Lottie Moore

Story

I am Lottie Moore, nee Renfrey, and I was born in 1920 in Lancashire, England.

My husband, Robert McKenzie Moore, son, David aged 6, mother, Elizabeth Renfrey, and I travelled by the ship Toscana from Genoa, Italy to Australia in 1949. After surviving the WW11 in Blackpool, our doctor advised us to move to a country that had a warmer climate because I had asthma and David suffered bronchitis. We enquired about Canada and Australia and chose Australia. Unfortunately, one of my brothers, Jim, was killed in action at Monte Cassino, Italy.

We paid our own fares to Australia because there was a 2 year waiting time for the £10 scheme.

We took the Train to London, through France to Genoa, Italy where we boarded the ‘Toscana’. It was not a very big ship. I shared a cabin with my mother and 3 other women, who were very nice. My husband and son shared a cabin with 3 men. I was very ill for the whole voyage with sea sickness and unable to eat the Italian style food. My family travelled very well they tell me. My son had his 7th birthday on board ship.

At Suez Canal, I staggered up on deck to see the Pyramids, while my family enjoyed the vendors trading at the wharf. My mother bought some black elephant ornaments in Columbo. We arrived on a very, very hot day in Fremantle and many people left the ship there but, despite my husband being offered work, we decided to come on to Melbourne.

On March 10th 1949, another very hot day we disembarked at Port Melbourne, Customs taking nearly all day. Since we had paid our own way, we had no accommodation provided but Travellers Aid directed us to a Rooming House in St Kilda where the manager gave us one very large room.

We walked from the ship to St Kilda carrying our luggage on this very hot, Labour Day Holiday with no shops open and a cafŽ owner who was closing kindly let us sit and drink. The people at the Rooming House were very kind and welcoming. My husband, an engineer, started work at Holden, Fisherman\’s Bend. We all bought bicycles. My mother used to go to the Victoria Market by tram, bringing home all our food.

After 3 months, the manager allowed us to put a caravan in the back yard, and the man who sold it to us brought it over to St Kilda. We lived there 18 months enjoying the lovely beach, although I was very homesick. I even booked a passage back to UK but my mother obtained work at Davis Co-op as a cotton winder, my son began school and I found part time work as a knitter in St Kilda.

My brother Bill, his wife and 2 children arrived from England a year later. He had work at ‘Stokes Silversmiths\’ and accommodation in Brunswick, so we moved to share the house. After 12 months we bought 3 blocks of land in West Brunswick, beside the Merry Creek. We put the caravan on one block, connected the electricity, then rode our bikes there every weekend, and together built 2 weatherboard, 3 bedroom houses. We employed a plumber and electrician but did everything else ourselves. Later we built a brick 3 bedroom house on the other block for my brother, Albert, but he stayed in England.

After many months of hard work, we bought a motorbike with side car to take some trips around Melbourne and into the country. Later on we bought a small car and travelled all over Victoria. We bought another caravan and parked it at Philip Island where we spent many weekends and holidays enjoying surf fishing at Woolamai Beach. My brother Bill had a holiday house at Phillip Island for a few years and then moved to Perth. In 1978 we bought a holiday house with my son in Cowes and we are all still enjoying our time there.

My mother had 3 trips by ship back to the UK to visit her family and travelled to Perth, Adelaide and country Victoria She lived to be 92 years old, and as the Priest said at her funeral ‘Lancashire Lasses are the salt of the earth.\’

My son, David, became a Ladies Hairdresser, working in London for 2 years in the 1960\’s before opening his own Salon in Malvern where he worked for 22 years. A client had also come here on the ‘Toscana\’ in 1949, although we did not meet on the voyage. David remembers very little of the voyage here, apart from the vendors beside the ship in Suez and a Car Race at Fisherman\’s Bend, Port Melbourne on our arrival. He has always been interested in Formula 1 and Moto GP racing. David and his Australian wife worked in England and travelled through Europe and USA before settling back in Melbourne 1970. In 2000 they had a holiday in Europe and all their children have travelled overseas.

Two grandsons have visited my brother Jim\’s grave at Cassino, Italy and that has given me consolation.

Bob, my husband, was machinist at CIG Heidelberg for 27 years and I became a piece worker then supervisor at a suit makers in Coburg

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