Bob Horsman - Wanderings of a Ten Pound Pom

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Copyright 2015 Bob Horsman

ISBN: 978-1-925209-93-8 (eBook)

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Subjects include: Budget Travelling, Exploring Australia, Backpacking Adventures, Working for Holidays, Touring the World

Oldham, the northern England town of cotton mills and pubs, where it was once reputed there was one pub for each day of the year, is also the home of my family, friends and beloved football team, Oldham Athletic whose fortunes I still follow from many miles away.

After 11 years of continuous employment, firstly as an apprentice electrician from the age of 15 and continuing on until age 26, working for the same employer based in Shaw, a small town in the outskirts of Oldham, I started to think seriously of a change in life style. It was in October 1965 that I finally took the plunge and went about seeking emigration to Australia, the much-advertised land of opportunity. A Sunday newspaper contained application forms for a 10 pound assisted passage for emigration. Interviews were conducted at Australia House in Manchester and following these, I was granted passage to Sydney, New South Wales for early 1966. The passage was to travel to London on the night mail train from Manchester in February with a flight to Sydney from Heathrow airport the next day.

I worked from time to time with another young bloke in Shaw who was a carpenter with one of the building contractors who were sometimes on the same contracts as I was. It was at one of my local pubs one night in December just a few weeks before my departure date to Sydney when another guy who worked for the same building company told me that his work mate was also going to Australia as an emigrant and maybe I would want to pop into his local pub for a chat with him. This I did and as he would be flying out in January, we decided to meet up in Sydney after my arrival. He sent me an address where I could contact him after he arrived at Sydney and we arranged for him to meet me at the airport.

Just jumping ahead a little, it came about that he was my best man at my marriage to Lorraine in Sydney in 1977, after crossing paths many times over the years. There was however, much time to be filled in before then.

The few weeks before my departure date were very busy, with many farewells with friends and my relations around Oldham. Finally the day of departure arrived and after a big party I was farewelled at Manchester on the night mail train to London.

Having family members living at Harrow in North London whom I had spent many of my school holidays with it was cheerios to them before getting myself to Heathrow airport and off to new horizons.

How was I to know the impact on my life the ten pounds I had spent on this venture to Australia was going to have? There I had been in Oldham, the only travelling to my name being a coach trip to the seaside now and again with my parents as a child growing up. Then as I approached my teenage years there were the school holidays at my aunt and uncles house at Harrow. It was here I guess that the travel seed was planted. I would sometimes take the tube train into London with them and spend the days taking in the sights around the city. After leaving school at the end of 1954 there were no more travels until at age 19 I purchased my first of two motor bikes. They were both small ones being 125 cc, 2-stroke bikes. On these I was to take a look beyond the boundaries of Oldham on some weekend days, maybe Huddersfield or Burnley, other times Bury, Bolton or Rochdale, all 20 miles or so from home. From there I graduated to having a car at age 23. This brought on trips further afield with my group of now very close friends, many trips to watch Oldham Athletics away games, other times to follow Manchester United playing. Most times we would have two cars doing the trips with guys and girlfriends, and the girls would enjoy shopping in the towns we visited while we guys would be at the football match. Then along came 1965 and the ten pounds was spent to bring me to Sydney. Yes, how was I to know that 11 years hence I would have travelled more than 200,000 kilometres crossing 32 countries, the three major oceans and my life would change from what was essentially a home boy into what you are about read of in the following pages?

The aircraft was a Boeing 707 which would be taking me to Australia and I was pretty excited about the upcoming flight (my first ever) and the two years to follow. This was the amount of time that had to be spent in Australia to honour the subsidised fare of ten pounds. I was soon to find out that the Aussies referred to anyone English doing the trip on the scheme as a Ten Pound Pom. I now realise nearly 50 years later sitting here in Tasmania, the island state of Australia that the saying will never change.

The journey itself was interesting, seeing the different cultures along the way. We disembarked at most of the refuelling stops. The flight path was via Zurich, Beirut, New Delhi, Singapore and Darwin which is where I had my first Aussie beer. It was very enjoyable and I did stretch it to having a second one! The biggest impact that I felt was at Singapore airport, nothing to do with people but to do with the heat. It was late evening, hot and humid with me in the clothes in which I had left London: winter woollen jumper, long trousers and more skins than an onion. Definitely not the right kind of clothing for the climate I found myself in. Hot and humid at 11pm!

The aircraft arrived at Sydney airport at around 6am. My mate was there along with the family (mother and son our age) he was staying with in outer Sydney. We were driven to their home and after I had a shower and some breakfast it was decided to give me a Cooks Tour of the city. However, sleep took over and the only thing I can remember of the drive was being told we were crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and seeing the large amount of steel with which it is built. That is etched in my memory even though I fell asleep again until arriving back at the house. Going straight to bed at around lunchtime I woke up at 10am the next day, having slept for about 22 hours or so. The first week was quite eventful, firstly getting some clothing to suit the conditions, secondly I got myself very sunburnt and thirdly my mate and I decided that outer Sydney was too far from the city so we moved into the city after only four days there.

On the third day I took myself into the city on the train network and took a bus to check out Bondi Beach. I had been into a clothes shop and got some shorts, t-shirts, socks and sneakers, I then took my English clothes to the left luggage at the railway station to pick up on the way back later. I foolishly went a bit overboard trying to get a tan on Bondi Beach with drastic results. The return trip on the train was broken to meet my mate in a pub by the station near his work after he had finished for the day. He took one look at me when I walked into the pub and asked what on earth I had done to myself. He reckoned I was in for a bad time with the sunburn. He was not wrong; we had been sitting at the bar in the pub for three or four beers when I decided a trip to the loo was called for. Another guy was in there already so I chose another place alongside him and he was most amused when I had to sink to my knees because the pain in my skin-shrunken legs was too much to bear while standing up. Without any doubt that was one of my most embarrassing moments!!