John Crainean

Story

John Lazarus Crainean was born in Novo Selo (Satu Nou), Banat, Yugoslavia on 27 October 1912 of Romanian parents. At age 24 he married Maria Dragut at Rasa Viceni on 18 April 1937, the day before her 20th birthday. In 1936 my dad John left Romania with his young wife Maria to travel to Australia. With them were all John\’s family, his parents Paul and Julia, and his siblings Benjamin, Amelia, Mary and Natalia. Why did they decide to leave? They saw war coming again to Europe and decided to escape. Grandfather Paul had suffered as a POW in Siberia in WWI. He had no desire to repeat such an experience. Emigration was the answer.

Port Tomis in Constanta on the Black Sea coast of Romania was closed to departures because of looming war clouds in Europe. So they decided to travel to Italy where they boarded an Italian ship. Obtaining passports for overseas travel was extremely difficult due to very strict controls on the movent of people; especially as dad was undertaking his national service training. Thus it was only by divine intervention that they were ultimately successful.

Originally his dad, Paul, had wanted to take the family to Palestine where they would have been given 10 acres of land for farming. However, as they were living in Banat at the time, the Yugoslav government would not allow them to take any money out of the country so those plans were abandoned. Whilst sailing en route to Australia they met three Jews who were travelling from Israel who said ‘Just as well you had not migrated to Palestine as living there was extremely difficult under British government protective status at the time.’

Why did they decide to move so far away to the other side of the world? John was doing his military service in the Romanian airforce. He was an aircraft mechanic on flying boats in Constanta by the Black Sea. One of his senior officers had been on holidays in Australia. He had enjoyed it so much that on returning home he wrote a book about his experiences there. John and the family read the book with great interest. The country was described as being really beautiful and so their interest was raised.

In Romania they had attended a large Seventh-day Adventist church convention which had included international delegates. On learning three Australians were in attendance they arranged to meet. One of the men was the President of the North NSW SDA Conference with whom they later corresponded. An SDA Pastor sponsored them to migrate to Australia.

High seas and storms made the journey long and rough. John\’s young sister Natalie, aged 9, was really happy during the voyage. She loved hanging over the rails of the big ship to watch the passing waves and whitecaps. She remembers being given lemons to eat so she wasn\’t seasick, although her mother was rather sick with the movement of the ship. Their chef was a jovial Italian with a big belly who told her she would grow big like him if she ate all her spaghetti, so she didn\’t like that. There were male and female segregated sections on the ship but as a youngster she was allowed to freely roam all over to her great delight. They docked in Sydney in 1938.

After working in Sydney at Arcadia, Rouse Hill and Kellyville the extended Crainean family moved to Burringbar, north NSW in 1940. At Hopkins Creek, Chillingham, near Murwillumbah they bought a dairy farm, grew bananas, raised poultry, and operated a small sawmill. Life was very busy with farming and raising 5 children.

Economic pressures encouraged John to sail with his wife and children to new adventures in Papua New Guinea in 1950. It was to be their home for the next 23 years with regular furlough trips back to the Hopkins Creek farm where they ‘retired’ in 1973. In PNG John worked in sawmills firstly in Port Moresby, then Wau, Lae and Mendi in the Southern Highlands. Their 5 children, Veronica, Julia, Joseph, David and Emily remember John as being a very hard working and industrious father who was also sociable, enjoyed travelling, entertaining and loved telling stories.

John and Maria sold the farm in 1996 and finally retired to Kingscliff where they happily spent the next 2 years. They had bought a duplex and enjoyed regular walks to the beach and shops. On Saturdays they continued to attend the Murwillumbah Seventh-day Adventist church as they had done for many years. Then Maria died and a bright light in his life was extinguished. Veronica, their eldest daughter continued to care for John in his Kingscliff duplex for the next 2 years. In July 2000 Melody Park Retirement Resort at Nerang, Qld, became his final home where he was visited regularly by his sister Nataly and other family members. John passed away on 17 April 2001.

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