The Australian wooden houses.

 WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

To see more, DIY brickwork. This article at this link, Australian houses in Brisbane. 

When I came to Australia, I found that most houses were made of timber. For people that used to live in house built with solid masonry it seemed strange, but then you get used to it, and there are some good reasons for building them in timber. Anyhow what you can see in this photo is a large timber house that we call the Queenslander. This is a very large house, note the pretty design and all the verandas with fret works, also all the open space under the house, which could be used in very hot summer days to catch the breeze and stay in the shade.   
 

In most of the timber houses you could find fret works to make the house look pretty. Anyhow in those times there was still a lot of good and cheep timber that would last for a long time, even when it was exposed to the weather, so, it was convenient to build with timber. Today things are different, and even here they build with bricks and mortar, but today to build a house will cost a lot more. 

  

Welcome to our article, Australian houses in Brisbane.  

The Australian wooden houses. 

When we came to Australia in the early sixties, we had a surprise, when we found that the houses were made of timber, which were different from the houses we had left in Europe, all build of solid masonry.

For us Italian migrants that had lived in solid masonry buildings, even if some of them were rustic buildings; when we arrived in Australia at the beginning it seemed strange that in Brisbane lots of houses were made of wood, and most of them were set on wooden stumps, but then we started thinking that they were still good to live in, so, we got used to live in them rather quickly.

So, we had to forget how we were living in my native town of Genzano di Lucania, since now we were living in Australia the Australian way, after all, as the saying goes, when you are in Rome do what the Romans do. But then, what were the reasons and why these houses were made of wood, or to use another word for wood how the locals called it, they were made of timber.

So, this question arises, why these houses were made of timber and not masonry? If we use logic reasoning there is no difference whether houses are made of timber or masonry, as long as they can give the people that live in them that filling of safety and privacy that we aspect, when we live in our own home.

Having said that now let us see or guess the reasons why these houses were made of timber, and why they were set on wooden stumps.

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The wooden houses on stumps. 

The wooden houses on stumps of Brisbane and Australia

In Brisbane a lot of houses are made of timber, but not only are they made of timber, they are set on wooden stumps. 

From what we have heard from the locals, we can conclude that there were several reasons why the houses were made of timber. The first reason is that when the first settlers started to build Brisbane, there were plenty of trees that could be cut down and make good timber to build those houses. And then, the people that came to live in Brisbane and Australia had good knowledge how to use timber, since they came by boats, and because the boats of those days were mostly made of timber, there were always carpenters and carpenter tools on board, in case to boat needed repairs, so, to use timber and build timber houses was the easiest way for them, since they had the knowledge the tools and plenty of timber in the woods surrounding Brisbane, and other parts of Australia that needed houses.

At the beginning the houses were simple shelters, but as the time went by they became better, because the builders became aware of what would work better in this climate, you see, here around Brisbane and northward, when the wet season comes the ground becomes too wet for the houses to stand on the ground, in hot summer days everything becomes too hot and there were lots of vermin on the ground, so, they found a way how to build houses that would avoid most of these problems; that is why the houses on stumps became a necessity, of course slowly they became even better and even pretty, that is how the Queenslander house was born, which is a large house with verandas around them that keeps the weather and the hot sun off the main walls of the house. One can see these pretty Queensland houses if you look around even today.

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The Queenslander houses. 

The Queenslander house is a large timber house; some of them are pretty and they serve the inhabitant well, as they have been built to take the advantage of the hot climate in Brisbane and north Queensland regions. Now since I have been working in these houses to maintain them, let me describe them to you in more details. As anyone can guess there are a few different types of these houses, but here we are talking about the large Queenslander and the workers cottage, which is a small and cheaper version of the large Queenslander.

As we have said, there were plenty of trees around to make hardwood timber, which as the name suggests is hard and very strong, some of this timber are even stronger and longer lasting than the European oak or other strong European woods. So, the houses were strong and secure, the only natural enemy of these houses were the white ants (termites), which are able to eat through the wood and destroy the houses. The termites are native to Australia and if we go up north in Australia, we can see strange mounts of earth springing up from the ground, these is how the white ants live, they eat wood from the inside, and they make these mounts of earth.

So, as you can see this was another reason why the houses were built on stumps. The stumps were made of whole sections of trees that are resistant to rot; of course, the white ants were still able to eat those stumps, but they were treated with special paints and at the top they had a capping of metal that would make a barrier to the white ants if they came from the inside the stump, and also a barrier to the other ants or crawling insect from the outside.

