new+to+Australia+experiences

Grandad came to Perth in Australia and your dad was always talking about Australia but in those days we didn’t know much about it. We didn’t learn about Australia in school and your dad wanted to see Australia, so we both started to work and to save money! I still lived at home, so your dad moved in with me, and we paid __rent__ to my parents as it was much __cheaper__ to live that way.
 * __New to Australia__**

We decided, in the beginning of 1989, to go to Australia for a one year holiday. We left Switzerland and arrived in Perth on the 15 December 1989 and now it is 2006 and we are still here. I have been back to Switzerland once in 1993.

I had a very funny picture of Australia in my head. I really thought Perth was a little wild-western, county town. When we were about to land in Perth, I sat in a window seat and all that I could see was bush, bush and more bush. At that time we were travelling with grandad, so we got our luggage and he took us into the city. “Oh my god”, I thought, “Oh my god, no, no, no!” that’s all I thought. I have never seen tall buildings like that before. I had seen pictures of New York and I had seen high buildings in movies but on that first day here, driving down St Georges Tce, it was “as scary as” for me.

After that ordeal he brought us to City Beach and I felt much better, but there was something funny there as well. As dad and I looked at g scary randdad’s house, we heard a funny sound. I looked around and said, “I didn’t know Australia had wild monkeys?” We could hear some Kookaburras, but I couldn’t believe that a bird could make such a noise.

The first year was very, very hard since we didn’t speak any English and we didn’t know how to run a business or keep books. It was also not easy as we were new in the country and didn’t know how things worked. We wanted to go home but we didn’t have any money for the tickets. The people who run the business before had another business. They had the one we bought and another one in Kenwick, to which they took most of the customers when we moved in. We had only three or four customers a week and that was not enough work to pay for the rent or food; it was tough. Your dad and I had only each other, so we grew closer. We were together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and we never argued. We were young, in love and facing the world together and we could always talk things through.

We thought we need something to go home to, so we bought a little cat, Putti. It was great to have something to look after. __rent= rent lease hire__ __Cheaper__- cheap inexpensive low-cost
 * 1) Copy & paste the word 3x,
 * 2) right click mouse
 * 3) select synonyms
 * 4) & click on a similar meaning

Scary= frightening chilling terrifying creepy Scary=chilling daunting scary ==


 * __New to Australia__**

Dad lived in the shadows of 2 older brothers, that is why I think he really wanted to come to Australia. I can never get a satisfying answer, especially considering what they left behind and what they faced in Australia. My mother did not know what to expect or what was available so she packed everything, 6 tonnes of luggage, the washing machine, you name it! Oh and two cats, me 18 months & my brother 4 years. They contemplated South Africa but the murmurings of political problems were growing. I don’t know why they chose Perth and not Sydney or Melbourne? Perhaps it was the first port & they were sea sick?

They arrived on the P&O boat ‘Orina’ in 1968, into the port of Fremantle. The bank manager came on board to greet them and gave mum a large bouquet of flowers, my mum got the giggles and whispered to my Dad, “they’ve got the zeros wrong!” We stayed in a hotel for a few days until mum found a place to rent. They had one contact in Perth; Sonia came to meet Mum for afternoon tea at the hotel. I played on the floor; well actually I collected all the sugar pots from the tables and made a sugar castle. Mum couldn’t see but Sonia could, finally she stated ‘is she allowed to do that?’ She has been my favourite person ever since, my pseudo aunt/ grandmother. Fortunately I had a sand patch a few days later. We rented a house in Floreat for a few weeks while dad looked for work. The quantity of luggage must have caused a problem because some containers continued to Sydney, so it was hit and miss as to the content of the containers, that is- no beds! She rang Red Cross and they lent us some beds until the containers arrived. She is still a great supporter of Red Cross.

My Dad found a job in Capel, a small country town near Busselton. It is still small today but in the 1960’s it had fewer than 100 people. Poor Mum had gone from London to Capel! She used to drive 2 hours a day so my brother had another kid his age to play with. But we were lucky; so many new Australians come to Australia with nothing. It was also a blessing being in a small mining town; people were very kind and helped them work out the Australian way of doing things. No more London cocktails for Mum, she had to learn to crack a keg and throw prawns on the Barbie.