Who Are They?
These photographs were taken on board the Asturias in November 1948, by Pat Piggott. His wife Irene (Rene) and son Michael are pictured with other passengers. If you can identify them, please let us know.
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Army Chaplain's Poems
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Ship's Voyage Logs
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Statistics about the Ship
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If you have a story about travel on the SS Asturias we would love to publish it. Some people kept a diary of their voyage from the UK - others have stories about how they came to be on board, for example as children who believed they were orphaned only to find out later that they had a family in the UK. Other passengers came from many countries, including Malta and Poland. Stories from these passengers would be most welcome.
Email your story for publication, including your full name and address, and a contact telephone number for verification (your contact
details will not be published). The website administrator will let you know if anyone wants to contact you.
[Click on family name to see their page]
MOUNT FAMILY
On 7th July 1948 Leslie and Winifred Mount and their two children, Grenville (age 10) and Anthony (age 2) left Farndon
on their journey to Australia. They stayed overnight in London, boarding the Asturias on the 8th July. Arriving in Melbourne
they are taken by their sponsor to a farm in Colac, rural Victoria. Leslie soon finds that his promised job has been given to
someone else .... and his hunt for work and a house for his family begins. He kept a detailed diary of their voyage from the
UK and the first months after the arrival in Australia .....
In August 1949, Mary Azzopardi and her three
sons, Tony (age 5), Roger (age 4) and Godwin (age 3) migrated to Australia from Malta, on the SS Asturias. They were to join
their husband and father, Edgar, who had arrived earlier to work on a farm in Narrawong, near Portland .....
Daniel
Laverty was a crew member on the Asturias on its voyage in May 1948. On board he met a passenger, Amy Longden. He jumped
ship in Fremantle to stay with her....
BARBER FAMILY
Ron and Freda Barber left their home in Brighton, England with their two
children, Tony and Margaret, departing Southampton on the 11th May 1950. They arrived in Perth on Foundation Day, 5th June 1950....
My dad, Cliff Schwerin, travelled on the SS Asturias - not as a migrant on his way to Australia, but as a member of the RAAF
in 78 Wing, which was deployed to Malta for garrison duty in 1952. Dad, at that time an LAC, took part in a farewell march through
the streets of Newcastle on 27 June 1952 and departed with 78 Wing by train for Sydney, where they embarked on the SS Asturias......
George and Lillian Tubb migrated to Australia with their two children Charles [10] and Jacqueline [6] aboard the Asturias, leaving
Southampton in March 1952. They were 10 Pound Poms and never regretted the move to improve their lifestyle from that of
their post war years.They did miss leaving their families and the England that they knew and liked. They got off the ship in Sydney
and caught the train up to Brisbane....
The Howett family - Charles, Doreen and their three children,
Frank (aged 15), Gordon (aged 13) and Valerie (aged 5), left Southampton on the 5th November 1949 on the SS Asturias, for Sydney.
They were sponsored by descendants of their family who had travelled to Australia in the days of sail. After living in cramped
circumstances with their relatives for six months, Charles, a carpenter, purchased a block of land in Canley Vale.....
The Freeman family - Gordon, Ruby and their two sons Brian and Colin, migrated from Harrogate in Yorkshire to Australia in November
1951. After a stay in the Bathurst Migrant Hostel and Finsbury Hostel they eventually settled in Adelaide, South Australia.
Both boys attended Adelaide University and went on to Post Graduate studies. Colin spent six years in Papua New Guinea as Librarian
of the New Guinea collection in the newly formed University of Papua New Guinea and has written three books on New Guinea topics.
He subsequently had a three year Diplomatic posting in the Embassy of Australia, Washington DC .....
In
November 1948 Thomas and Millie Wilkinson and their two children, Gordon and Rosemary, travelled from Belfast via Liverpool then Southampton
where they boarded the Asturias for their journey to Australia to settle in Geelong, Victoria. Thomas kept a very detailed diary of
their trip which his family had bound and presented to him shortly before his death in 1989. The diary contains many photos
taken on board and vivid descriptions of their month at sea.