We can say that some of these timber houses have been made pretty, because timber can be cut to different shapes easily, so, they were prettier compared to the house made of masonry, which is very expensive to decorate them with masonry, so, the houses are usually square boxes with a roof at the top.

Decorative fretwork was easy to make with timber, so, most houses had some decorations in them, in one way or the other. I am going to search the Internet for photos that can show you what I mean, about fretwork and other timber names, anyhow, I am going to leave it to your imagination, once you see the photos of the houses and the fretwork. 

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These wooden houses need some care. 

The timber houses need maintenance and care. For those people that have not lived in timber houses before, they should ask questions about them before they get involved in owning one of these houses. The first question that will come to their mind is: are these houses safe to live in and how long these houses can last? And then, what maintenance they require? So, let me try to explain this timber housing situation.

Timber houses need more maintenance than masonry houses; because you need to paint them for the timber to last longer, otherwise the timber on the outside walls will slowly rot away, but then, there are also some advantages, because if you want to change something it can be done easily and it is cheaper than if you have a masonry house, therefore, it is a lot cheaper to do some alterations, so, it can work well after all.

Having said that we need to say that these wooden houses have some problems of their own, apart that they need to be painted for the external timber to last longer, they have some vermin enemies everywhere in the houses, because the timber is more vermin friendly than masonry and bricks and cement, but the normal vermin are not a big problem for the house structure itself.

The greatest enemy of these wooden houses are the termites, or white ants as some of us calls them; The white ants can destroy entire buildings by eating the wood from the inside, a lot of times people don’t even know that the white ants are there eating their houses away while they are living in them; you see, unless you know what you are looking for, it is hard to see any sign of them from the outside. So, one day suddenly we find out by putting pressure on a spot where the white ants have eaten the wood from inside, everything starts collapsing inward and where there was a wall now there is a big hole.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to learn how to recognize the signs if there are white ants; and call an expert to check the building if you are going to buy it.

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How to defend our homes from these pests. 

There are a few things that we can do to prevent this pest destroy our homes; the first thing that we can do is to check that there is a barrier that stops the white ants to enter your building, for instance if your house is a high-set house on stumps, check that at the top of the stumps there is a metallic ant capping; this metallic ant capping is usually a large galvanized round dish or square of metal and it is bent down at the edges so that any crawling insect will find it difficult to enter your house that way; we hope you can see the picture? The ant capping prevents also the white ants to enter through the timber stump itself, if the stump has been infested with white ants, because when they reach the top of the stump, they cannot eat through the metal capping and so they cannot enter that way, of course there are a lot of different buildings and a lot of different ways to set a barrier; but sometimes the white ants find their way around.

Now there are ways that we should be looking for if there are white ants; here the first thing that we have to keep in mind is that white ants eat everything from inside and they don’t like to be exposed outside for long, so, the first thing one can do is to tap on anything that is made of wood; if the wood sounds hollow then the white ants may have eaten the inside, so, a complete check is needed to see what is the cause; another way to look for white ants signs is that if they are forced to go outside to move from one place to another, they will construct a tunnel, so that they can go up and down without being seen, so, we must look for any of these signs anywhere under the building. Experts have told me that the white ants need moisture, so, they have to travel to the ground to get the moisture and then they go up again their tunnel to eat the timber; now if the building is solid and there is no other way for the ants to go up they will construct their tunnel from the ground up, so, we should be looking for signs to see if there are ants tunnel constructed, and if there are tunnels, it means that there are white ants, therefore you need a pest control expert to poison these pests, and you need him fast.

Some natural enemies of the white ants

White ants have very few enemies because they live and hide inside the timber, but there are some natural enemies in their natural habitat, a couple of which are pictured here. As I said before, we need to learn the signs how to spot the white ants, then do something if you find that they are there, otherwise they could eat your house away quickly.

Hereunder we have pasted two links about termites that Huber’s have written for you to check them out.

How to Control Termites Naturally

Termite Control

Good luck to all timber house owners.  

Dear readers, my intention is that I am going to write several articles about houses, how to own them, how to maintain them and how to build them, because that is what I have done during my life.

Next article will be, Is Australia the land of opportunity? 

To see more click on this link, Australian houses in Brisbane. 

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Welcome to Brisbane Australia.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, Welcome to Brisbane. 

