Richard W. & Barbara PHELAN

Story

PHELAN – Richard Wigham (1911 – ) & Barbara (1911-2002)

THEIR STORY by Barbara Smith (Nee Phelan)

Newcastle-on-Tyne England, June 1951 and the PHELAN family are off to Australia. Dick & Barbara together with their four children, Barbara (11), twins Dick & Harry (6) and Angela (18months) depart from Tilbury Docks aboard the P & O Liner ‘Otranto\’ for a magnificent cruise to Australia reaching land on the 17th July with 17 pounds ($34) and a few suitcases of clothes.

Arriving in Melbourne we leave the ship and board a train to Bonegilla near Albury, and are the first British Migrants to go there. The conditions were appalling. Arriving late at night, pouring rain & freezing cold – the train pulls up near the barracks and everyone has to clamber off the train as there is no station. Herded into a large area where accommodation is allotted, everyone is shattered, as there is no heating in the rooms and it is very Spartan. My Parents pushed the beds together and we all huddle fully clothed under the blankets. Next morning we wade through mud and slush as there are no paths to the dining facilities and it is chaos. Fortunately some of the migrant men take over the running of the canteen and organise the meals and we are then fine. Wooden planks are put down to enable people to walk to the amenities without wallowing in mud.

After a week at Bonegilla we go by rail to Rosehill Migrant Hostel. Dad is fortunate to secure employment at the Women\’s Weekly as a machinist in the printing works at Mascot, so we move to Bunnerong Hostel near Matraville. Accommodation is very good, but the food served in the canteen is atrocious and inedible. Most migrants were complaining to management and newspapers, but when the newspaper journalists come out to Bunnerong Hostel to view the situation, management were forewarned and employed professional chefs to cook the meal on that day. The newspapers then called us ‘Whinging Poms\’!! Now Bunnerong Hostels was run by Commonwealth Hostels Pty. Ltd. and they would take all of Dad\’s wages, but they had to leave us with a minimum amount of money which was three pounds a week ($6). Even when my Mam went to work they took all her wages too, so there was not much point in her going to work. For the first time in our lives we went hungry. Angela had impetigo, and we were all malnourished. I can remember Dad going to work with jam sandwiches because we did not have enough money for anything else. It was then decided to hold a meeting of the Migrants and inform the Hostel board that we would no longer eat in the canteen and would pay rent for accommodation only. This lasted several months, and then Commonwealth Police arrived and put us out on the street.

We had been warned of this happening, and fortunately were prepared. A Committee was formed, and approached Premier Heffron asking that a parcel of land at Little Bay be released from greenbelt for us to purchase so that a Housing Co-Operative could be formed. Migrants became members with a one hundred pound ($200) initial instalment. We all lived like Gypsies in tents caravans etc. with a community block of male & female toilets and a central laundry. This worked well, and slowly the homes began. Fortunately there were sufficient tradesmen able to supervise and apprentice other Migrants to take on the building of these homes. Dad was apprenticed to the painting squad, others to bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing etc. They also had to build all the roads. As part of the membership, each worker had to commit to working 48 weekends annually, working 12 continuously then one weekend off. Forty seven homes were completed after 4 Ð 5 years of hard work. This was the only scheme of its kind ever fully completed. I am so proud and grateful to my parents who gave us the opportunity of a wonderful life in Australia.

March 2009 My Father is still alive and will celebrate his 98th Birthday on April 27th.

Thank You Australia for a beautiful life….

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