Can you imagine packing just one case
and leaving your home forever?
What would you take? What would you leave?
What would be best and clever.
They thought it was a sunburnt country.
A land of sweeping plains.
They thought it would be hot and dry,
once they left the ships and trains.
But life is full of twists
and life is full of turns.
The migrants who had shed their coats,
came close to frost bit burns.
Their beds in sheds were usually cold,
with just one blanket each.
Their life was tough, the food was rough, but
a new life was within their reach.
Bonegilla was a place to stay while
jobs for them were found.
Two years of work for the passage here,
was the deal to which they were bound.
Australia needed hard working people
to build its roads and mains.
To build an infrastructure for the future
for water, cars and trains.
Australia was (do you think it still is?)
a land of opportunity.
A land where people came with hopes
to build a new community.
These ‘New Australians’ came through ‘choice’,
their lives at home were shattered.
They came to make a new start and adopt
‘new ways now’ that mattered.
There was NO villa at Bonegilla,
just rows of sheds and huts.
Some people made these into homes
others thought the camp a rut.
Some say the first years were the roughest
because of separations.
Others say that later on ‘No Jobs’ brought
English language skills were taught
for all to be understood.
Over thirty different nationalities
made up that neighbourhood.
Authorities too, had their minds full
of how to cope with change.
As ship load after ship load came
and folk found it all so strange.
Consider food itself an issue,
boiled mutton, milk and mash.
Ice cream was a treat at times
brought with their rare spare cash.
Some chose to walk to town and back
or caught the local bus.
That’s twenty kilometres, just to get fresh fruit to eat
and not cause too much fuss.
Three hundred and twenty thousand migrants,
passed through Bonegilla alone.
Settled all around Australia
and made this land their new home.
How many descendents live in Australia today?
And what are the roles they play?
Is tolerance and good-will the road,
or are other paths the way?
Do we know or understand,
what it means to adopt new people, new land?
When they came with new games
and strange sounding names.
What was discarded and what was embraced
by these people of every race?
Folklore and music, dance, song, and art.
Have we kept them or lost all trace.
Can you imagine just packing one case
and leaving your home forever?
What would you take? What would you leave?
What would be best and clever?