 Every where you go in the world they have something to show you, Brisbane has the Story Bridge and the City Hall, Brisbane City Hall is in George Square, it has a clock that chimes every quarter of an hour, one could say that this is the Big Ben of Brisbane.   

Welcome to our article, Welcome to Brisbane. 

Dear readers, this is another article of my life story. Here I am going to tell you about my first impression of Brisbane city, when I came to Australia.. Let us start from the docks where I have arrived and disembarked; as soon as I disembarked in Brisbane I met with my brother and other friends, so, I let them guide me what to do next, after all they were here before me, so, they knew what we had to do and where we had to go. As we know newcomers arriving from a foreign country have to go through custom to check their belongings, so, we did that and then we were free to go to our destination. 

Anyhow, after the customs cleared us, we left the port in a car and they took me to one of our friends house not far from the port, here the lady of the house had prepared something to eat for everybody and while we were eating and everybody was trying to make me feel welcome, we were also talking about my native town Genzano di Lucania and the people that I had left behind in that town; you see, all those relative or friends that came to pick me up, they were from the same town and I had brought presents and news from their families. I must say here that in those times when transport and news travelled much slower that today, anybody that arrived from overseas was welcome, especially if one brought presents and news from their relative and friends. 

Here we guess that everybody that has migrated or moved away from home for a long period of time knows what being home sick is; therefore, this finding that there is a group of people from your own town, and they are staying in touch with each other is helpful wherever one goes and they make the new comer feel welcome. So, I was welcomed from this group of relative and friends, who soon made me understand among other things that I was welcomed to Brisbane the land of the kangaroos. 

Now, I have to say that at first sights Brisbane did not look as good as Sydney, the port of Brisbane where I disembarked was an old timber dock, and we went through customs in an old and large timber building, but I thought anyhow Brisbane is still a city and our friends live here; so, we went to one of our fried home, it was a unit in a brick building, so that was not bad, after all one has to accept whatever there is available when we go to a different place. 

Anyhow, after having eaten and talked for a couple of hours with our friends, and given them those presents that I had brought, I was driven to my final destination a few kilometers away, where we had to go was on the other side of the river, we went across the Brisbane River on a bridge called the Story Bridge. So, Brisbane has also its own unique landmarks the Story Bridge and City Hall are the most important. 

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Reaching my final destination

My final destination was at my uncle home, where my brother and a few other friends and relatives were also staying. My uncle had been in Australia by now 9 years and somehow very recently had been able to save enough money to put down a deposit to buy a house; the house was a large wooden house. 

Now, for us that were coming from a country where almost everything was masonry or built with bricks and mortar and cement, these houses in Brisbane city make us feel a bit strange at first; but, they were still houses and they still provided a roof on our heads; therefore, even knowing that they were made of timber, I was pleased to have been offered that accommodation. My brother knowing that I was coming had already bought a bed for me, so, I was already set up. You know it is a great help when you go to a new country and find that somebody has already prepared everything for you. I believe that for this reason I have been lucky. 

Let us imagine you reach your destination, as I did when I reached Brisbane city. Now let us say that you don’t have much money to pay for accommodation, you don’t know where to go or what to do next; you don’t know even how to speak the local language, you can end up in deep trouble you know. Therefore, I think that I have been lucky, when I found that I was welcomed. I believe that when we see new arrivals, we should try to understand that they have left their own country, in the hope of finding a better way of living. 

Australian Travel Videos

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At my new address. 

Now, let me talk how I was welcome at my uncle house; we reaching my uncle house and were greeted by the people that were in at that time of the day, since there were people that had gone to work, you see, there were quite a few people living at my uncle house already, and they were all from the same town that I came from, so, we all knew each other already. 

So, I reached my final destination in Brisbane city at my uncle house, and greeted those that were there, we unloaded my luggage and we started to talk about the town I came from, Genzano di Lucania, with the people that were present, because they were all from the same town, and they wanted to know as much as they could about their relatives. While we were unloading at the same time I was telling them about the presents that I brought from my own family to my uncle, they were mostly local town produce the largest of them was now a seven liter demijohn of wine, since the ten liter broke on the way, I had also some 6 liter of pure olive oil and a large tray of homemade large biscuits that we make in Genzano when somebody gets married, there were other presents that I was going to give them as soon as I would unpack my own luggage.

Anyhow, evening came and we had dinner and after that I retired to my bedroom, I was ready for a good night sleep on firm ground, after being a whole month on the ship. 

