Jimmy Chetcuti

Story

I was the first born child of Sammy and Helen Chetcuti. I was born in Bkara Malta & was educated at the brothers St John Della Salle Collage Gzira. I played the trumpet with the Duke of Connaughts Own Band [ ta lahgma]. I worked in the NAAFI & was stationed at Marsa and then at Mtarfa in the canteen working in the kitchen. I decided to emigrate to better myself & was excepted to go to Canada but my family talked me into going to Australia instead because one of my cousins was in Australia and they thought until I settled down he might be able to keep an eye on me – little did they knew that he was living more then a hundred miles away! In September 1954 I had just turned 19 years when I left Malta for Australia by ship. It was the only trip the Castel Verdi ever did to Australia because it was being leased to carry American troops. The crew were short staffed so I got the job part time helping in the kitchen and some nights I played the trumpet with the band and the payment was because I came to Australia with an assisted passage 10 pounds if for some reason I wanted to go back to Malta before the two years I could go back home with the Castel group for nothing. We stopped in Egypt to pick up more passengers. The Suez Canal was just reopened because during the war it was closed with sunken ships so we went through otherwise we had to go around the Cape which was an other two weeks. Next stop was Greece and more passengers; next stop was Eden and after 14 days and nights we arrived in Fremantle, West Australia and then my destination, Melbourne. I was met by my cousin who set me up in Fitzroy in a boarding house sharing four beds in one room. He could not take me were he was living because it was all bush [Yallourn] working at the power station or the open cut and I might not like it there. So in the morning we went looking for work & in about an hour we found four jobs and “Can you please start now?”. Australia has been good to me; after work I went to school and studied & I got myself multi trade certificates so I could better myself and in all the years in Australia I have never been out of work. In 1955 I married Jean an Australian woman and I send for my father and brother and then my father brought to Australia my mother brothers and sisters nana and uncle Jean. We had six children – Michael, Debbie, Maryann, Veronica, Donna, who died tragically & Wayne. We are proud grandparents of sixteen and great grand parents. Now I am retired and reaping the rewards. One of my hobbies is restoring old cars. We travelled around Australia. The highlights were Ayers Rock, Coober Pedy and Victory Downs cattle station. Every second year we travel to Europe and visit different counties but with all the travelling we have been doing Australia is best.

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