Emigrating to Australia 20 years later
by 
The first Months
We moved into the unfurnished unit in Myaree approximately 3 weeks after our arrival in Australia. It felt good to be in our own home again but our possessions hadn’t arrived from the UK as yet. It took about 3-4 months by sea to ship personal goods to Australia in those days, so we were gong to have a considerable wait. We had in fact sold all of our UK furniture anyway and the boxes contained mostly cloths and personal possessions. Fortunately the land lord had offered to supply a fridge and all rented accommodation in Australia comes equipped with a hob and oven.
We were going to need furniture, high on the list was a bed. in fact if we were going to sleep there on the first night we would need one rather quickly. We drove to Nedlands where there was a large bed store and bought a bed. As usual with these things if you order something special it will take a few months to arrive, so as we had fallen in love with something special, we purchased the bed on the condition that the mattress would be delivered today and we would wait for the bed frame to be delivered in a few months. At least we had somewhere to sleep anyway.
In the end the only other furniture we bought while in the unit was a collapsible garden table and directors type chairs. We do in fact still have the Bed 20 years later and only sold the chairs and table recently before departing Australia, so I don’t suppose they owed us very much.
Next on the list was a car, the variety of cars available was far smaller than those in the UK and many of them are and were a lot larger than in the UK. Holden and Ford dominated and still dominate the Australian market and Mitsubishi and Toyota were close behind. The most popular car was a 3.5lt Ford Falcon. That a is huge engine when compared to what we had been used to in the UK where a 1.8 liters was considered large. Our budget was limited and this being 1988 we ended up with a white 1982 2.0 Mitsubishi Sigma with about 60,000 kilometers on the clock. It was in very good condition really, but did develop a gear box problem, fixed grudgingly under the statutory warranty. The diff always seemed to pull to the left too, but it was a set of wheels.
We continued to explore Perth and the surrounding area, trips to the hills Rockingham and out to the Swan valley were all done and we started looking for the inevitable employment. The weather was a bit coolish but gradually warming as we approached Christmas.
Jobs at that time weren't all that easy to come by, my IT knowledge was in limited demand I was a system analyst and had been a high flyer in the UK earning a better than average wage, In Perth in the late 80’s the options were limited for an assembler language and C programmer especially if like me you had a shed load of experience but no degree.
Jackie faired better, the wages may have been poor but there is rarely a lack of demand for nurses. She found a job at Shenton Park which was then at least a rehabilitation hospital. She as usual found work before I did and as we had just the one car I would drop her at work and then go home via the Beach at North Fremantle for a swim. This was in October and the air temperature was a bit cold but nothing really for a newly arrived pom really (I swam every morning for about a year, even when working). The ocean (no it’s not the sea, it gives your origins away immediately if you call it that) is always cold around Perth.
Incidentally the word POM (origin “Prisoner Of her Majesty”) is merely a very old label for the English and in some ways it is a term of endearment, do not be offended by it, that is unless they call you a “winging pom” in which case you clearly have your own individual problems.
You might be wondering if we were home sick and I have to say no not at all, we had pretty regular communications with the UK but not all that much as in those days a five minute conversation could easily be a half days pay. We were young and ripe for adventure and having a great time, away from family.
The apartment was a home for us but having had a good experience in the UK with our first house (doubled our money in the first year) we had the urge to look for property once more. In Perth then and to a large degree today, there is the North South divide. If you lived North of the River you stayed there and didn’t go South, like wise if you’re a South of the river person you stay there. But naturally not us, even though we had a friend South of the river and had rented an apartment there the wide open spaces of the Northern suburbs beckoned and although we covered the entire metro area in our search for a home Duncraig was were we landed. At that time the Freeway stopped at Ocean reef and Ducraig was an outer suburb.
The house we found had the all important pool (everyone from the UK has one to start with) it had 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and was unusual in that the pool was in the front garden surrounded by a high wall with a smallish garden and shed at the rear. It had been owned by a builder who had done a quite nice extension at the rear. But as the house had been a 3x1 the layout was unusual. The plus point was the extension was virtually a self contained unit and visitors could be hidden down there.
The house needed improvement that often seems to be the case with builders were they neglect their own home a bit and work on other projects. This house was very early 1970’s when mission brown was the vogue (or was it just cheap at WA salvage?). we hated that color and had got rid of all of it by the time we moved on.
I found work with a computer company in West Perth as a software/hardware support technician, a lot easier than my pas life as a programmer and as it was a customer driven business I was on the road around the metro area a fair bit. It was my first experience of freedom at work, something I never really have recovered from. My finding a job meant that we needed another car so to continue the theme we bought another Sigma, this time a 1982 SE station wagon, it was quiet posh for that time.
Life settled down into trips to the beach and the daily work schedule. Christmas was fast approaching and summer was looming large, we still loved the heat so that was something to look forward too, Our first Christmas was just the two of us in our new house. We had a good time as I remember it. Splashing in the pool and phone calls to the UK, complaining about the heat to rub it in a bit.