Freya Jobbins (nee Schild)

Story

My parents Jutta and Horst Schild both originally from Germany. They left the cold climate for a healthier climate in Johannesburg South Africa, as my father Horst suffers badly from Asthma. They arrived in 1965, with my brother Hagen who was about 9 months old. My mother was just pregnant with me when they arrived in Johannesburg. We lived here until just before my 9th birthday, then we immigrated to Sydney Australia in August of 1974. We left South Africa as my parents felt that at that time already it was not the safest place to raise their three children. My sister Ute was born in April 1972. I remember going to an all white primary school, and swimming in the all white public pools and I fondly remember our maid Kate who was our house cleaner. I only have positive memories of Johannesburg. I do not have a need to return and destroy those great memories. My father said that we had only one large shipping crate of belongings and not a lot of money in the bank at all when we arrived in Sydney. He was a Design Engineer and I remember my mother had to learn how to read and write English to an advanced level before they were accepted as immigrants into Australia. We stayed at the Endeavour Hostel in Coogee for 12 months and we started at Coogee Primary School. My parents said we lost our South African accents very fast. We moved to Bradbury in Campbelltown where we all grew up. My brother became a motor mechanic, me a Police Officer and my sister a Midwife. My parents are now retired and live in Rylstone NSW.

The journey to me was a wonderful flight on the largest plane I had ever seen and I swore I was going to be a flight attendant when I grew up. I remember drawing pictures for the flight attendants. No hard arduous journey for us. I never remember feeling of dread or fear at all of our new adventure as my parents were always taking us on trips, travelling around southern Africa in a VW Beetle. we where once chased by an elephant in the Kruger National Park. Mum was learning to drive so she and Dad did the fastest seat change you could imagine…………………

We arrived the same year Cyclone Tracey destroyed Darwin so that memory of the disaster is etched in my mind.

On arrival, my impressions were of awe. Wow they spoke English here, they had TV black and white but it was wonderful. We only had radio in South Africa, the year we left they got Television. We met so many other German Families with kids at the hostel and they became our surrogate ‘family’ here in Australia. German was our first language which we can all still speak fluently, then we had Africaanse then English. My parents still keep in regular contact with all our German friends, though the next generation (us) have spread out around Australia having many Aussie kids between us.

I am glad my parents decided to immigrate to Australia instead of Canada as this country has become our country. This year my parents finally became Australian Citizens, I was so proud of them. I had become a citizen as soon as I was old enough – at 16 , along with my brother. All I wanted to be was a Police Officer and I had to be a citizen to become one. I had realised that after I was 15 years of age, I was way too tall to become a flight attendant. So I thought I would become a Police Officer as this was a family tradition on my father’s side. His father and half brother were both Police Officers in Germany. I joined the Australian Federal Police here in Canberra close to my 20th birthday. I worked Sydney for a year and spent the rest of my career working here in Canberra. I spent time as the first female weapons instructor at the AFP Police College.

I am now married to an Aussie from Yass NSW, he is a NSW Fire Fighter who rescued me from head on car crash on the Barton Highway in 1993. We met afterwards when I thanked him for saving my life and we were married two years later. We have 2 children, Jacinta and Murray, I also have a son David 18 years from my first marriage, who is now a member of the Australian Army . We now live in Picton which is 20 mins from Campbelltown where I grew up. Nearly a full circle.

The only problems I occassionally experience (as an artist and as an individual) is that sometimes I do not know where I truly belong. Am I German, as both my parents were born in Germany, and I speak German, or am I South African as that is the country I was born in or am I Australian as that is where I now live, have citizenship and have created a family? I know when I travel overseas I am so proud to say I am Australian, I am so relieved when I am back on Australian soil so I must belong here, in my country.

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