The Hardy Family

Story

The Hardy family, comprising Richard Walter and Maria Hardy and their two children Richard and Christine (Tina), set sail from Southampton bound for Australia in the SS ‘Australis’. Once on board, families were separated, with women, small children and girls on the upper decks and men and the older boys on the lower decks. Cabins were shared with other families. As the ship carried only migrants, there was no restriction of movement and children enjoyed the run of the ship.

During the journey, the ship docked at Colombo and Aden and each time small boats came out to the ship to sell their wares Ð exotic leather goods, fabrics, jewellery. We went ashore and visited a mosque and watched snake charmers Ð my brother had a snake placed around his neck.

After six weeks on the water, we arrived at Fremantle dock on a glorious sunny day in May. It was my brother’s 11th birthday and I remember my mother remarking what a beautiful summer day it was and if that was the Australian summer, she would be able to cope just fine – not realising it was the end of autumn! Having suffered with seasickness all the way, I was pleased to reach dry land. Initially we stayed with my uncle and his family who had sponsored us to Australia.

My father worked at a range of jobs to support his family, the first as a rigger – he would come home at the end of the day with his hands cut and blistered. Despite the hard work and struggle to make a new life, my parents were in awe of the range, quantity and quality of goods available in the shops, having come from many years of rationing.

The family moved to Goomalling, in the wheat belt district, where my father was head steward at the men\’s club. The kindness of our new neighbours was amazing. When they realized we had almost no furniture and were all sleeping on one mattress, they rallied around and by the end of the day the house was fully furnished. It was there we learned the meaning of a ‘hot\’ Australian summer, coped with the pain of ‘double g\’s\’ in our bare feet, attended movie nights in the local hall with all our neighbours, discovered what it meant to ‘bring a plate\’ and after one of my friends died of a snake bite, got used to mother checking our bed at night for snakes.

My brother got his first job delivering papers and my mother worked as the cook at the local hospital. It was my brother\’s job to light the fire when we came in from school so that my mother could start cooking the dinner when she came home from work. One day, when the kindling wouldn\’t catch, my brother threw kerosene on it, put his face up close and blew on it. It immediately ignited and burnt off his eyebrows and some of his hair. My mother arrived home from work just after and was horrified to see my brother with a black sooty face. Fortunately, he didn\’t sustain any injuries. Although we had quite a few responsibilities as children as both our parents had to work, we had lots of freedom to roam and make our own fun with all our new friends. We went to the local convent school initially and when my brother turned 13, he went to the Marist Brothers College in Northam Ð a 60 mile daily round trip.

A couple of years later, my father got a job as head steward at the Commercial Club in Bunbury, south of Perth. Bush walks were out and surfing and swimming were in. How wonderful it was to be able to go to the beach for weeks on end in those seemingly never-ending summers. Once again new schools, new friends and through it all, our parents working hard to give us the best education they could to set us up for a successful future. Our parents were great believers in the value of education, having had so little formal learning themselves. They sacrificed a great deal to give us the best they could afford. This included getting loans against the family car from time to time to pay for our private school fees.

My father was always passionate about the ‘fair go\’ that Australia and Australians had given us as new immigrants. The only time I saw him angry was when he heard someone criticizing the country and saying how good things were in the old country. He was of the view that with hard work, anything was possible and that if people were unhappy in Australia, they should go back to where they came from.

Our parents eventually retired from their respective employment and were able to make several trips back to visit family and friends in England. They never regretted the decision to travel to the ‘other side of the world\’ and believed it was the best move they ever made. Both these wonderful people have now passed on, but the legacy they and thousands of others like them have left is a strong nation built on hard work and a belief that being an Australian is something of which we can all be proud.

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