Many of us take for granted the cultural mix
that is Australia and that was
my purpose in starting this thread - to find
out a little something of the people who
created this country's diversity.

I remember growing up in the Western suburbs of
Sydney and having friends from overseas stay
with us. I remember being so disheartened when
travelling along Parramatta Road, these visitors
kept telling my parents how trashy it was - so
ugly - they'd never seen anything like it -
fibro houses and car dealers. They thought it
vulgar. Well, perhaps it was then - but I didn't
notice - to me it was home!

Does anyone else have any anecdotal stories,
sad or funny ones, about making a new life in
Australia? I'd like to hear more about providing
a window on the experience of leaving one home
in order to create another.

Foxy,

I don't know how one could think of Parramatta Road in any other way especially on a baking hot day. What I always remember is the sound the tyres make every time they crossed the rubber joins between the concrete blocks on that road.

An utterly uninspiring place. Yuk in multiple dimensions. If you ask me, your visitors were absolutely right.

BTW, the outer northern suburbs I grew up in Melbourne are as dead as a doornail. All I can say is I'm glad I got out.

Australia celebrates a Prime Minister whose ancestor Mary Wade, "an
urchin from the London slums, fronted the Old Bailey in February
1800, charged with luring an eight-year-old girl into a privy, and
stripping her of her dress, cap and petticoats.

"When caught, Mary showed little remorse, telling the court she was in
a "good mind to have chucked the child down the necessary and I wish
I had done it". The judged declared that "the act of stripping her
does seem to me to be equivalent to holding a pistol to the breast of
a grown person" and so Mary, aged 11, was sentenced to hang by the
neck until she was dead.

"Now, there is nothing like a hanging in the family tree but, perhaps
because of Mary's age, the sentence was commuted to transportation to
the colony of NSW, where she would live for another 70 years."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24110278-5013871,00.html

Dear RobP,

I loved growing up in Parramatta.

And to me Parramatta Road meant going to
the City shopping - which was always
exciting.

I didn't mind the long drive in - or the car
dealerships along the way - I just couldn't
understand how they all managed to stay in
business - there was so many of them.

As I said - to me the area represented home -
and I suppose I saw it through rose-coloured
glasses.

Dear Whistler,

Thanks for Mary's story.

Lucky for her that she was transported - it
saved her life - tough as it must have been.
She at least was given a chance to start anew.

G'Day All,
Foxy & RobP you better fill me in about the time frame we are talking about Parramatta Road before we go any further I could be one of the louts that used that road plus the old "brickies" at Homebush.
That wasn't a bad old stomping ground at all from Haberfield, Auburn, Lidcombe, Granville, Concord, & all through that area.
The Royal Oak at lidcombe wasn't to bad a watering hole back then.
So before I say much more I will have to get the time frame here or I could go dobbing me pore self in.
Same thing here as to Examinator have a laugh it is better than what you are doing now etc.
Have good life from Dave

Dear Dave,

I'm talking about the late sixties ...