Assessment Resource Centre (ARC)

A Migrant’s Story

My Grandmother, or Olmar, migrated to Australia in the 1950s. My Olmar migrated nine year after she was married because of lack of work and she was looking for a better life for her family. Olmar came over by plane, which in those days were a lot slower than they are today.

In Holland, she had a pretty poor life, and when she migrated in Australia she and her husband lived in small huts under government control because they had no family in Australia to live with. She spoke little English. She felt left out because she only spoke Dutch and some Australians teased her for that. It was very lonely and scary for her.

Eventually they became used to the Australian life and moved from the huts to a little house on a farm. Her husband, my Olpar, worked there. Then she found out she was having her first child. At this time Olpar got a job building railways in the country. My grandparents had to move around a lot and lived in many places, for example at one time they lived in a tent in the snow at Lithgow.

After all the moving around, Olmar made some new friends and started speaking English better. Olpar got a job at Blacktown Railway Station working on the  platforms. This is when their first child, Peter, my father, was born in Sydney Hospital. They lived in yet another hut, but this time it was on their own land which they bought by saving all their cents and dollars.

My Olmar joined the Reform Church, which was from Holland, and met some old friends and made a lot of new friends. As years went on, life got better in Australia and the family grew. Olmar had four boys and two girls altogether. They built a house in Blacktown and, as Olmar had hoped, their children did enjoy a better life.

Olmar still misses her family in Holland and still gets a little homesick, but not as bad as she used to. She believes she made the right decision about migrating to Australia. “The big wide lands and freedom is what I wanted for me and my family”.

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