Mary Roche

Story

My father, Augustine Roche (known in the family as Michael) met my mother, Rita whilst in the RAF in England in 1947. In 1948 they married and both left the RAF to settle down to civilian life, in and around Chadderton, and Oldham, having 2 daughters and 2 sons between 1948 and 1956.

Around early 1964 things in England were not improving for us and my Mum and Dad thought long and hard about the benefits of providing a better standard of living for the whole family. After seeing numerous ads seeking British people to migrate to Australia, under the assisted passage scheme, who were later to be known as ‘ten pound POMS’, my father sent off our Application to migrate.

After the necessary interviews, medical and security checks we were finally selected and informed that we were off to Brisbane, where we would again meet Uncle Jack, who had sponsored us. So in mid 1965 the Roche family started the process of finalizing our life in Chadderton, near Manchester and planning our new life in Brisbane.

In August 1965 the whole family set off by train from Manchester to London where I vividly remember a tired and weary family of six walking around parts of London for over 7 hours, waiting to meet Australian Immigration officials for the onward journey to Australia. Finally we got to London Airport where, on a specially chartered plane load of other migrants we boarded our British Eagle aircraft. 2 days later, after travelling over the French Alps, through the Middle East, and Bombay we finally arrived in Darwin, where we were formally greeted and welcomed to Australia.

After another long flight across Australia, we landed at Brisbane and were taken by bus to Wacol Migrant Hostel, which was between Brisbane and Ipswich. When we got there after travelling for nearly 3 days, I remember the looks of horror and disbelief on my parents’ faces. I vividly recall seeing the Nissan hut my family had been allocated and thinking that I had arrived on another planet. Worse was to come when we were shown around the hostel and saw the dining room, ablution and laundry areas we were expected to share with nearly over 300 other families from all around the world.

I remember that because the food was mass produced by long established hostel migrants it was generally very unappetising and left a lot to be desired. Still, within 2 weeks my Dad, my brother John, then 15 and I, almost 17 found employment. A number of weeks later, this meant that we now had the funds to rent a home in nearby Salisbury, where my sister Margaret, 13 and Brendan, 9 could enrol in school.

Between July and September 1968 saw a dramatic turn in the life of some Roche family members with my father, and I joining the Royal Australian Air Force and John the Australian Army with a six week period. Dad and I went to Adelaide and John to Kapooka for our various Recruit training leaving Mum, Margaret and Brendan alone in Brisbane for nearly 3 months before they could join Dad who had been posted to Victoria. In 1971/1972 both Dad and John served in Vietnam during their time in the RAAF and Army.

Margaret, after years of studying became a psychiatric nurse and gained further general nursing qualifications and through her hard work and experience is now a Nurse Manager with NSW Mental Health Service. Later on Brendan joined the Australian Army and two of Margaret\’s sons have also enlisted in the Army.

After leaving the RAAF in late 1978, I became an Australian Federal Police Officer, retiring in 2003 and am now working part time with a Palliative Care organisation in Victoria.

My first deep impressions of Australia was the constant heat and the difficulty my family and I had understanding the Australian accent, particularly the Queensland drawl, which took a long time to make sense of.

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