This thread started out well.

Mr Opinion,
If you're so concerned then you'd better show your photos to the Labor crowd, they're the ones that opened the gates & greedy Australian land owners are selling to foreign buyers !
If I had my way the sellers would need to grab their profit & move out of Australia.

I agree ise mise in fact we do it in every thread
But the idea was ok still thinking about those days
Would walk two miles to town to buy a Pepsi Cola, in the crinkly glass bottle, with Eta peanuts, in the waxy paper they came in
Petrol was less than 20 cents [two shillings] a gallon, Diesel 11 pence
Tomatoes needed to be eaten in a few days but had taste
Wood burning stoves, in the bush at least, did our cooking even in summer
And boy did it get hot
TV dinners and, for a few years, the death of conversation at tea time

Dear individual,

Where did you get the idea that I am concerned? I'm not concerned; I'm just pointing out that Australia has a Chinese future.

Dear Belly,

Perhaps my background might give a different glimpse
to what has changed in our lifetime.

My parents arrived in this country in 1949. They
were refugees. Displaced persons I believe the
term was to describe them. They fled their country
when the Soviet Union occupied it. They were invited
by the Australian government of the time (populate
or Perish) and they came out to Australia having
agreed to work for the government for two years.

They arrived by ship, disembarking in Sydney and from
there being taken to migrant camps in rural areas.
They were housed in military barracks. Accommodation
fashioned from old corrugated iron Nissen huts. They
were shocked at the primitive conditions.

Men and women were separated into single sex barracks
with shared bathrooms. There were communal dining
rooms serving unfamiliar and unpalatable food.
These places were neither comfortable nor welcoming.
They lived there for years. Men were classified as
labourers and women as domestics (despite their
qualifications).

They were hard times. The sense of isolation ended when
they managed to buy their own home and move out.
But even then - it took a long time for them to be
accepted by the locals in their neighbourhood.

It's part of my family's history.

Dear Foxy,

What part of eastern Europe did they come from? if you don't mind me asking.