Saviour (Sam) Galea
| First name | Saviour (Sam) |
|---|---|
| Last name | Galea |
| Country of Origin | Malta |
| Date of Birth | 14th August 1933 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1954 |
| Submitted by | MARIA micallef |
Story
Saviour Francis Galea was born in Attard, Malta, on August 14, 1933. He is known as Sam.
Sam was an adventurous young man whose friends had decided to come to Australia during the post-war era. Sam worked at Customs House which was a government post. Malta was still British at that time.
The govt was paying people to come over in fact Sam’s parents received 20 pounds compensation for his emigration\’s costs. He was 21 years old at the time. He was bound to stay for two years but that did not worry him as he was determined to stay forever.
Later on three of his siblings followed him: Joe, Giovanna and Eddie. Joe went back.
The week before he left Malta he won six pounds on bingo – he thought it was a good omen. He came by plane, a small KLM DC4. The journey took a whole week.
They flew every day till 6pm then took a rest till the next morning. They stopped at several places. Cairo was first, there they got in strife with the captain. They were coming from a Catholic country and had never seen any Moslems praying on the tarmac before so they were laughing their heads off. They were severely warned by the captain never to do that again.
This was their first multicultural experience en route to their destination Sydney. Next stops were Karachi, Calcutta, Jakarta, Darwin and finally Sydney.
Impressions on arrival: He stayed in a garage with five men at Brighton le Sands. When it rained one of the lads used to join him in his single bed because his bed would be drenched. The landlord did not fix the roof.
Sam is the second last of a family of 12. His dad Joseph (Tony) Galea worked with the British Navy as a cook. His mother Annunziata Fenech ran a little grocery from home. He married Rosaria (Lucy) Spiteri.
He had four children but one died in a bicycle accident at the age of 13. She was their first born. Their other children are Matthew, Louis and Rebecca.
At the age of 11 months, Sam was so sick that he was given a death certificate. The doctor – incidentally with the same surname Dr Galea – told his mum the boy would be dead by the morning so he wrote the death certificate in anticipation. Their neighbour suggested a visit to a bee farmer in Rabat and his dad cycled there and fed him pure honey all night. He celebrates his 75th birthday this year.
As a single male, bank loans were not available to him so he went to cut sugar cane in Mackay in Queensland to save up. He stayed there for a year and later bought a house in Mascot. They had to wear shoes because of the multitude of snakes. They wore shorts and sleeveless vests which by noon were full of molasses from the sugar cane. They showered before lunch and changed clothes as the heat was intense.
The rat-infested boarding house stuck in his memory. As were the numerous accidents he was involved in. He burnt the bed in his humpy dozing off with a cigarette in his mouth, got burnt in a factory that produced electric frying pans due to some malfunction and was off work for four months and a major injury ended in back surgery … but he still thinks coming here in 1954 was a great life decision.
Sam was involved with the Melita Junior Soccer Club for many years as a coach and helper. He is now retired and his hobby is making garden gnomes. Sam has four grand children.
His niece Maria Micallef nee Galea, named after Sam\’s sister who tragically died at the age of 16 with a tetanus infection, interviewed him for this story.