Lilian and Lawrence Mellowship

Story

My parents departed England on the SS Orcades. They emigrated from England as 10 pound poms – having to pay the sum of 10 pounds for passage. My father Lawrence was a machinery fitter of Gestetner duplicating machines and my mother was a change hand, responsible for loading paper into the Gestetner machines.

They arrived in Sydney on 23 May 1958 and initially settled in one of three delapidated cottages situated a few hundred yards off the roadway and beneath some sand dunes a few miles from the township of Stockton NSW

My parents relished the opportunity of settling in a new country and by July 1959 their first son, Leslie was born in a private hospital in the centre of Stockton. Conditions for pregnant women were bad then. My mother was required to sweep the floor of her hospital room daily.

As their finances improved they moved to Thornton NSW for a few years where they lived alongside the railway line. Lawrence at the time worked for the Oak Factory at Hexham and it was not unusual for mother and son to wave to Lawrence as the train passed by on the way to Newcastle for a shopping trip. In 1962 Lilian gave birth to twins, Cathrine and Michael.

The family used a Volkswagon to move permanently to Raymond Terrace in 1964 becoming one of the first owners of a housing commission home in the northern part of the town. The original house stands today basically unmodified although it suffered a bad shake during the Newcastle Earthquake in 1989 when the entire property of land rose and fell with the shock wave.

Lawrence passed away in 1981 having suffered a lengthy medical problem and a fatal heart attack. His wife Lilian maintains the family home and spends much of her time with her grandchildren Teiha and Jayden. Both her sons Leslie and Michael remain single.

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