GEORGE HARGREAVES
| Town/City | AIRPORT WEST |
|---|---|
| First name | GEORGE |
| Last name | HARGREAVES |
| Country of Origin | ENGLAND |
| Date of Birth | 19TH SEPTEMBER 1919 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1965 |
| Submitted by | Elizabeth HERITAGE |
Story
The reason we left England was primarily economic. George ( my father) worked hard in a paper mill and could see no future for his children. George was the youngest of a large Catholic family and fought with distinction in WW2. His parents died while he was a child and his elder sister Liz helped to raise him. His Wife Mary nee Heys born 17th December 1919 also came from a large family. Both families lived in poverty. After the war there was great unemployment. George who had been wounded in the war was greatly disillusioned with the Government. They had 3 daughters (and a son who was stillborn). In the 60\’s England was in Georges’s words being overrun with migrants so he decided to get out while he could. Rochdale was a Lancashire mill town, with very little aesthetic appeal. The people were hardworking self reliant used to struggling to survive.
We flew to Australia, after spending a night in London, which was very exciting. The plane trip was also very exciting and long.
On arriving in Melbourne the Royal Melbourne Show was on and we saw people walking round with lots of funny hats. We were amazed to see people eating in the street, and dropping rubbish. The weather was not what we were expecting it was quite cold and we had no coats.
Initially we stuck to the group of friends who had been contracted to work at the same place. It was very hard and though people were friendly and spoke the same language there were many differences. The main problems were of course economic and health and not understanding the school system. George soon became ill and only the youngest girl Barbara would attend school. The eldest went to work and the middle child refused to attend school after a short time and so left school early. The eldest child married an Aussie; the middle child married a migrant from Birmingham and the youngest child never married.
While George and Mary never succeeded in buying a house in Australia they did feel that their children did better here than they could ever have done in England. All 3 children bought their own homes. All went back to visit England, and felt that George and Mary did a courageous thing to bring them to Australia.