Stef and Mia Boeren

Story

Stef Boeren was born in Alphen a/d Ryn in the Netherlands and Mia in Semarang, capital of Central Java. Each of us had very devoted Catholic parents. Mia was a victim of the Japanese Women POW camps. Her mother died there and her grave is at the war cemetery ‘Kalibanteng’ in Semarang. She has never been able to visit it. As a refugee we had to return to the Netherlands as it was too dangerous to remain there. It was absolute chaos after the war. One of Mia\’s school friends and their family were all murdered although her father was an Indonesian himself and had a large pharmaceutical business.

We both paid our own airfares to come to Australia as we were not assisted. We were skilled migrants. Stef was a mechanical and electrical draughtsman and Mia a private secretary with stenography in four languages (Dutch, French, German and English). Stef arrived in Australia on 31st January 1951 and Mia on 23rd June 1951, at Mascot Airport in Sydney. We married in the afternoon of 23rd June Ð the date of arrival in Sydney, at St Joseph\’s Church in Newtown, having become engaged on 19th January in Eindhoven, Holland. Our honeymoon was in the Blue Mountains at Katoomba to seal and secure our entire lives together.

After 18 months working in Sydney Ð Stef in two different places and Mia as a typist/stenographer at the Australian Paper Manufacturers at Botany Bay, we moved to Cooma. Stef got a position as a draughtsman with the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority and Mia a position as a stenographer/typist until our first child was born. We were blessed with four wonderful children, two girls and two boys. They are a nurse, a teacher, a civil engineer, and a building contractor. Their homes are all along the coast of NSW and QLD. All of them are married and we have eight grandchildren who have already completed their university studies and apprenticeships. Some are still studying at the universities and high schools. One of the girls (we only have two) just got her private pilot licence at the University of NSW. The eldest grandchild just got engaged Ð he is a communication engineer also from University of NSW.

We came as two people very much in love to Australia with a big challenge and it still is so. The family has grown to 20 and no doubt will keep growing as the grandchildren have their families in the future. When our children were teenagers we had the most wonderful times together. We bought a caravan and went travelling during school holidays, up to Mosman, QLD and south along the NSW coast and Victoria to Philip Island, the Great Ocean Road to Mount Gambier. For many years our favourite holiday destination was at beautiful Noosa Heads. We both are now retired and have a more relaxed lifestyle with a bit of volunteer work.

We\’ve had a very busy and hardworking life in Australia building our homes and bringing up our family. The challenge to celebrate our diamond anniversary in 2011 here in Cooma still remains!

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