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Brisbane city views.   

Wherever you go there are always interesting things to see, also Brisbane city has got several thing to show the world. I know that most people that come to Australia will say that Brisbane does not look as good as Sydney, but so what, it is still a nice city to live in and has got things that we are proud of; like the Story Bridge, City Hall with its clock tower that strikes the time every quarter of an hour, the city shopping Centre, Parliament House and the botanic gardens next to it, where we can stroll around looking at the garden or the pond, with its ducks and swans or sitting on the lawn on a hot summer day and listening to a band during the weekends.

Now there are more parks in Brisbane and most of them have a playground for children, the most important after the City Botanic Garden is, New Farm Park, this park is well known for the roses that are grown there, so, we call it the park of the roses, it is also a sight to see early in spring when the jacaranda trees are in flower, this park has a large playground for children, it has a kiosk, where you can have a cup tea or buy an ice cream for the kids and a few other things, on hot summer days one can sit under the trees near the Brisbane River and fill almost as if you are at the beach; you see Brisbane River is a very wide river and it is navigable for many miles, so, while we were sitting in the shade of the trees, we can see the traffic of bouts on the river, some of these boats are carrying people that were sightseeing on the river, or going to another pleasure destination.

Another important garden that needs mentioning here is the new Botanic Garden at Toowong Brisbane, near Mt-Coot-Tha forest this is a western suburb on the fringes of Brisbane city, this new botanic garden has been opened because the old botanic garden in the city lost some of its land, as they have built another university there; now apart from seeing what we can see and find in a botanic garden; from this new botanic garden, you can visit also this observatory; 

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is a planetarium located on the grounds of Brisbane Botanic Gardens^[1] in the suburb of Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland,Australia. The Planetarium was officially opened on 24 May 1978.

Anyhow, let us go back to talk about the sixties and those wooden houses.

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The wooden houses. 

Living in Brisbane wooden houses, I felt no difference at all to live in it, after all that is the way that most of the local people live in these parts of Australia. It was a four bedroom house, in addition to the four bedrooms there was a lounge room, a large kitchen where there was enough room for a large dining table, there was a bathroom with bathtub and shower that had a gas heated hot water devise that you could light up and have a hot shower, the toilet was downstairs under the house; now all this large house and floor space was set on wooden stumps, I know that those people that have never lived or seen a house on wooden stumps before are saying; what is he talking about a house on wooden stumps. 

I know it sounds strange and feel a bit strange too to live in these houses at the beginning, but anyhow, they are there, and they have a pretty good reason why people built them like that. After all is not even a new idea when we think about it; you see when I was at school I remember that my teacher was saying that a long time ago for safety reasons, some people that lived by the sea would build their house on stilts over shallow water, so that they could defend them easily if they were attacked, but what are the reasons for these houses to be built like that here?

I believe that I have said enough in this article, we will talk about these wooden houses, in our next article, Australia wooden houses, because we want to explain the reasons why these houses in Brisbane were built with timber and they have been built on wooden stumps.

 See you soon in next article, Australian houses in Brisbane. 

To see more click on this link, Welcome to Brisbane. 

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Migrating to Australia.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, Going to Australia. 

We can call this article from Italy to Australia, on the way to Australia, we the emigrant that had never been there, we were thinking about Australia the far away land that soon would be our home, and I would say to myself, Australia here I come dreaming for a better way of life for myself and those that would follow after me. 

Welcome to our article, Going to Australia. 

Dear readers, this blog has been shortened, if you want to see the original article in Hub Pages is here Going to Australia. Anyhow, this is the story of my life, here we are going to tell you how I felt and what I did on the ship during my voyage to Australia. Then my working in the building industry, as a bricklayer building houses. Because I have learned this trade, I am going to write articles about DIY brickwork, for those that are interested in building something. Anyhow, let us go back to my trip on the ship to Australia.

While I was on this ship called the Sydney, in my heart I was already saying: Hello Australia, here I come with my dreams in my heart of finding a better life for myself. Anyhow, I was thinking about myself saying, I know that I am dreaming these dreams that may not happen, but I am young and there is no harm in dreaming to find a better life.

