Michael & Patricia (known as Mike & Pat) Kneebone

Story

Mike was working in Plymouth Hospital as a registrar in Anaesthetics when PM Wilson froze all the National Health doctors\’ salaries. Prices were all on the rise and 6 pence had just been put on each gallon of petrol!!

As we were expecting our first child, and Pat would be no longer working as a ward sister, we felt very depressed about our finances and future. Pat had always loved sunny weather, so Australia was an obvious choice for migration, though we did consider Canada.

We decided to fly, as by the time our approval came through, we had Sally aged 4 months, and Mike felt we needed to get a job as soon as possible. The hardest thing was taking our new baby away from her proud grandparents.

Luckily, Pat had a cousin in Sydney, who sponsored us, and when we arrived on 17th July we first stayed with Pat\’s Aunt & Uncle in Cronulla where, despite being July, it seemed more like summer than it often was in England.

Mike had inserted an advert in the Medical Journal of Australia before leaving the UK, so the next day we visited their offices in Glebe to pick up replies. This led to our first job in Morwell, Victoria. Pat remembers feeling very lonely and isolated with a young baby all day whilst Mike was working, and here the weather was wet and miserable which did not help.

After 6 months we decided to move on, and answered an advert to join 2 other GPs in Canberra.

In March 1970 we moved to start a practice in the new suburb of Cook, in Belconnen.

We found that there were many more English trained GPs in Canberra who had also felt disillusioned with the British National Health Service.

We soon fell in love with rapidly growing Canberra, and found it easy to make new friends, as most of our neighbours also had young children & no other family living in Canberra.

We now have 2 daughters and a son who have all worked overseas and been able to get to know our old friends, and relatives in England.

Australia has been good to us, and now we are retired we enjoy traveling to most parts of Australia in our A-van. We really love the Outback but we still think Canberra beats the lot.

As we write this in 2008, all three children are back living and working in Canberra, and we now have 4 wonderful grandsons who all live close by.

We do not regret making the move in 1969, although Pat especially, misses old friends and family but being able to return to the UK numerous times, and having many friends and relations visit us in Australia, has helped compensate.

Finally, we now have wonderful friends in Australia as well, and thanks to the internet and air travel, the world is a much smaller place than it was in 1969.

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