Lynnette Fiddick (nee Bailey) was only 8 months
old when she came to Australia with her young parents on the Asturias in August, 1948. ”My mother was Australian and my
father was English, serving in the Royal Navy when they met at the end of WW2. They married in Australia and my mother went to England
as a war bride. I was born in England in November, 1947 and we arrived in Sydney in August, 1948. My parents were very young at the
time, Mum was only 19 and Dad was 24 and they arrived in Sydney with only 15/- in their pocket.........
FR ROLAND OWENS
Rev Roland
Owens was an Australian Military Chaplain in World War II. He accompanied Australian soldiers returning home on the Asturias
in June 1947. During the voyage he wrote a poem about the children's concert and was persuaded by Catholic sisters to also write
a poem about them ......
Sister Angela Mary Doyle was born in Cranny, County Clare, Ireland. In
1947, at the age of 21, she journeyed to Australia to join the Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy. She travelled
on the Asturias, together with nine professed Sisters and five girls. Her early work was in teaching, but within a year of arriving
in Brisbane she had commenced nursing at the Mater Hospitals in Brisbane. Sr Angela Mary has been awarded the Order of Australia
(1993), was Queenslander of the Year (1989) and has received numerous other awards for her contribution to society. She kept
a highly detailed and entertaining diary of her 5 week voyage and has kindly agreed to its publishing on the site .....
In January 1949 the Forbes family (William and Grace and their three children) from Mansfield, England, departed Southampton
for Australia on the SS Asturias. During their 37 day voyage the family were often seasick and their son Ian (22 months old) was unwell
for most of the time.
William Forbes kept a diary during the family's voyage to Australia. From cheerful entries "lovely
boat, lovely food" to less happy entries "heavy seas, stormy passage - all feeling crocky", the diary gives a wonderful insight into
life at sea for 5 weeks. William, Winifred Grace and their children Jean, Wendy and Ian arrived in Sydney on March 5 1949, to
begin their new life....
Frank and Ada Flowers and their four daughters migrated to Australia under the
'£10 pom' scheme and they arrived in Melbourne in March 1950. Their brother Donald sailed on the ship "TSS Cameronia" from Glasgow.
He was required to stay in England to finish his two year compulsory national service in the air force. He joined the family
in 1951. The Flowers family lived with their sponsors on a berry farm at Wandin Yallock, Victoria, for a short time.
"It
was a real culture shock; we had never seen an outside 'dunny' let alone used one, and there were only rain water tanks. Water
was scarce at that time and we had to use the same bath water as other family members. The bathroom was outside in a shed, along
with two troughs for washing clothes ......."
BON SCOTT
In 1952 Mr Charles Scott and his wife Isa along with their two sons Derek
and Ronald (Bon) left the Scottish town of Kirriemuir to travel on the SS Asturias to a new life in Australia. At the time no-one
was to know that Ronald (then aged 6) would later go on to front one of the biggest rock bands of all time - AC/DC.
Thanks to
Glenn Robertson for permission to use this information; you can visit his site devoted to AC/DC here.
ANDREW CLARK HERD
Andrew
"Sandy" Clark Herd (born 28 June 1902 in Torryburn, Fife) was a Scottish professional footballer. A miner by trade, he started
his senior career with Dundee in 1923. He was signed by Hearts in 1927 in a 250 Pound transfer deal. He spent ten seasons
with the Tynecastle club, making 229 first team appearances. His half-back combination with Alex Massie and John Johnston proved
successful for Hearts, the trio proving a constant part of the side between 1930 and 1935 and eventually all three gained selection
for the Scottish national team. Herd retired in 1939 and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, arriving with his family on the
Asturias on 16 November 1946. (Source: Wikipedia)