So, as I have said in our last article, we left Port Said to go straight to Australia and while we were on the ship crossing the Indian Ocean we the passenger that were migrating to Australia started to think about what we had left behind in Italy, and at the same time we were eager to see what Australia was like, on the ship we made some acquaintances and everyone had some story to tell, most of us were talking about the reasons why we were migrating to Australia and what we wanted to achieve in Australia. We were also talking about, if we had anybody that we knew in Australia and other things, but really, we didn't know a thing about what we could do in Australia, most of us did not have any job qualification, so, we were hoping to do whatever job came our way, if there was enough money to earn a living. 

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Happenings on the way to Australia

During the fortnight that the ship took to cross the Indian Ocean, every one of us was wondering in his own way about the future in Australia and what we knew about Australia; in my own case at some stage of this crossing I started wondering how hard it would be to live in the driest continent on earth, as I had learned at school that Australia is dry compared to other continents. So, what would the water supply be like in Australia, and what about the westerly wind, I remember that my teacher had said that these winds last up to three months, so, I was asking myself, is it going to be just as bad and as cold as the winter times winds of Italy, who knows? You see, to cross this stretch of water of the Indian Ocean was taking too long and therefore, it was becoming even boring to go out on deck just to see the sea water and the sky above. 

There is something else that I found out on the Indian Ocean, which was not good news for me. You see, in those times when you went overseas from these small towns like Genzano my native town, anyone that had relatives wanted to send a present or something to their relatives, or at least their greetings or something like that, and if you went to a relative house to stay when you arrived in Australia, you could not go there without bringing presents, from your family and their families, so, you can imagine how loaded we were with your own presents and friends presents. 

Anyhow, here I need to talk about border security, instead of talking about my journey to Australia, but you see, I was coming from a country town and most presents were not bought at the shop, they could be food or something that could not be allowed to go through customs in Australia; anyhow, on the ship I had plenty of time to work it out, as I was talking to people that had been in Australia before, so, I was able to avoid the worse.

Among other things on the ship I had two demijohns of local wine, which I was sure that would be very much appreciated from the people that I was going to stay with in Australia, for people that don’t know what a demijohn is I will explain, A demijohn is a large round glass container dressed with something like woven straw, in my case I had two of them one was ten litres, and the other seven litres. Then  I had some small wild onions, which could never go past customs, so, I dumped them in the Indian Ocean. I had also some local homemade large and beautiful biscuits and other stuff. Anyhow, let me talk about the two demijohn of local wine, these two demijohns were in my cabin and there wasn’t any way to restrain them properly, so, when the sea was rough they were sliding across the cabin floor until one of them broke that is why my passenger friends remind me about the good lost wine.

These are some of the happenings during my journey to Australia. Anyhow, after a fortnight we reached the continent of Australia and docked at Fremantle in Western Australia. Hurray, we have made it to Australia. 

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Australia positive first impressions. 

The first impression that I had of Australia was positive, from what we saw near Port Fremantle. I have to say that it was not much what I saw, but it was enough to make a good impression on me. Strange as it may seem the very first time that I set foot in Australia I saw an emu, I don’t know why or how but somebody took us to this place where there was this emu and another animal that I don’t recall what it was. Anyhow because we stopped in Fremantle for a while, I was able to go down twice, and the second time guess what I saw, I saw that here in Australia they build single houses on a block of land, and they grow a nice green lawn around the houses by watering the lawn with the town water, in fact these little houses look so pretty that they seem like dolls houses. No bad for a country that is supposed to be the driest continent on earth, and it was great as my first impression. And seeing that they water the lawns with town water my fear of water restriction disappeared.

But anyhow, Fremantle was only the first port in Australia, but I had to disembark in Brisbane, so there were a couple more ports to go past and another week on this ship before the end of my journey. Anyhow, we left Port Fremantle to cross the Great Australian Bight, which took us a few days to navigate, during this crossing I was thinking, how vast is Australia compared to the European countries, since it takes days to navigate from one port to the next? Anyhow, next stop was Melbourne, in port Melbourne there wasn’t much to see or say as I had already seen Port Fremantle and Melbourne was very much the same, the only thing was that by now most of the people that I had become friendly with, were disembarking in Melbourne. Anyhow, we left Melbourne and next stop was Sydney, where I was going to meet people that I was bringing presents from their families, so, I knew already that Sydney was a very important city of Australia, therefore, I was eager to see what it was like.

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My next stop is Sydney. 

