Therese Scheer
| Town/City | Gold Coast |
|---|---|
| First name | Therese |
| Last name | Scheer |
| Country of Origin | Germany |
| Date of Birth | 9/9/1966 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1971 |
| Submitted by | Therese Scheer |
Story
My Story
Funny story! My father went to a local GP for the treatment of frostbite on his fingers and the Doctor suggested jokingly that dad should move to a warmer climate as he couldn’t tolerate the cold. Dad must have thought that was sound advice and here we are.
We had a choice either South Africa or Australia as my mother thought there was to much political unrest in South Africa, Australia was chosen. After about a year we were accepted as migrants, we were to get ready but my parents had to sell their home and printing business before we left to start us off in the new country and there were delays, so we missed the boat that the other accepted immigrants were on. In the end we had three weeks to pack up house and home, take my grandmother who was living with us to my aunt’s place, she didn’t believe we would go until then and there were a lot of tears starting with grandma, my older sister 11, older brother 10, 2nd older brother 9, myself 5 and my younger sister 3 all in tears. There were three large packing containers that were sent by sea to arrive once we were settled and a suit case each for mum and dad and each of the five children. My mother had army style organization skills. As we missed the boat we were booked on a flight to Sydney September 26th 1971. Australia here we come!
The first thing you notice when you get of at the airport is the intense smell of eucalyptus and the hot air. Then starts the sun worship, we couldn’t get enough the first two weeks in Sydney immigration camp involved a lot of sunbaking. I remember our camp was fenced off from the sports ground next door where the children were playing a familiar game “soccer”, we watched and tried to understand the language, it felt like they were the foreigners.
Dad didn’t like the look of Sydney and went up the coast to Brisbane to look for employment as a printer. He returned and we all headed up to Brisbane by train. It took longer to train to Brisbane than the 29 hour flight from Germany. We arrived at the immigration camp in Wacol after the tireing journey with two cabs for us and one for the suitcases. One of the other migrants at the camp saw us arrive and sympathised with mum trying to communicate with the cab-driver about the third cab with the luggage which had not arrived yet. She was from Germany via Canada and spoke English (which we didn\’t yet).
We spent six months in camp adjusting to the culture shock and learning English and looking for a place to build a new home. One of the first English phrases you learn is ‘F(*)&*(^ off home to your own country’ Once you learn what it means you ignore it and there are many more people who are helpful and understanding. Once you adjust Australia is a great place to live and I am glad that Mum and Dad made the decision they did.