Dilbagh Basi

Story

The Basi Family ‘Our Journey to Australia’

My Father ‘Dilbagh Singh Basi\’, Mother, ‘Kirpal Kaur Basi, 2 Sisters ‘Nina and Meena\’ and I ‘Navi\’ migrated from England to Australia in 1986. We came from the South of England from a town called Sittingbourne in the Maidstone District of Kent County. My Father originally moved from India to England in 1963 and my Mother in 1969, the same year my parents married. Although we are Sikhs and our descendant heritage comes from the city of Jalandhar in the Northern State of Punjab in India, we are proud of our British background and equally being Australian citizens. Some may look at my sisters and I, listen to how we speak and describe us as being Aussie ‘Pommes\’ of Indian background, which in my mind truly signifies the rich multicultural fabric of what is ‘Australia\’.

There are no real reasons why my parents decided to migrate to Australia; I guess it must be something in their gene pool which we children have inherited but something far more for my Father which goes back to a time of an historical event. My Father was born in the City of Lahore which is now Pakistan. At the time India\’s independence in 1947 religious partition occurred through sectarian viloence and like many other Sikhs in that region my Father\’s family had to leave their home and property and move eastwards to the Indian sector of Punjab within the newly drawn partition lines. This is the first of 3 migrations that my Father has taken in his lifetime.

I remember the summer of 1985; I was 11 years old, my Father and Mother asked my Sisters and I if we would like to live in Australia. My sisters and I thought it a joke and we gave it no further consideration. From that moment things moved so fast that in January 1986 we had our immigration interview at Australia House in Strand, London; in March 1986 we had our immigration visas issued and on 2nd June 1986 we arrived as permanent residents in Australia.

Our journey to Australia was fun and enjoyable; we left England in May and went to Vancouver to visit family. We enjoyed being in Vancouver so much that my Father said to my Mother and us children that we had been approved to stay in Canada as permanent residents and that we could become Canadian citizens. We children and my Father were so happy that in our minds and hearts we had already made the emotional decision to stay in Canada, however my Mother was despondent and indifferent to the idea, she said to my Father and us children ‘we set out on this life journey to go to Australia and that is where we shall go’. We all looked at each other and knew that Mother was right and we decided that Australia was going to be the place of our new home.

Our first port of arrival in Australia was Cairns; we arrived on a Qantas flight from Honolulu at about 5.00 am on wet Monday morning on the 2nd of June 1986. At about 9.00am we arrived in Brisbane on the same flight and to our shock and surprise we had to walk from the plane onto the tarmac and into the airport terminal. Once in the terminal, which in those days was more or less a large warehouse we had our immigration processed and came out of the airport into the bright daylight of Australia. At first we all looked at each other and thought what is this strange place that we have come to, I could read my parents thoughts and them thinking ‘Its only the car park – Lets give this place a chance’. It just so happened that my parents gave Australia such a chance that we made Australia our home and we have been living in this great place ever since.

It\’s strange how things work out, for here I have shared my families story of migrating to Australia when it could have been a story of my families life in India or England or sharing a mirrored version of this very story with a Canadian experience, however to those who have read my story I am proud to have shared it with you as a true ‘Australian Story’.

Navi Basi

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