Off to Australia

Colin’s
HMS Worcester & Merchant Navy Site

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Welcome HMS Worcester III Worcester History Off to Australia Deep Sea North Sea Guestbook

Well, off to Aussie in 1965 as a £10 Pom.

My intention during my last terms on the Worcester was to go into the Merch as an engineer. The usual way to do this would be to do your time on a ship like the NZSCo training ship Otaio. Here is my reference from HMS Worcester. I did not fail the sight test or anything, but always wanted to do engineering as a first choice. My Dad suggested that I think about doing a shore apprenticeship and then consider going to sea if I still wanted to. This proved to be an alternative route and I willingly went along with them to Aussie. Also they could not have gone there without me as there were rules about age groups in families and young blood was being actively sort after by the Australian government.

I remember arriving at Freemantle to be greeted with a large banner on the wharf saying GO HOME POMS. It seemed to have escaped the people who put the banner up that no one yet knew what Pom meant. We did find out later. Bit intimidating but we thought sod it - they can say what they like.

We were lucky, it would seem, as quite a few British who did the trip ended up in poor conditions when they arrived. My “Uncle” Gray - my father’s friend and colleague from Africa had arrived sometime before and he already had family in West Australia so our integration was fairly smooth.

Anyway, I digress. We went to Australia on the P&O ship Oriana. A fabulous ship without a doubt.

Had a great time and one of my Mum and Dad’s pleasures was that they made more money on the Tombola (bingo) than it cost to get to Australia.

Me, being young and innocent (right picture) fell in love with the woman on the left in the left picture. I didn’t care about the age difference (well I wouldn’t would I? ) but sadly for me, I didn’t get even close. Well, certainly not as close as I would have liked to have got. I thought it was an ideal chance to learn something about the world and fresh off the prison ship Worcester. Ah well.