Life’s Lottery Won and Lost

To be fair, post-war British immigrants to Australia perhaps didn’t deserve their full whinging reputation. Many of them were probably just homesick.

Poor old Alfred misses the comforts of home

Why they’d have been homesick, rather than sick of home, is another issue entirely. Familiarity is plainly a powerful draw.

Some of our more serious so-called whingers even up and fled back to the UK after rejecting Australia. Their call, of course, but they may have eventually regretted those decisions.

And if they didn’t, perhaps some of their descendants did. Here’s a charming historical piece on British arrivals in the 1960s:

Some are determined to make a go of it, especially Mrs Nolan, who is scornful of her fellow Brits and their reliance on the UK’s welfare state.

One youngster misses her favourite TV shows. Her more outdoorsy brother loves surfing. 

And then there’s Mrs Parsons, who isn’t impressed with Australia at all – despite the interviewer pointing out that her suburban house has “a beach at the bottom of the garden”.

God only knows how much that house is worth now. Let’s hope Mrs Parsons stuck it out and eventually cashed in.

(By the way, Australia sure looked great back in those days. Even in British black and white.)

UPDATE. Old-timey BBC was a delight. Modern BBC is almost worse than the ABC.

(Via Jill)