Gus Viera

Story

My father Adolfo Viera had a very disadvantaged childhood in Argentina, having lost his father and mother by the time he was in his teens. He was and still is a proud man and felt destined for greater opportunities in his adult life. As a very accomplished self-employed Cabinet Maker struggling to make ends meet with a family of three children, he became very interested in a family friends’ story of a successful emigration to Australia. Upon hearing of the Australian Government’s immigration program and having no family ties or personal debt to Argentina, he decided that this was the opportunity of a lifetime for him to provide us with the prosperous upbringing he never had.

The journey for us kids, my eldest sister Carina and younger brother Leonardo was as exciting a journey as we could have ever imagined. The extremely traumatic departure at Buenos Aires airport from our extended family, which I still remember to this day, was put to the back of our young minds at the thought of flying in an aeroplane for the first time. Most memorable was our extended four day stopover in Vancouver, Canada. Having teamed up with two other South American families and having a wonderful Spanish interpreter at the allocated airline Motel, made our stay a lifetime experience. Highlights were the first sighting of a colour television, driving around in a hire-car, frolicking in the snow and sneaking into and playing in a very fancy hotel playground, which we realised upon settling in Australia, was not a plush hotel, but a McDonalds restaurant! The airport stay at Papeete, Tahiti was a definite lowlight with the stiffling weather absolutely killing us when the air-conditioner broke down in the departure lounge.

After the immense impression of Vancouver’s tourist attractions and overall cleanliness had on all the families, the mini-bus trip through downtown Mascot was not the most welcoming experience we had imagined. As a matter of fact, I remember my father commenting that we should have stayed in Canada (Ironically, within a year we would be given a Housing Commission unit in Mascot and would eventually buy a house there and make it our home for the next twenty plus years). This was all temporarily forgotten though, when we were welcomed to the Endeavour Hostel in South Coogee, which would become our home for the next seven or so months whil we began our path to our new Australian identity.

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