Anyhow, we docked in Sydney a short walking distance from the harbor bridge, and soon we were aware that people were there on the dock waiting for us, so, I looked to see if my family friends were there to greet me and collect their presents; and sure enough they were there on the dock waving at me and I knew that I could take their present to them. But what should I do to take them, because in Australia everything that comes in has got to go through the custom to be checked out? This procedure was something new to me, although I had heard people talk about it on the ship. Anyhow, I got their large parcel and took it down the ship under the direction of some people that directed all people carrying anything to a large building on the dock, and here I learned for the first time that the custom can look at everything you bring in Australia and if they find anything forbidden you can get in trouble. Anyhow, there was nothing forbidden to enter Australia, as the people that had made the parcel knew what would be allowed in. After that I delivered the parcel to my waiting friends.

In Sydney I had good time with my family friends and exchanged all the news that we had, besides going to a restaurant to eat and then went to see Sydney Harbor Bridge together, as it worked out, they had to leave early because they came to meet me from another town, so, I was left on my own in Sydney looking at the tall building around the harbor and walking around, where I saw the site of the future Sydney Opera House, at that time construction had stopped and there was plenty of still bars stacked on the site, so, I guessed that this was going to be some large and important building, I also visited a garden nearby, and by the time we left, I knew that those sights of Sydney harbor and everything else could even last a lifetime, they are very impressive to anyone that is lucky enough to see them.

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My long journey ends at Brisbane.  

We left Sydney and next stop was Brisbane my destination; I was looking for this journey to end, because to stay on a ship for a month is a long time. And to tell you the truth I wanted to see my relatives and see how they were doing, so that I could have a better idea, if my coming to Australia was a good thing for me. You see, one can never be sure what it is going to be like and whether your decision was the right decision until you are there and see it for yourself. Of course, what I had seen already in Australia seemed well, but that does not mean much until one finds out what sort of living an unqualified manual worker can earn and other things. Of course, I knew that whatever job I had to do I was going to work hard, because that is the only way to earn your living for yourself and whoever was going to give you a job. On reflection I must say that to migrate to a country that you have never been before is a hard thing to do, so, lucky are those people that do not need to migrate. Now I want to tell you about the end of my journey at Brisbane.

We reached Brisbane and docked at this merchants’ dock to disembark, thanks God I had reached Brisbane my destination and was eager to see my brother and other relative and friends.

We disembarked and I went through customs with all my belongings and presents that I was bringing to my relative and friends. And here is when I got caught and learned something that all travelers should know; anyone of us that goes to a different country should make sure that what they take into that country is allowed; anyhow, I was caught because I had bought a small toy at Port Said that toy could contain forbidden substance and it had to be treated to enter Australia, so, it cost me a fair amount of money. The demijohn of wine and all other stuff that I had with me was all right; after all I had dumped my wild anions in the Indian Ocean, when I found that they were not allowed. After going through customs, I was free to go with my brother and friends. The friends of course were there not only to welcome me to Australia, but to collect their presents that their families had sent them and to hear news of their families and their native town. I believe that I have said enough in this article. So, see you soon in my next article where I am going to talk about my first impressions, and Welcome to Brisbane. 

To see the original article and pictures click on this link, Going to Australia. 

See you in our next blog. My diary of April 2022. 

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Goodbye to my country.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

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This article can also be found at this link, Goodbye to my country. 

Italy is a beautiful country in many ways, but even there sometimes it is hard to earn a living, this is what has happened to me when I was young, so, I let Italy and migrated to Australia, and this is the story of my life that I am writing here. 

Welcome to our article, Goodbye to my country. 

Dear readers, in this article, we will talk about when I left Italy to emigrate to Australia; so, I said, ‘Goodbye to my country. Anyhow, I hope that my following articles are helpful, especially those hubs about housing and building work, and how to own a house, etc. Anyhow, we will start from the time when I left Italy. 

We know that during our life, we must make decisions, because of what is happening around us, one of these decisions I had to make when I was young and decided to migrate to Australia. Here we need to say that to migrate from one country to another was a very serious decision, so, one had to make sure that one really needed to move from where you were. This was not easy to do, because the generations before us stayed all their life in the towns were they were born, only a few ventured to migrate, because moving from one country to another was dangerous and also took a very long time, so, for me and for all those that wanted to migrate was not an easy decision to make, but in the end everyone has to make his own decisions, so, after thinking it over, I decided to migrate to Australia, since my brother was already in Australia and he said that it was good. So, I said goodbye to my country and migrated to Australia.

