Elizabeth That Was Part 5: "What on earth have we come to?"
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- #tenpoundpoms #bestdocumentary #documentary
The Smithfield Migrant Hostel was located in the former army ordnance depot near the Smithfield Railway Station between Coventry Road and the Gawler railway line. When the migrant hostel opened, Smithfield was an isolated rural area. It took about an hour by train to get to Adelaide city centre. Apart from the migrant hostel there were some railway cottages and farm buildings, and not much else.
Army buildings of wood and corrugated iron were converted to sleeping huts. Six of the buildings with verandahs over a metre off the ground posed safety concerns for families with children living at Smithfield. The verandahs were supported on brick piers with wooden steps at each end. In 1950 some improvements were made, including replacing tar paper lining in huts and installing better doors. There were at least 11 sleeping huts by 1956. Families were allocated huts or sections with up to three bedrooms and a sitting room. Separate 'ablution huts' provided communal showers and toilets. Dining and laundry facilities were also communal. Staff had separate quarters. Other buildings on site were used for administration and storage.
Other hostels in South Australia included Elder Park, Gawler, Gepps Cross, Glenelg, Hendon, Mallala, Pennington/Finsbury, Peterborough, Rosewater, Salisbury, Semaphore, Willaston, Whyalla, Woodside and Woodville. The hostels were temporary homes to a wide range of migrants, from Displaced Persons and refugees, through to "Ten Pound Poms". From 1949 until 1971 the Smithfield Migrant Hostel was home to many, predominately British migrants. Situated on Section 3163, in the Hundred of Munno Para, the hostel accommodated up to 300 people at one time. Accommodation was provided free of charge until the breadwinner of the family found work and then there would be a charge. After twelve months a special application was required if the family wished to stay on. The hostel closed in 1971 when the Commonwealth Migration Programme slowed and new migrants could be given accommodation at Pennington.
Thank you for watching. For more Elizabeth (and Adelaide) That Was, please Like the video and Subscribe 🙏❤️
We left England in 58, arrived in 1959. We stayed in Elder Park Hostel. When we arrived on the ship, Strathmore, at Outer Harbour, my brother was loaded into an ambulance in a coma with undiagnosed disease, and taken to Northfield Contagious Diseases Hospital.... Turned out to be meningitis. He nearly died, but recovered, and is alive today. We bought a house in Elizabeth North, did all the gardens...happy days! My jobs in Elizabeth were at WRE, where I did my apprenticeship...electrical, ATCO Structures, and Holdens, 21yrs. My Mum worked at John Martins in the city, and at Levis, my wife worked their too, at Levis. My Dad spent most of his life in real estate. Everybody knocks it, but Elizabeth was magic back then, and even better now!😊🎉🎉
Your poor parents must have been stressed out of their minds - a massive move and then your brother, with all that initial uncertainty as to what was wrong with him. Glad it all worked out. I love that you love living in Elizabeth, also. That is awesome :-) Thank you for sharing some of your story with us. Much appreciated :-) Will
@@elizabeththatwas Yeh. Tough going, in a new country. We arrived in january, and in our new house first day, i jumped onto the kitchen sink, drank some water out of the cold tap, and burnt my mouth. 🤣 Welcome to Australia...
A powerful, well made, well produced video. Keep up the excellent work!
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching
Another very interesting video we have just watched the series 10 pound pom certainly show how difficult it was for the migrants being only 4 when we arrived in 1958 I now understand what my dutch parents sacrificed for us kids for the better life that we now have thanks again for the great stories
My pleasure Christine. Yes, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Thanks you for watching, much appreciated
My parents and 3 brothers were there in 1956. They'd left Guernsey, and most definitely thought "what the hell have we done?"
Oh, my. Elizabeth 1956. Yes, that must have been one hell of a shock. Did they stick around long?
@@elizabeththatwas they built a house in the Nth Eastern burbs, which was still miles from anywhere, and stayed there until my dad passed in 2015. My mother missed Guernsey every single day.
We spent about two weeks in our Nissen hut before we were sponsored and received a Housing Trust rental house. My dad was immediately employed, pre-employed in fact as a condition of migration, in the BHP steel works in Whyalla. My first Christmas in this country was Cyclone Tracey.
