| The Francis Edward Black Family | Details
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Family Stories
Life in Australia:
This entry is to record the arrival of my family to Australia in 1953, ie, Francis Edward BLACK and Marianne Aquinia BLACK (VAN DE ZANDT), and their children Helen Maria BLACK and Martin George Francis BLACK. The occasion is also marked with an entry at the Welcome Wall, Australian Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney.
On our arrival in Sydney we lived at Toongabbie with our sponsors, the Latham family (George) - three families in one house and I slept on the veranda! Shortly after our arrival my father purchased a block of land in the area and arranged for a builder to commence building our new home. Unfortunately, despite all legal precautions, the builder absconded to Queensland with a large amount of our money -a disheartening introduction to Australia and to the disparate State legal systems. Despite this setback we eventually moved up to Bullaburra in the Blue Mountains where in due course we purchased our new home in Noble Street.
My father commuted to Sydney on the steam train known as "The Fish". He worked for Johnson Matthey/Matthey Garrett (precious metal refiners) in Surrey Hills as an Industrial Chemist. Helen and I also commuted to Parramatta where Helen completed her Leaving Certificate at Our Lady of Mercy College and I attended Marist Brothers College for a short time before moving to Katoomba High School.
My parents lived in this house for the rest of their lives and they are both buried at the Wentworth Falls Cemetery.
Helen went on to marry Philip HUTSON and they had three daughters. After Philip deceased Helen went on to Teachers College and became a Primary School teacher, a career which she followed for many years.
You and Your Family:
After leaving school in 1954 I had worked for B.G. Lambert, Timber/Hardware Merchants, Leura as a Tally Clerk. From there I moved on to work for the NSW Government Railway as a Relief Station Assistant working the western line from Penrith to Mount Victoria. After completing a Signalman's Course at Lithgow, I took up a position at Newbridge, near Blayney, where I worked for 2 ˝ years.
On 11 October 1960 I joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a Clerk. This led me to a 25 year very interesting career in the RAAF where I reached the rank of Squadron Leader, retiring in 1985 to commence a fulltime Bachelor of Business Studies course at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. After moving to Canberra in 1991, Norma worked as a Medical Secretary in the Cardiology Department, The Canberra Hospital and myself as an Archives Officer with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. In 2003 we both retired and moved to the "Sunshine State".
I met Norma Nash in 1965 and we married at St Johns Church, Reid, Canberra on 30 April 1966. We had three children - Philip, Fiona and Naomi. Fiona and Naomi went on to obtain Bachelor degrees with Fiona obtaining her PhD in 2001 from Sydney University. Naomi has also completed her Masters in Arts Administration from Adelaide University.
Life Before Australia:
After their marriage in Holland in 1936, my parents lived in Highbury, Islington, in London in the family home at Framfield Road. My sister was born in 1937 and I came along in 1939, just a few months before the outbreak of WWII. My mother contracted TB shortly after I was born and I was placed in an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity. My sister and I were evacuated out of London to Croft Castle in Hereford during the war. My father was in the ARP during the war - exempt from military service because of his specialised occupation as an Industrial Chemist, but he still saw a lot of action with the bombing of London. I attended boarding school at St Josephs Salesian School, Burwash and the Salesian College Farnborough and my sister, Helen, attended Our Lady of Mercy School, Eden Grove, London. With other relatives (the cousins Mignon and Roy ATKINSON) who migrated to Australia telling us what a wonderful place Australia was, and because of my mother's ill-health, we decided to migrate to Australia in 1953. We travelled on the SS Maloja on its last voyage - a slow voyage plagued with mechanical problems and long delays. The journey took about six weeks which was long even for those times. It was worth the long delays however when we saw Sydney Harbour and the Bridge at daybreak - a memorable occasion in our lives and the start of our new lives in Australia.
| Surname: | BLACK |
| Given Name(s): | Martin |
| Email: | mnoir@tpg.com.au |
This family information was last updated by MARTIN GEORGE FRANCIS BLACK on the 21 February 2015.