Ian was interviewed by Andrea Fernandes (© NSW Migration Heritage Centre, http://www.belongings.com.au):

I was born in Kendal [in England's Lake District]. At six months, I moved with my mother to Stretford in Manchester. Dad was a labourer and things were tough. It was after the war and there were rations. There were quite a few of us; I have eight siblings. It never occurred to us we were poor because everybody else was. I tell people we were as poor as church mice. We were that poor the church mice moved out, ’cause there was nothing for them to eat either!

My parents did break up and I ended up in children’s homes. It never bothered us. They were terrific - one overlooked a park. You didn’t have to do anything. Meals were already there. Syd and Graham, my half-brothers, went to another home. My parents got together again and we ended up in the same little house. Then [with] Stewart, the four of us ended up coming to Australia.

Enid Knight, the social worker, visited the family and told them about Fairbridge [Farm in Australia]. Fairbridge Society sent my parents some promotional material saying how great [it] was. It looked so good. They were things we couldn’t possibly have got in Manchester. The education, it was up on a farm, plenty of clothes, plenty of food.

We had to do formal tests for the Fairbridge Society. They asked us to draw a picture of our house to show we did have some co-ordination. [The house] is still there today. It never left my mind. I’ve still got an affection for it.

Syd was ten; Graham, nine; me, eight; and Stewart, four. We were quite excited because we were going on a boat. We were a bit of envy in the street! One thing my mother was told - she repeated it to us when we left - was that if we didn’t like it in two years we could come back. She does say that in her letters.

My parents went to the train [station] in Manchester and Enid Knight took us to London, then Knockholt, the Fairbridge Reception Centre [in Kent]. It was a very large manor house and still exists today. We were looked after by Matron Guyler who treated us well. Heaps of food - it was the sort of food my parents could never have afforded. Every day we had TV which was something we only saw in the shops. I’d never seen so many clothes in my life. But most of those clothes were later taken off us.

We were there from 12 December 1954 until 6 February 1955 when we got on the SS Strathnaver [from] Tilbury and sailed to Australia. There were 22 in the party [and] we had four escorts to look after us. We used to do an hour school every morning.

Loved the journey. We couldn’t believe the ship, it was huge. I started to think how far were we going from England [and] nearly everyone was seasick in the Bay of Biscay.

The first [stop] was Port Said - little boats came alongside. Men were selling from them while the ship travelled up the Suez Canal. It was the first time I saw a rifle. They had soldiers on the boat, armed, to keep anyone from getting on. We weren’t allowed to get off because we didn’t have a passport.

A magician came on called the ‘Gilli Gilli Man’. There was one trick that fascinated me. He had an egg and he held it in his hand, splattered it on the deck, and when we looked at his hand there was a chicken there. The silly things you remember! You got things like this all the time. You were never lacking something to do.

We did visit Fremantle, Adelaide and Melbourne - we went to all the zoos! Everything was terrific and people looked after us. That was our final tea party before we got off in Sydney. When we arrived we were introduced to Woods [the principal] and other people from Fairbridge. As soon as I saw Woods I had an awful feeling. We had to have a medical in Sydney. Graham didn’t want to take his trousers off. He said, “No, I want my own doctor.” He took off, Woods got hold of him, took his belt off and flogged him. On a front lawn in pu