John Harvie
| Town/City | Deniliquin |
|---|---|
| First name | John |
| Last name | Harvie |
| Country of Origin | Scotland |
| Date of Birth | 9/8/1954 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1973 |
| Submitted by | John Harvie |
Story
With my wife Isabella nee Blackwood and our 10month old son John, I left Scotland to find a better life with many opportunities and to reunite my wife with her two sisters in Melbourne and Cohuna in Victoria.
We travelled by train from Ayr in Scotland to Southampton where we embarked on the Chandris Lines ship, ‘Ellinis’ on 1st March 1973. The journey to Melbourne took 30 days and we arrived on 1st April 1973 via the Canary Isles, Cape Town, Fremantle and Adelaide.
The journey was very comfortable with a mix of the doldrums and very rough weather. We had to rescue a crewman who had fallen from the rigging of a Liberian tanker in mid Atlantic so that he could have a life saving operation performed by our ships doctor.
I remember being excited about arriving in Melbourne and sat on the top deck of the ship from about 4am as we passed through the rip into Port Phillip bay and was fascinated by the lights around the bay as we got closer to Port Melbourne. The sun came up to reveal a beautiful setting and the site of our point of disembarking at Outer East Station Pier.
We were met by family and friends in Melbourne before settling in Cohuna in Northern Victoria where our son Glen was born in 1975. Our daughter Stephanie was born in 1981 in Deniliquin in New South Wales where I was fortunate enough to be elected to Deniliquin Municipal Council some years later and served two terms as Mayor in 1992 to 1994.
Since migrating to Australia under the ‘assisted passage scheme for ten pounds the Harvie family has had many highs and many low points but overall has benefitted greatly and will be forever grateful for the opportunity to find a better life in a beautiful country which we now call home.