"Ten Pound Poms"

[MR]

Sorry to interrupt the avatar comments but my two-bob re "problems with indigenous people" is that I had only been in Australia for a few weeks/months when I went to Tennant Creek in the mines and we spent a lot of down-time under the local trees drinking beer with the local aboriginals and they were always entirely hospitable (could have been because we usually paid for the grog, but still...). However, down in TC (32 km away) it was a different story - one pub for whites and one for blacks. It was the local cops who enforced that rule but whether they caused the problems with it or just exacerbated them I don't know - but there was not a lot of sympathy for them from blacks or whites after a gang of bikies had ridden through town and humiliated the cops on the main street in front of the entire population!

[LeeB6430]

Pam, whatever happened to the photo 0f you and another, that I massaged (with Photoshop) for you ? I thought you were going to use that as an avatar.

[LeeB6430]

We, Meg and I never experienced any 'nastiness' from Australia's 'first nation peoples".
If there was ever any 'racist' comments then it more than likely, came from 'local born' ethnic euro Australians. It was always sufficient to 'give as good as you got' to resolve any 'tense' situation. It should be said that in those days (70's and early 80's) it was sufficient to have a beer and a laugh about it and get on with life.
Cheers
LeeB

[PamMcD]

My avatar is there but I did nothing to get it there.  I must be thick as two short planks.  These things confuse me, I will never get it right.

[PamMcD]

Was there ever any nastiness from the indeginous population though? 

[LeeB6430]

The best 20 quid I ever spent (kids 'transported' free).
I never knew that you actually paid for your passage Martin, and that you weren't aware of the assisted passage scheme. I would have thought that I/we would have mentioned it in our snail mail comms prior to your arrival. I do remember the day you arrived in Adelaide on the Overlander train, ex Melbourne. - Middle of June, we thought it was freezing, (it may have been raining), but and you thought the weather was beautiful.

[MR]

That sounds like the infamous Ocker, Pam - insulting people was his role in life, so don't take it personally! I read an article about the 10 pound poms program and it seemed to focus on the multinational Aussies feeling that the poms were given an unfair advantage over migrants from other nations. The only bit that annoys me in retrospect is that I was so keen to get downunder for the good weather and skydiving that I sold my parachute and hopped on the first boat I could find, the SS Britannis - it cost me 237 quid from memory, and I never knew about the 10 quid program until I actually arrived in Australia. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[PamMcD]

This is a nice juicy topic.   Ten Pound Poms in the title of a new TV programme on Brit TV.  I am recording it but not sure thet I will ever watch it. My daughter tells me that the indigenous population was not very nice to the poms who were invited to come over to Oz by theAussie government.  It started me wondering how the Brits were treated by their Aussie counterparts and if there were many altercations?  I was given a clue when I was in Oz staying with John and Carmol Darling.  I can't remember this chaps name but his wife was called Camilla and he has since died.  I was livid that he was so rude about Brits openly to my face, but as we were in a shopping mall, I buttoned my lip.