John Ogilvie COLLINS
| Town/City | Canberra ACT |
|---|---|
| First name | John Ogilvie |
| Last name | COLLINS |
| Country of Origin | Scotland |
| Date of Birth | 10/3/1950 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1967 |
| Submitted by | John Ogilvie COLLINS |
Story
In 1961 when I was just ten years of age my mother, Agnes, died of cancer. I was subsequently extracted from boarding school – St. Joseph’s College, Dumfries – by my estranged father, James, and forced to live in a toxic household environment until I turned 17. By that time I’d already finished high school, was working at my first job and my father therefore felt quite justified in throwig me out of the house to fend for myself. As a consequence of this premature eviction I chose to come to Australia where my sister Ann and her husband Jeremy Leather had emigrated to two years earlier.
Therefore, in November 1967, I travelled by train from Glasgow to London and boarded a Qantas 707 V-jet, which over a period of in excess of 24 hours leap-frogged us from Heathrow, London to Athens, Tehran, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Brisbane and finally Sydney. There were a couple of other boys of my age on the aircraft and so we were able to share the adventure together, as boys will do.
Somewhere between Hong Kong and Sydney we met a horrible little man named Hal Todd, who told us he hosted a late night television program on GTV 9 in Melbourne. He kept calling us “Pommies” and trying to impress us with his lame jokes, but we were either not used to the Australian sense of humour or his jokes were just plain bad. Upon arrival in Sydney I changed planes and flew to Melbourne with Ansett ANA. Upon reflection it was a fantastic adventure for a 17 year old.
I guess my first overarching impressions of Australia were the heat the Aussie accent and the dry sense of humour, all of which took me a little while to get used to. I ran into Hal Todd again some months later in Dandenong by which time I’d learned that both he and his jokes were just plain bad. However ,as I write these words more than forty years later, I can safely say that the initial culture shock has long worn off and since even way back then I’ve never felt the need or desire to live anywhere else.
Despite the trying circumstances which precipitated my move to Australia, it was not only a bloody good decision but also a bloody good move. I became an Australian citizen in 1979 and thanked her then for adopting me. Those sentiments still ring true today.