Today to understand the reasons why I migrated to Australia in the sixties, you need to read those articles I have written, especially the one called, Farming today compared to the old way, where you can compare how hard it was in those days to earn a living in the farms.

Anyhow, today the same decision is easier to make, because people move from one country to another easily; but it was not so a while ago. In fact, if we go back a hundred years or so, most people used to live in their own native town all their lives, and a few of them never even saw another town even when they were close bye, then life was very different, and people accepted that they would die in the same town that they were born. Today life is different, and we find it easier to move from one town to another and from one country to another and this is what I have done in my lifetime, I moved from Italy to Australia.  

Anyhow, there are times in our lives when we have to say goodbye to the dearest things in our lives and move to another country. When people move to another country it has become necessary for them to do so; perhaps where they are and what they are doing has no future in it, so, they are looking for a better life in the future. For this reason, I decided to leave my family farm in my native country of Italy to migrate to Australia.

Now, to explain why, and keep my life story in a chronological way, I am going to write about my last time working in the farm, and then when I had to leave the farm, first to go in the army to serve my country and then leaving Italy altogether to come to Australia, and also my voyage in a ship called the Sydney that in those times was taking passengers to Australia, I will be telling you what impression Australia made on me when I arrived. Of course, there is a lot to tell if I try to tell you everything in details. So, let me explain my position why I left Italy.

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Explaining my position. 

Let me explain, the reasons of leaving Genzano di Lucania my native town and not wanting to return to work in the farm. There were many issues and most of all was that it was very hard to earn a living, even when we had average harvests; and then, the ways of working in the farms was changing and there was less need of man hours work, because the tractor and other machines were coming in, so, either we had to buy these machines or we had to move out of farming, for us to buy those machines was out of reach, as our farm was not big enough; and the last year that I worked in the farm we had a very poor harvest, in fact we made so little wheat that it could not cover the cost of buying the seeds we had sown.

All these facts put together made me see that I was wasting my time to work in the farms as my forbears had done for hundreds of years before me, so, I took the opportunity to migrate to Australia.

But before I could migrate to Australia I was called to serve in the army, you see in Italy all able males over 21 must serve in the army, so, I went to serve in the army as prescribed by the Italian laws. I served in the army and when the army let me go, I migrated to Australia.

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 Leaving Italy for Australia. 

Goodbye Italy, I am leaving for Australia.

I remember that my mother with a friend came with me to Naples to farewell me when I left Italy. I suppose it was hard for my mother to let me go away from the family farm, but it had to be done, because we had debits we owed too much money, so, we the young and strong members of the family had to find a way how to pay our debits, to find a way how to pay your debits sometimes you had to borrow more money, as it was in my case, because I had to pay my fare myself and that was a lot of money. Anyhow, one of the options was to migrate make enough money to pay our debits and then return home to live a better life. Well at least that was as my mother wanted it to be, but it did not work that way for us for many reasons. Anyhow it was the year 1961 when I left Italy and embarked on the ship Sydney for Australia. I have to say that when you leave a place that you know well for a place where you have never been it seems an adventure, starting with walking up to the ship deck for the first time and looking at all those things that you have never seen before. 

In those times voyages that took a long time, like going to Australia would worry people, so, old folks like my mother were worried, because the voyage from Italy to Australia would take one month by ship and in those times, it was the only way available to come to Australia.

Anyhow, we are in Naples with my mother and her friend, who had a couple of sons in Australia already, we went on the ship and after visiting the ship, my mother and her fried went back on the dock, they stayed on the dock waiting to say goodbye. Anyhow, I embarked on the ship and this ship is going to take me to Australia a faraway land, I wonder how it is going to turn out, because I have never been to sea before, I also cannot swim and this worries me a bit but not so much, because I know that most of the other passengers cannot swim as well, so, we are all in the same boat, so to speak and also in reality, because we are all in the same ship. Anyhow, I am on this ship liner Called the Sydney and the ship is about to depart from Naples; the ship makes this low strange sound a couple of times, and we see that it is slowly moving away from the sore. We all look for our relatives and friends and wave goodbye until they become so small in the distance that we could not recognize them.

And after that many thoughts came to our minds and we were saying within ourselves; goodbye mother, Goodbye my friends, goodbye Italy, goodbye Genzano my native town, who knows when I will see you again; and thus, the journey begins to unfold. We left Naples in the late afternoon, and next morning we were docked in Messina. While we were docked in Messina we were allowed to come ashore and walk around if we wanted to, of course as I was a young man I wanted to see as much as I could, so I walked the streets of Messina, which seemed to me a nice clean Sicilian town. Then we went back to the ship as we were told and we left Italy for good; Goodbye Italy, who knows when I will see you again?

