Robert V J P Varman Ph D
First Impressions of Australia
1954-1959
I have always been proud of having been born in The Hague, or 's-Gravenhage as it should be called. After all, it is the Royal City, the ancient seat of Government, the second capital of The Netherlands. Parents had not long before I was born returned from Borneo. So, I was conceived in Balikpapan, part of the Netherlands East Indies.
We emigrated to Australia in November 1954. The contrast was so staggering that my memories of 'Old Holland' have remained intact to this day, though I was only four when I left. How I missed Mother's parents, her brothers, sisters and kindly old great grandfather 'van Staverden' (actually van Bommel, it's just that he lived at Staverden). How I missed the huge barrel organs playing such cheery tunes which for some reason automatically made me howl my eyes out (still has that effect--I think twice about being seen in public with a barrel organ whirring away at some Dutch fair these days).
The first thing I noticed was that no one celebrated what I thought to be Christmas. We always exchanged presents on the Feast of St Nicolaas, December 6. Why didn't St Nicolaas and his helper Black Peter (Zwarte Piet) knock on our door that year? Just before December 24, I saw a truck arrive with a man dressed in a red suit with white trims and a white beard. Didn't know who he was but he was giving presents away to children. I received a gun, didn't know what that was either but I knew I was disappointed. Loved that song 'Away in a Manger' though: the song reminds me of the heat and landscape burned to a frazzle, can still smell that distinctive smell. And what were those little mounds with tiny doors everywhere to be seen about the ashes and those mini hills. My elder brother, 12 or 13, soon introduced me to the world of funnel web spiders and bull ants.
We shifted for a while to Maitland, just in time for the biggest flood in recorded history (people still talk about it). I have the memory of an elephant, but I don't remember a thing about it. I remember a fair bit about everything else. I expect that Maitland must have reminded me of all that water in the Netherlands, canals with houses along them, lakes in the middle of cities, you know, just like Maitland then. I think I liked Maitland.
Within a few months of being in Australia I contracted whooping cough. Didn't worry me at all but I must have kept the family and neighbours awake at night. Next thing I know I'm forced into the back of a van and made to lie down; still remember looking upside down at the tops of trees from the back window of the van. In later years I realized that it was an ambulance. I protested hugely about staying in the hospital overnight and it seemed ages before I got out.
I learned something at that hospital. The nurse couldn't understand language. I was telling her that I needed urgently to go to the 'w c'. She just kept smiling at me as I repeated my statement, "M'vrouw, Ik moet HOOG NODIG naar de wc!!!!!!!!!!!" No response. What a cruel woman I thought before I went into hysterical mode. That worked. My mother (Mama) was called, she understood and mumbled something to the nurse. The nurse suddenly looked delighted and came close to me, I dead-set remember her exact words, "Poo-poo??......wee-wee??.....poo-poo...." I was disgusted when I realized what I was being asked: none of her business. My memory fades out at that point. Just appalled that they couldn't listen or speak properly.
Well, it seems that things were not going well for Father (Papa). He told me that he was going to have to go away for a while and he showed me how I could cross off the days on a calendar. He also bought us a magnificent radio, a source of joy for years to come. Loved those evening serials, once I adjusted to the lingo. The trouble was that the later the evening, the more interesting the programme. Papa had of course gone off to join the Snowy River Scheme.
To Sydney at last to live. We had actually disembarked in Sydney when first arrived in in Australia, what a vision the different headlands, houses and chimneys emerging and disappearing as the 'Sibaijak' sailed on, the Harbour Bridge was a sight to behold. However we caught a train to Victoria somewhere, I think. Aunty Bep and Mama just gave each other withering looks as they took in the views of the dry and dusty countryside and all those houses and sheds made of rusting tin sheets, the appearance of what they understood to be extreme poverty. Aunty Bep was ready to return to the Old Country, "My child", she said to Mama, who was older than her, "what have we got ourselves into". I left my beloved bear in the train, never to see it again.
On reflection, it wasn't a good start to a new life in the Antipodes. Sydney looked good though, it had trams, trains, people dressed up to go there, big shops, big churches and cathedrals, just like in the Old Country. But we lived at Victor Road, Brookvale at first, now the site of the Leagues Club. We rented the flat for over a year behind Uncle John, Aunty Nieke and favourite cousins Hady and Laurie. These were relatives on my father's side. It took a year for our things to arrive, so we didn't have much in the line of furniture. Our first dinners by ourselves in Sydney were spartan but nourishing, I can still see Mama serving dinner on a packing case neatly decked with a tablecloth.
Brother Peter lost no time in Australianizing himself, though he was strictly warned never ever to refer to his parents as "My old man", "My old woman", which was current slang at the time. Everything was "fair dinkum". For the rest of us there were deep shocks in store. Imagine our consternation when total strangers in shops called us "love", like "what can I do for you, love?". I was really confused when an otherwise nice lady told Mama that I had a heart of gold! It took a while for me to make friends, one nasty boy at my new school put his arm around me and said, "Come and play with us, maid". I pulled away sharply and told him that I wasn't a maid and marched off. My Netherlandic ears then were not used to the fine distinctions between a 't' and a 'd'. Worked out much later that he had said "mate". Oh well......
March 1997. Roberre V J V
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Last updated January 5, 1999