My English migrant family lived in MunnoPara/Smithfield/Elizabeth from 1977 to this day. Our migrant hostel experience was in Whyalla, which was an even more remote and austere beginning. This is in many ways my home.
Beautiful. Yes, Whyalla must have been a real culture shock for you all. A completely different reality. Nice share David. Thank you
@@elizabeththatwas Whyalla is the literall opposite of my home in Doncaster , Yorkshire. Which is a green river town surrounded by fields of sheep and cows: as opposed to Whyalla which is rust red, covered in dust, and hotter than the sun
I don't think I have ever recovered :/
I's say a good 50% of the stuff built back in the 60's has been replaced now. Although some of the old bones can still be seen. It is a bittersweet melancholy sense of loss that over shadows everything.
And a good percentage being left to go derelict. Poor Thomas Playford would be horrified
Hello from USA. Thank you for these great videos.
Awesome. I love how far and wide these videos go. Thank you for watching and "G'day" from Oz :-)
When my family along with their friends walked up North Terrace from our Elder Park hostel in 1963, they felt like they had been taken back to the 1940's. South Australia seemed so behind the UK in many ways. We did live in Elizabeth Downs for two years, but were so unhappy, so we moved to another nicer suburb closer to the city and settled.
Yes, Elizabeth was very isolated back then, and lacking a lot of modern amenities. I can imagine it would have been very hard for many. And, being very isolated at the time, Australia was very behind the rest of the western world in many respects. I hope you were much happier wherever you eventually settled. Thank you for watching, and for sharing with us. Much appreciated
My parents and I lived in Smithfield Hostel from June 1955 to November 1955 when we moved to Elizabeth South on the first day Elizabeth opened. We were in E block. I was 5 at the time. I still have photos of my mum and I on the top of the steps on the verandah of E block.
Oh, wow. That's amazing June. Would love to see those pics, if ever you get a chance to send them to the Elizabeth That Was fb page. If you ever want to write down your memories of that first day in Elizabeth South too, I'd be happy to make a video around that. Or maybe even interview you about it. Thank you for watching, and for sharing with us. Much appreciated
This is absolutely fascinating. I look forward to more.
Thank you for the amazing voice over beautiful Barbara:-)
@@elizabeththatwas ❤
Hi mate wow yet another wonderful video and a flood of memory's coming back as I watch. We were in Pennington hostel when we arrived in Australia in may 1964, I turned 4 on the ship The Fairsea.🚢 As a kid of 4 years old I remember those sugar containers with the red tops on them on the table at 7,14. My sister would go to school and mum gave her some money to buy a piece of vanilla sponge cake for herself and a piece for me witch I eagerly awaited for each evening along with a glass of BO BO cordial. I remember mum getting a shock one day when she bought a bag of flour, when she opened it it was full of weevils and when she took it back to the shop to complain the bloke handed her a sifter. Those were the days extra protein.🤣🤣Great to see the videos back thanks mate there's not many of our original family left theses days so the memory's really mean a lot to me.👍🏻
My pleasure Geoff. This year is a crazy one for me, starting a new business. I knew the videos would be less frequent for a while. But my commitment here is long term, and at some point I'll be able to post regularly again. This style of mini doc will eventually cover the entire span of Elizabeth's run as an independent city, up until its' dissolution in 1997, when Elizabeth and Munno Para amalgamated to became Playford. Thanks again for watching. I'm very pleased it's proved meaningful to you mate. Cheers, Will
I came over on the Fairsea in 1966 (I was eight) and stayed at Pennington hostel as well. Went on Pennington primary. I loved it all.
Great video 👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks 👍 Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for watching, it's much appreciated
Great video, well made and captures the mood and difficulties faced.
@garyhNZ thank you Gary. And thank you for watching, much appreciated mate 🙏
Hi, for a Dutch documentary we would like to license a part of this clip. How can I get in contact? Please let me know.
Hello. You can email me at: willkelly2020@gmail.com :-)
1966 Icame to Australia 🇦🇺 from Scotland as migrants and stayed in Hostel .came with my Family on the Fair star from south Hampton. AND 1966 decicimal currency's was coming in .Now they are trying to remove Cash 💸 ironic .Cash is king so is God .The lucky country no more .
Thank you for sharing with us Sue. And, for watching. Much appreciated, Will :-)