Jumping ship in Oz.

[Stan Greening]

I met a passenger ashore in Bermuda 1969 when I was a ( Bridge Quartermaster ) on the ARANDA sailing to OZ. I jumped ship in Sydney and I got a job selling wholesale with ACTIL (Australian Cotton Textile Industries Limited) We got married and three months later we went to immigration. They grilled both of us and finally told me, I had to report every Friday. They said it's up to Canberra to decide if I could stay or not. Anyway after a month I told them they knew where I worked and lived, and I wasn't going to report anymore. I kept asking them about staying, and again they said "It's up to Canberra".
My wife was 6 months pregnant when we decided to go to Canada.
Then immigration said they want us to stay and would speed up the process. ( They want young families) I told them they should have speeded up the process 4-5 months ago. So we left.
married for 19 years, with three kids altogether.

[Duke Drennan]

Re #11.
Any regrets about leaving? Looking back now, what was your preference,Canada or Oz?

[Les Woodard]

When I finally got legalised they did inform me that if I had gone back to the UK and tried to come out legally that they would have put me on a return flight back to the UK simply because of my record here. It sometimes pays to bend the rules now and then but can not get out of the habit LOL.