Each month throughout 2016, Stephen Mudd will speak to people who have called Griffith their home and tell their stories.
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A “Ten Pound Pom” who now lives in Griffith is about to celebrate 50 years in Australia.
David Jones was one of about a million people who came to Australia under the “assisted-passage scheme”, arriving on July 14, 1966. Mr Jones said Australia is his home and he loves it so much, he has never been back.
Between 1945 and 1972, a post-war immigration policy saw adults charged just £10 for their fare to Australia and children travelled free, but participants had to commit to two years in the lucky country.
“It was a bit of a culture shock at first,” Mr Jones said of his arrival in 1966.
“The class structure in Britain was bad and we were fed up with the cold and snow.
“We got off the boat in July and it was so much warmer I walked around in shorts, people must have thought I was mad.”
Mr Jones grew up in Bournemouth, a seaside village on England’s south coast. He remembered his father had a book about Australia and as a boy he’d look through it, the images etching themselves in his memory.
Years later, TV ads showed off a golden country with plenty of jobs and sunshine, all yours for just £10.
“I came across with my wife, my two boys and my mum and dad,” Mr Jones said.
“As a whole Australia is a great place and I’ve never left it since.
“I have a brother in the United Kingdom, but if he wants to see me he has to come here.”
A gas fitter by trade and quite handy at whatever he set himself to, Mr Jones had been fortunate enough to travel all over his adopted home, working from Western Australia to Tasmania.
He did a stint at Pine Gap near Alice Springs and fondly remembered the small town with no bitumen, no TV and no supermarkets.
“It was a great social place back then,” he said.
In the 1980’s Mr Jones came to Griffith and he had become heavily involved in the community, running a business and being part of various groups and committees.
“This is a great country,” he said.
“If you want to get ahead and you can do a job then you can just do it.”
Famous Ten Pound Poms include former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, The Bee Gees, Malcolm and Angus Young from AC/DC, John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, businessman Alan Bond and the parents of Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue.
Stephen Mudd
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
