Dick tells his story: “I just expected a letter of acceptance, but it was a boat ticket.”
Thanks very much to Dick Parmenter, who told the story of how he came to Australia to the Daily Examiner last month. Read his story here or a few snippets of the article below:
“I was the youngest by a month, and it took us about five weeks to get out here,” he said.
“Most immigrants had to pay 10 pounds to get here, we just had to have 10 pounds of our own money to put in the care of the chap who was in charge of the group, and older person only about 25 who had gone to England and wanted to come back to Australia.”
When Dick and the group arrived in Sydney they were sent to Calmsley Farm, which had a dormitory and gave the boys a chance to learn some basics of farm work. Dick was there for six weeks before he was sent away to Young, where he stayed for two years on a sheep farm.
It wasn’t until 1965, at the ripe old age of 20, that Dick decided to move to Grafton with a girlfriend. While that relationship didn’t last, he did meet Clarence Valley local Ena, whom he married, with the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary last month.”