Author Brit Gets Gold Fever Down Under
Fifty years since Australia’s Great British Influx of the 1960s, when a third of post-war British settlers made Australia their home: Poms Down Under recalls their tales.
Almost seventy years ago, World War II ended. Europe was in chaos and ruin. Whilst some sought to rebuild their ravaged lives, others looked at starting anew. The Australian Minister for Immigration uttered these famous words, resulting in millions making the move to Australia, "Australia wants, and will welcome, new healthy citizens who are determined to become good Australians."
Like the characters in his book, JD Waterhouse emigrated to Australia in the early 1960s; seeking adventure and fortune, exploring the Australian outback and becoming embroiled in its famous gold prospecting and mining industry.
One of the book’s characters sounds much like JD. Like many others, Geoff Patterson is a ‘ten-pound pom’ – the term taken from the cost of his passage to new shores. Geoff landed in Perth with no attachments, exploring the outback and finding himself working in one of Australia’s large modern mines.
The book also follows Tom Henshaw and his young family, capturing their conflicts and mixed emotions. These characters wistfully reminisce about their previous lives and are left desperately seeking work. Tom found his in a timber yard.
Joining JD and his fictional characters were almost 1.5 million settlers, over 650 thousand of whom were also from the Great British Isles. One in three modern British citizens who immigrated to Australia did so during this period.
It’s been half a century since Australia’s Great British influx; but when reading Poms Down Under, many of the characters’ responses to their new home are easily relatable to immigrants in Britain, who have either felt unwelcome or have even been put off coming.
Some fortuitous and motivated characters secured the lifestyles of their dreams in Australia, as some do now. Others became disillusioned with their new way of life, struggling in the competitive and harsh environment. Not only were they competing with thousands of other Brits for work and resources, they also faced hostility from Australian natives who ridiculed them for being "whingeing Poms".
Thus, Poms Down Under explores the question: how difficult was it for British migrants to be accepted and to, in turn, accept Australia as their new home? How difficult too for immigrants in the UK these days? Waterhouse recalled a feeling of many, "No way will they offer us decent jobs around the city. All the employment office wants to do is issue you with a pick and shovel and pack you off.”
Instead of relying on stats and surveys, JD Waterhouse combines his own experiences with those of 'Poms' and 'Ozzies' he met to weave his eloquently accessible novel. Much of his inspiration derives from the tales told by the old-timers, who experienced the shift from the heady and hectic gold prospecting days, through to the Australia many of us know today. Many of the ‘ten-pound poms’ thrived in Australia, including Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who emigrated with her family from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales in 1966.
Currently available both as a Paperback and Kindle edition via Amazon, more information on JD's first novel is available from his website at www.jdwaterhouse.co.uk/
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