Melita Micallef

Story

MIGRATION STORY OF MELITA MICALLEF FOR IMMIGRATION BRIDGE

Melita Micallef (nee Vassallo) was born in Cairo, Egypt on 28 June 1927. She was the fourth child born to George and Georgina Vassallo, Egyptian-born parents of Maltese descent.

At the young age of four she was placed in a boarding school in Cairo along with her older sister Theresa. This was because their father George died suddenly in his mid forties, leaving his wife to fend alone for her five children, a formidable task considering the world-wide economic depression in the early 1930s. She was released from the boarding school at the outbreak of the Second World War. Whilst in the boarding school she was educated by French Catholic nuns and as a result became fluent in French. Back home in Alexandria the spoken language was Italian and so she was naturally fluent in Italian. She also spoke and understood some Greek which assisted her later in life when she immigrated to Australia on board a Greek owned migrant ship.

She met Charles Micallef, a Maltese shipwright, while he was working in Alexandria with his brother Joseph as part of the British war effort. They soon married as did her sister Theresa to Charles\’ brother Joseph. Thus the two Vassallo sisters married the two Micallef brothers in Alexandria. At the end of the war in 1945 they all returned to Malta. By this time Melita and Charles had a seven month old daughter, Helen and Theresa and Joseph had a one year old daughter, Stella.

In Malta the two brothers resumed duties at the British Naval Dockyards, but war-torn Malta was a harsh environment in which to raise a family, and for Melita and her sister there was the added burden of the foreign language. However through necessity both soon became fluent in Maltese. When the opportunity to migrate to Australia arose, the two brothers were among the first to leave Malta in 1949 as part of the post-war immigration programme conducted by the Australian Government.

In 1950 under the same programme Melita and her sister and both their children followed, though not together but some months apart. She sailed on board a Greek owned migrant ship called SS Cyrenia, leaving Malta on 11 July and arriving in Fremantle, WA on 5 August 1950, then sailing on to Melbourne, Victoria where she disembarked with her daughter and reunited with her husband, Charles who was needless to say a very happy man.

They travelled by train to Queanbeyan, NSW where Charles had built them a home at 2A Kinkora Place, with some help from his brother Joseph. For the first two years Melita and Charles shared their home with Joseph and his family. By this time Joseph and his wife Theresa had a second child called Alfred who was three years old. At the end of this time they moved into their allocated government home in First Street, Narrabundah, ACT.

Living in Queanbeyan surrounded by what was then bush took Melita some years to get used to, particularly after growing up in a cosmopolitan place like Alexandria, and then having to cope with the shock of her first childbirth in Australia being stillborn. But this was where she remained for the rest of her life with her husband and four children: Helen born 7 April 1945, Roslyn 29 November 1955, Susan 1 March 1957, and George

3 September 1959. Melita was a staunch Catholic who supported her local church. But mostly she was a devoted mother and wife.

She died from a myocardial infarct on 2 July 1987, just four days after her sixtieth birthday. By this time she also had three grandchildren: Natalie Milne born 14 December 1970, Derek Milne 17 April 1973, and Dean Smith 3 July 1985.

Prepared by Helen Milne, Melita and Charles\’ eldest child, 26 June, 2008.

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