MARGARET/DERRICK SOMERFIELD
| First name | MARGARET/DERRICK |
|---|---|
| Last name | SOMERFIELD |
| Country of Origin | ENGLAND |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1955 |
| Submitted by | MARGARET A SOMERFIELD |
Story
It was 1955 and though 10 YEARS since the war’s end, housing in the U.K. was still desperately short. Living with relatives was very common and not an ideal situation for young couples. We were twenty three and twenty five years old and our son David was only three years old. Derrick was an iron moulder in Lancashire.
My Dad , a merchant navy man between the wars had always spoken well of Australia and New Zealand. We decide to apply for immigration to Australia and were accepted. Dad asked which ship we were to sail on, the MV Georgic we said, no way Father said it had been sunk during the war – she had too but had been refloated and made seaworthy again, but without any frills. She was packed from bow to stern with the men and boys in separate cabins to the women and young children. The inside cabins in the tropics was very stifling with hardly any air conditioning, but what could you expect for ten pounds?
We arrived in Fremantle and found a beach to spend the day. We had been advised that Adelaide would be better than Sydney and so had a few other people. We sailed to Melbourne and came back to Adelaide by train to the hostel in Smithfield situated on the rail line between the city and Gawler and very convenient for shopping etc. It had been an Army barracks. We had two bedrooms and a sitting room plainly furnished . Meals were taken in the canteen and were adequate. Ablutions were basic but each block of rooms had one. The men all had jobs in and around Adelaide within a few days.
Some months later Derrick heard of foundry work up in Spencer Gulf at B.H.P. Whyalla, which was very isolated compared to places we were used to, coming from the U.K. It was about 250 Miles from Adelaide and in between was Port Augusta and Port Pirie, both big towns in their own right.
Whyalla must have been one of the most cosmopolitan towns in Australia, judging from the thousands of migrants from so many countries and also, all the Australians from all over who came for regular work, rather than seasonal, like those from the Riverland. Its amazing how well people got on with each other.
Derrick went ahead of me and David to qualify for a house, living like a lot of others in Single Mens quarters. He got the house two weeks before our daughter Diane was born. We flew up to Whyalla, more thrilling for David than me. The town grew very quickly, especially with schools for all the children. We were on the sea and had good weather. Crime was non-existent in those days and no one locked a door.
Derrick was studying T.V. which was in its extreme infancy and of course, Black and White. After about six years he worked in the industry and eventually owned his own business. David grew up to work in the Weights and Measures ind, all over South Australia and Victoria. Diane worked as a cataloguer in the library and after marrying moved to Canberra where she still lives, with her husband David and two grown-up children, Andrew and Helen.