Laszlo & Margit Sogal

Story

Laszlo & Margit Sogal and their 5 children, Sue, Judith, Stella, Laszlo Jnr & Brigitte arrived in Australia on 15th August on the ship ‘Roma\’, their 6th child Peter was born here. Laszlo, born in Ankara, Turkey to Stephan & Margit Sogal (nee Cagany), & Margit, born in Budapest to Paul & Margit Fekete (nee Ingish), married 03/02/1952 while Laszlo was in the Hungarian Army teaching Officers communications. Laszlo’s first job after leaving the Army was as a mechanical engineer in a textile factory near the Romanian border. He was responsible for all factory mechanics as well as maintaining power to the village. Under the Communist regime Laszlo worked as an engineer having earned a degree in mechanical engineering. The pay wasn’t good and all were urged to join the Communist Party, which Laszlo didn’t want to do.

After the Revolution in 1954, Margit & Laszlo were very unhappy living under a Communist regime & together with their two children tried to escape but were caught and sent back. The second time they learnt from their mistakes and escaped to Austria. The Austrian camp was very full and had only one bed per family, an announcement was made that there would be a through train to France which had offered assistance for refugees from Hungary. They decided to go to France & arrived in Strasburg, which had previously been part of Germany.

France gave very good accommodation and they spent four & a half years there. It was during the Cold War and they were very concerned that the Russians were only six hours away by tank and there were many aeroplanes flying overhead, so they decided to go far away to a peaceful country. The English Consulate acted on behalf of Australia and they were accepted and took the 3- _ week voyage during which Margit was very seasick. The first stop was Fremantle WA, but they continued on until disembarking in Melbourne.

They were sent to Bonegilla Migrant Settlement in north east Victoria. They were very unhappy there as it was not as they expected, with outside bathrooms and toilets. Laszlo managed to get work first as a labourer for a Dutchman; he could speak French & German as well as his native Hungarian, but at that stage his English language skills were non-existent. He moved to Thirroul where he managed to obtain work as a draftsman and as his English improved he progressed to working as an engineering draftsman. He then worked as an engineer at Artarmon for a water sewerage and maintenance plant managing over 60 people. This firm wanted to send him to USA for further training so he obtained his Australian citizenship from Hornsby Council so he could acquire a passport. On his return he worked on sewerage plants at Thredbo, Smiggin Holes, Talbingo, and Adelaide. He worked with this firm for about five years before opening his own company at Gladesville, later moving to Smithfield. His firm made flanges for the Snowy Mountains Authority. When his major client went out of business he closed the company and worked as a maintenance manager for a farm in Cooma for four years before returning to Sydney, starting another company in Hornsby which he ran for seven years before working as a design engineer for Cleary Bros Ð a major engineering company. He worked until the age of 72.

During the time Laszlo was busy working Margit maintained their home and raised their six children. After much moving around they had settled in Berowra. As her English skills were not great, Margit centred her life on her family and home. She loved doing embroidery, tapestry and long stitch which she was very skilled at and their home has many framed examples of her work. After 52 years of marriage Margit died on 23rd January 2005.

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