Dagmar Mellmann

Story

In October 1966 Peter and I had been married for 2 years and our first child, Oliver, was 3 months old.

My sister, Marion, had migrated to Australia in 1957, had become an Australian Citizen and was living in Australia with her German born husband, Peter, and two children, Annette and Ralph.

This and the fact that as a boilermaker/welder my husband had a good chance to get work made us decide to migrate as well.

On the 12th October 1968 we left Bremerhaven, Germany, on the ‘Queen Frederica’, a Greek vessel. It was very hard, saying goodbye to our relatives and friends, because in those times Australia was a world away.

Peter, having been with the Merchant Navy before we married, wanted to treat me to a luxurious sea journey, which did not exactly happen. The ship was overcrowded with immigrants, men had to sleep below deck with lots of other men, women and children were placed with other women and children, but miraculously Peter and I had a tiny cabin for ourselves and Oliver, with even a porthole and toilet.

After a mostly enjoyable but sometimes very rough journey, where we experienced a food poisoning outbreak which affected me badly and which was covered up as ‘sea sickness’ (our mail after this incident was received 3 months later in Australia and Germany) we arrived in Melbourne on 18th November 1968.

My sister and her family welcomed us to this land and for the first three months we lived with them in their Lower Templestowe home until we were able to rent an old house in nearby Hawthorn.

Since we had decided to bring with us our entire furniture on a separate container vessel we immediately felt at home once every piece was put in place.

With my brother in law\’s help and his fluency in the English language and the fact that Peter had been a Union member in Germany, he found work almost immediately. However he soon realized that working conditions in Australia were at a much lower standard than in Germany. For instance, the workers had to strike for several days for doors to be put in front of the toilets etc.

Our second son, Daniel, was born in December 1969.

Peter furthered his career through numerous courses and although his wages were only reasonable at the beginning we managed to prosper and in 1971 were able to purchase our home in Mitcham where we raised our children and lived until our retirement in 2001.

We became Australian Citizens on 17th April 1974.

During Peter\’s working life he and his workmates contributed greatly to improvements in steel constructions such as mining buckets and a walking dragline for the Queensland mines, as well as participating in laying and assembling pipelines for Melbourne\’s water supply.

The much freer lifestyle which Australia offered also resulted in annual Easter camping trips with three generations now taking part. A recent, professionally made 25 minute film depicts those 39 happy years of Easter camping.

The DVD (FROHE OSTERN Ð HAPPY EASTER) can be purchased at RONIN FILMS (Website: www.roninfilms.com.au)

< Back to the Stories