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The adventure to Australia became a reality!

The start of my voyage from Bremerhafen was to be the 27th May 1961 .  To prepare I had to give notice at work, obtain a birth certificate from East Berlin, and a travel passport.    I also had to have "Farewell Parties" with my friends, acquaintances, and my workmates.  The time went very quickly and on the 26th May 1961 my parents, my youngest sister ,Angelika (at that time she was just 4 years old) and I travelled from Cologne Central station to Bremerhafen .  My parents and my sister stayed overnight in Bremen, while I stayed in a transit camp in Bremerhafen.  I could not fault the accommodation there in Bremerhafen.

The next morning all of the rigmarole had to be attended to and then it was time for my parents , sister and I to  go to Bremerhafen where I saw for the first time in my life an Ocean Cruiser.  The "Castel Felice"  was ,by comparison with today's ships, a small ship of 13,000tons but for me it was the biggest ship that I had ever seen. After undergoing much  in the "formalities" line I was able to board the Ship.  

Suddenly I became very anxious, "where am I really going" " what am I going to do in Australia" and my English was  non-existent.  This was the first time in my life that I had left my parents home and my knees nearly gave way. But it was too late to go back. I had committed myself to go to Australia. 
                  On the ship there were so many people that I became a bit worried about how they were going to accommodate all of them , but later I found out that there was certainly enough room for all of the people on board. After I took my luggage to my cabin ( 2 suitcases contained my worldly goods) I went as quickly as I could onto the deck to see my parents and sister on the wharf. 

                                  It was a sad picture to see my parents and  my little sister. I also noticed that my mother and father had tears in their eyes. At that point the band on the wharf started   playing "  Aufwiederseh'n Aufwiederseh'n, bleib nicht so lange fort", and I then had tears in my eyes too.  Approximately at 5pm that day the "Castel Felice" set sail.

 We were on our way to Australia! The accommodation on the ship was, for that time, very good .The food wasn't all that good but after a while I got used to the different cuisine. The life on board was fantastic. Eating, drinking, parties and when we had time for it we also slept.  Everything was much cheaper on the ship than on shore because of the duty-free status of the ship.  

Our first port of call was  Port-Said, where we had only 6 hours stay. After that we sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and we had a very short stay in Aden which is in Yemen. The poverty in this country was absolutely unbelievable to me, even although I had been through the privations of war. 

 The next stop was already Fremantle in Western Australia. A very nice and interesting port near Perth. We had roughly 8 hours stay here. It was here that I tasted my first "Aussie Steak". Oh what an enormous piece of meat!  

 After we set foot for the first time on Australian soil and drove with a taxi through the town I realised just how hard it is to communicate without knowing the local language. It was nearly impossible to communicate with the people. Luckily for me I was still quite young (19 years old) and I found lots of friends on board the ship, with whom I kept in contact for many years to come. 

After Fremantle we sailed on to Melbourne, our last port. For me the beginning of a new life in a strange country.  From Melbourne we travelled by train to Bonegilla Migrant Camp in Northern Victoria. 

Pictures of Australia

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A Report from Fred Lehmann, 

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