Michael Veres

Story

Father (Paul) was working away in Germany, managing to see family only few times a year while mother (Maria), Michael and his brother Vladimir were left behind in Yugoslavia. Also Yugoslavia was suffering from economic stagnation as well, being under the oppressive communist regime. Therefore the family decided to get away from it all and seek their place under the sun…far away. There was an option of emigrating to Australia, Canada or Argentina. Since one of Paul’s brothers (John) was already here, Australia won.

It was a very traumatic and emotional departure from Europe, we boarded the ship SS Australia at Bremenhaven in Germany in November 1969 and that was the start of a month long journey to the other side of the world…and unknown future. In those days before cheap air travel, one emigrated for ever; there was a feeling of immense sadness as the ship pulled out. The Suez Canal was closed to all shipping due to the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbours, so we had to take a longer route via South Africa. Never having much of an opportunity to travel widely before that, I remember the feeling of insignificance, realizing that the world is such a huge place. I recall the excitement upon sighting, for the first time , the shore off Fremantle – finally we made it. But the journey was really only begining.

We arrived at Station Pier in Melbourne 22 December 1969. After Europe, Australia seemed such a provincial and parochial place. Monolingual and monocultural was the order of the day; every new immigrant was expected to blend in and assimilate, to ditch all his cultural baggage…including his/her language! That very night we were transported by train to Bonegilla arriving about midnight. I still recall being woken up the next morning by some very strange worbling sound…it was a magpie, a sound I haven’t heard before. To this day, when I hear that sound it reawakes certain emotional feelings in me and the memories come flooding in. Life went on, we all had to struggle in our own way to succeed in our new country – overcoming homesickness, mastering intricacies of English language finding employment etc. Paul and myself (Michael) found employment in a local steel foundry. Later on Maria was working there as well for few years. Later, Paul was employed in his profession as a blacksmith in the Australian Army Base Workshop until he suffered a stroke in 1982. Maria was working for few years in the local dry cleaning laundry until the early 1980s. Vladimir in the meantime finished his schooling and joined the Royal Australian Navy. After that he joined the Australia Post as a clerk. He also married his first wife Barbara and they had 2 daughters – Natasha and Alana. Vladimir married his second wife Jackie in 1998. I (Michael) married my first wife Brenda in 1975, we had 1 daughter Maya. I married my second wife Lynda in 2006. I also joined Australia Post as a postman in 1987. In 2006 I realised my wish to gain a University Degree, something that I felt was interrupted by our emigration from Yugoslavia.

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