – the Opera House and Harbour Bridge were very impressive!

Not so impressive was the “cattle train” we rode from Sydney to Brisbane, but we were young and excited and didn’t really care that much about the hard seats! I had an aunt in Brisbane which is why we went there.

Lamb chops on toast for breakfast was our first culture shock. The second was the heat and humidity. We were lucky it was only September! Being migrants, we were marshalled into the Migrants’ Hostel at Kangaroo Point, and lectured very sternly about getting a job. There was much grumbling by migrants there about the conditions!

My aunt helped us to find jobs at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane, working as theatre sisters. We lived in a cheap flat until we found our feet and saved up some of our huge salary. Around this time I phoned home. Phoning long-distance in those days was so unusual my mother thought someone must have died, but I explained that I was now very rich, on an Australian salary. Well, that’s how it felt, earning 100 pounds a week, more than double our English salary.

I had some interesting jobs – one of them was with the Mobile Dental Unit, where I accompanied a dentist to children’s homes around the Brisbane area, such as Beaudesert and Toowoomba, using a caravan as a dental surgery. I learned to develop xrays and mix up amalgam for fillings.

Went to Cairns on holiday in 1975, and fell in love with it. What a place Cairns was in those days! Worked at the Cairns Base Hospital – my favourite posting ever. Then met James Lovatt and fell in love with him. He came from Carshalton in Surrey where I came from.

For the next three years, we travelled up and down the east coast with friends, in a double decker bus which we bought between us. James played guitar and we sat around the campfire at nights, talking and singing.

We spent the summer in Sydney and the winter in Cairns. In those days, finding jobs was a piece of cake and we had a fantastic time. We lived cheaply, had a wide circle of friends from Australia and all around the world, and no, we didn’t take drugs, although we drank a lot of cask wine between us.

I was very proud of my new country, especially what I saw as a very open policy towards people from all around the world. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and like many migrants, the only Australians I knew of were from Skippy and Bazza McKenzie. Australia was young, free and tolerant, and we felt we could do anything we wanted (within the law, I mean!)

James and I were married in May 1978 at Watson’s Bay, Sydney and moved up to the Central Coast in 1981. We became fully-fledged Australians and although we’ve still got Pommy accents, we really feel we belong here.

We run a publishing business together, producing puzzles and publishing crossword books and our three children work with us. Those friends of ours that we travelled with in the 70s are still mostly living in Australia, some of them working with us in our business.

So the exciting adventure stretched out for more than 2 years – it’s now been 35 years this year, and I’ve had no regrets about moving to Australia. I’m grateful for the experience, I just wish it wasn’t SO far away from my motherland.

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