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The real journey begins. 

The real journey outside Italy begins

Next evening, we were in Port Said Egypt. Here again we were allowed to go ashore, and here for the first time we met with real foreigners who talked a different language, you see, until then I and most of the other passengers who were also migrating to Australia had never been outside Italy. In Port Said I saw for the first time that the people of this world are not all the same, in fact I am going to describe to you the way as I have seen it at that time. We came down the ship and we were walking by instinct in small groups, or it was one of the ship crew that took a group to show us the way, and to see how things were done down there. 

There were a few very young and poor people that wanted to shine your shoes for a small coin, there were others that would sell you anything, in fact they sold to a few of us a piece of well reaped wood for a piece of chocolate, there were a few shops open that you could buy a bargain if you knew how to bargain, because they would ask a high price and who knew how to bargain could reduce that price to one third of the original price, or something like that.

On reflection today I would say that Egypt was a strange place, you see the people that we talked to, knew a bit of Italian and they would tell us that we were robbing them by calling us (mariul or mariooo) which in the dialect of southern Italy can be translated as robber or thief; but while they were telling us that we were bobbing them, they were indeed robbing us, right, left and center. But today I understand what they were doing, they were just trying to live their life, they were so poor that what they were doing was the only way for them to survive, may God forgive them if they hurt us by robbing some of us bad.

Anyhow, then we went back to the ship and next day we were navigating in the Suez Chanel, the Suez Channel offer one of the most strange sights, because, while you are in a ship in this man made channel that mankind should be proud to have made, and while you are in this strip of water slowly navigating towards the Red See, on both sides is desert land, what a sight this is?

After navigating the Suez Channel, we went through the Red Sea and next stop was the port of Aden Yemen. By now I and the others were aware that here things would be different from the normal way, but anyhow there was not much to see or report. Because I did not venture too far away from the port, what I can remember of Aden is that there were a few shops near the port, but what I remember most is that the air seemed to have a strange smell like Sulphur that day, so, even today I wonder why it was so, and, does the air in Aden smell like that all the time? If that is so, then different lands have different smells. I wonder if somebody else has had the same experience as I have.

Then the time came when we left Aden to go straight to Australia, this time it would take about a fortnight navigating no stop the Indian Ocean, a fortnight in the middle of the sea with no land in sight, this was going to be another hard take for the people that had never been to sea like myself, but anyhow we had taken that decision to go to Australia, so, let us go and see what Australia is like.

When we left Aden I had already set foot on three continents during my life, so, within my heart I was saying goodbye to them all, starting from my native town of Genzano di Lucania, Goodbye Genzano my native town, goodbye Italy my country of origin, goodbye Port Said Egypt Africa, with your poor people that try to rob all passenger that set foot on their land just to survive, and goodbye Aden Yemen Asia with you strange air smelling of Sulphur. Next stop will be Australia that very far away land, which we all think it would be like the Promised Land.

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Navigating the Indian Ocean. 

Navigating the Indian Ocean from Aden to Fremantle Australia, took us a fortnight; I should say that it was all right considering the circumstances that most of us had never been at sea before. You see, in those days’ people travelled by ship or any other kind of transport only when it was necessary, and even though the ship was not a luxury cruiser like the cruisers of today it was good enough for us who were passengers who wanted to move from Italy to Australia. The ship had embarked over 2000 passengers, and we all had a proper bed to sleep in, there was plenty of good wholesome food and meals that were served regularly, we all had a place to sit at the tables, which were attached to the floor, but if the ship moved too much, we had to mind the dishes and the drinks. Anyhow, at other times we would go around the ship with some of these acquaintances that we have met on the ship, or just sit in our own cabin. We had also an English class that we could attend, so, we could learn a few words of English and be able to say at least the most Basic English words, in the hope that we could say something and make other people understand what we needed when we reached Australia. There was something else that we learned at these English classes, and it was the convict song I believe and it went thus: Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine, you are lost and gone forever, oh my darling Clementine. How appropriate it was in our cases.

Perhaps I am saying too much about my personal story and it is becoming boring, so, I am cutting it short. See you in our next article,  Going to Australia. 

To see more click on this link, Goodbye to my country. 

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