£10 poms

[happy daze john in oz]

Yes John, some 20,000 cases of TB in Europe, most comes from Africa.

Came as a free man on the small business scheme over 40 years ago.
Went back after 18 years in 2013, had been back a couple of time prior.
What I saw convinced me we had done the right thing.
Visit is fine, will be in London for 9 days in July, but that is more than enough.

[cappy]

i only ever had a prob with a true blue oz once... while in HMP adelaide .....four or five of us were told to go to the washrooms were each morn our buckets were emptied into a sewer near the door entrance ....the washrooms held showers which we got once a week ....there was also a row of toilets with no doors ....we were given buckets and mops.....the screw or prison officer was lounging outside after telling us to get busy and clean the place....i i picked up a bucket .....and spoke to another guy ....at hearing this a true blue oz shouted is he a effin pom.....were is is the count ....or similar word ....he then said he lost a family member alll due to churchill..he then proceeded to run at me waving a mop which sadly had a Vshaped metal on the end of it ......my metal bucket was filled to which i whacked him over the head .....causing a loud clatter ...and a amount of blood mixing with the water on the floor......in rushed the screw from outside......shouting who did what .....one other oz guy said he fell over the bucket.....the guy was coming round on the floor .....i had visions of never getting out of that place ...the screw asked him what happened ....he just said i fell over the bucket ..and that was accepted.....funnily enough round adelaide and up the murray river in 59 there was mainly italians hungarians swedes norskes etc ....but in wallaroo a small port up the spencer gulf ....quite a few true blue ozzies ...happy days and a learning curve that has powered me through life....all for skinning out....no bloody 4 star hotels for immigrants lol ..R683532 CAPPY

[j.sabourn]

You see Cappy I tried to be a good citizen by having a shower a week , while these greedy Ozzie’s have 3 a day.. No wonder the beak in charge of your trial tried to keep you in the country .It wasn’t the emu girlfriend who turned you in was it ? JS

[cappy]

dont think anyone grassed where i was john .....i was after three days or so asleep in the entrance to an old copper mine when a ozzie cop shouted i know you are in there .....come out any trouble and it will be your ending or similar words.....the girls father had sent her to queensland ....rather than let this young geordie get his hands on her ....i was taken to the lockup in wallaroowhere various others who had jumped from the old banger were in the klink......the police mans wife made me amega breakfast i can still see it now .....we then went to court in wallaroo .....i got 28 day hard labour ....which wasnt ......the magistrate said oz needs healthy young men ....if you keep your nose clean for 6 months when you come out iwill get you an ozzie passport ...he then said he had jumped a sailing vessel in 1912 ....and was now an upright citizen and a magistrate .....i was then handcuffed and put on a train to adelaide with two oz cops for company......my learning curve was coming very quickly .....again put me in good stead for my life to come ...but no 4 star accom...only given 3 shillings on the day i got out ....and told if i had no accom by that night i wiuld be classed as a vagrant and back inside ......being a hungary youth after the crap served inside i bought three pork pies and a pint of milk .......found my way to the local market but could not get work there ......as it was getting late in the day i hiked to the local sally anne ......they said i had to pay 2 shillings for a bed ...sadly i spent it on the pies ......the only offer they made was to go to the mission of the helping hand......which was the last hope for souls both mental and alkis......now that was a learning curve ....but ii got it free ....people were dying daily in that place ......i was learning fast ....so the story was enfolding R683532 CAPPY

[j.sabourn]

Is that when Uncle Walter came to the rescue ? You know the Director of that company was a bloke called Blackadder the same as the comedy on TV with Rowan Atkinson , but our Blackadder was dubbed the Negro Accountant . Today would be hung drawn and quartered by the Woke Brigade even though he was a true Geordie .
The personnel and stores manager was a Mr Atkinson who had been the Negro Accountants rear gunner in a Halifax bomber during the war , who says it’s not who you know that counts . Atkinson put me on the shake to get the ship out of drydock in Shields where you left her , the Riggers of Billy Tennant were on strike wouldnt care but I was in bed at home at the time and to wake up with him shaking me , and I had a bad head at the time I don’t think that 3/9 you owe me covers it. JS......

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Cappy
Shiver me timbers Cappy, when I was up in Wallaroo your name was legendary, they talked about that young Pom who took off with an irate father after him, like a story from Banjo Patterson; only it wasn't the colt that got away it was the girl. Even the story about the bucket sounded like Ned Kelly with his headgear, and all to dodge a paltry payment of 3 Shillings and Nine pence.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

That sounds like similar sayings of sagicity Des like “ Its not the cough that carries you off , it’s the coffin they carry you off in”. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Cappy, let out with three shillings, sure it was not 3/9?
But you should have stayed inside a bit longer.
Now they have individual rooms, TV, computer, three meals a day ad an early morning call, just like the peak steward did.

But how could a good upstanding Geordie get into so much strife as to become a visitor in one of HMP ?
And in Adelaide, boy it must have been some crime!!

[cappy]

just skinned out like 7 or 8 others ......

[Keith Tindell]

All i remember when i was in Walleroo was the 6oclock swill, that we had prepared for , log before reaching OZ, we had a bike on board, and as soon as we knocked off, two of us would hop on the bike and tear along that wooden jetty, and in to the nearest pub. We loaded grain, and the first time i had seen the stevedores all coming aboard carrying their Eskies. Cannot remember how long we were there, but it was several days, and then went a bit further round to Ardrossan to top off.