A German name in the early 1950’s was not popular and not being able to speak the English language made it much harder to be accepted anywhere in Australia at that time. The hatred against Germany was still there due to the war, but I found employment in the furnishing trade at Malcolm Reid in Rundle Street Adelaide in March 1954, working in a bulk store finishing off furniture on customer’s requests. The pay rate was about two pounds less than on the building sites, but I lived peacefully with my conscience. At Malcolm Reid I met Ted Lindsay, a workmate who became interested in my background and I was invited to meet his family. They treated me as their adopted son and we were friends until he died. In 1955, while working at Malcom Reid I managed to get my mother and my two brothers to come to Australia, to give them the opportunity for a better life. While my sponsorship for my mother and two brothers was in progress, Mr. Lohman, the director of Wender & Duerholt G.m.b.H. in Germany made us an offer, that he would take our farm land in exchange for three Housing Trust homes in Adelaide (standard Trust home size) which Wender & Duerholt (Australia) would build for us. At that time Wender & Duerholt had not completed to build the 500 timber frame houses for the Trust. Suitable land to build on in Germany from any farmers in the 1950s in the Wipperfuerth area was in demand. But my younger brother, Erwin, 18 years old at the time rejected that proposal when they had arrived on a passenger-cargo ship in Adelaide. Our mother stalled on the business arrangement and our other brother Herman Josef became undecided. Erwin disliked the Australian culture and the conditions and eventually returned to Germany in September 1962. He wanted to return within days of his arrival, creating many problems for our Mother in not letting her settle down in a new country. My mother and two brother’s fares were paid with the money from the sale of the household furniture, animals and equipment from the farm. The cost of fares for each person was then 128 pounds in 1957.
Thomas Street Seacliff in 1957. Garage living Quarter
They entered Australia as self supported migrant’s free settlers, for which I had to stand as a guarantor. My mother and two brothers lived with me for two years in a tiny temporary building at Thomas Street, Seacliff, where I could not expand, due to my finance shortfall. I found myself in a situation with no option other than to sell my temporary accommodation building, including the block of land. I rented a garden shed, which previously had been used as a chicken shed at Stephenson Avenue South Brighton. That building was no larger than two cars spaces in size, but it was all I could afford at the time. I had to make do and live as a boarder with the landlords until I was cleared from my first land title of Thomas Street, Seacliff, before I could buy another block of land.
Because I was not an Australian citizen at that time, I was not allowed to have more than one property listed to my name. The State Bank manager explained the Government policy to me regarding European migrants in 1955 when I applied for a loan.
After working some 18 months at Malcom Reid I re-entered the building trade being employed by Jack Daniel, better known as the manufacturer of “Daniel Door Seal”. Jack Daniel was a very small builder. He mostly built holiday shacks in the Hallett Cove area. Hallett Cove district is today zoned to Marion Council an area Kingston had settled. Jack and his wife came back from Whyalla to Adelaide. They bought a piece of land in 1948 on the corner of Jervois Terrace and Cove Crescent Marino Rock. That piece of land had a disused, above ground water tank on it, the original tank Kingston had used for his livestock.
Jack built a roof over the half-meter thick stonewall of the tank. According to Jack the water tank was built when Kingston had roamed in the area back in the 1850. Before Jack could obtain water he drilled his own well with his posthole digger to a depth of 80 feet. They used a hand operated water pump to get the water up for their personal use. At that time there was no infrastructure such as bitumen roads water or sewer in the area. Not too many houses were in the Marino district at that time, but a railway line from Adelaide to Willunga passed through the Marino area. Marino station had a turntable to turn the locos. Only some trains continued to go on to Willunga. Jack and his wife plus their first-born baby John, who was first-born in Whyalla lived in the water tank until he had the land divided into three bocks. Then they built in stages a timber frame house on one block and converted the water tank into a joinery workshop. I started to work for Jack in September 1955 and by that time the joinery workshop; originally a water tank had many lean-to additions to it. Every day any person working for Jack in his joinery shop received promptly at 10 am, 12 noon and at 3 pm a cup of tea and biscuits. It was Jack’s way of showing an appreciation to his workers. Jack sold his patent door seal manufacturing and
The Lighthouse at Marino Rock was built in 1962 guiding the ships through the waters of St.
Vincent Gulf.
distribution business to Hills Hoist. In December 1956 the joinery workshop was closed down and Jack moved his family to Port Lincolm.
In February 1957 I found myself employment with M.C. Wood, a private cottage builder, building annually 150 houses for the Housing Trust in the Marion Council area. The northern side of Sturt Road where once the M. C. Wood houses stood is now a large ‘Westfield’ Shopping Centre the largest in the western district of Adelaide. M.C. Wood was a very fine building company and very particular about whom they employed. It was my character identifications, besides my trade ability, which gave me the employment. I worked there for five years and met Norm Domaschenz, fifth generation German.
Norm was an ex-farmer from Yorketown. He was employed as a converted carpenter and his history encouraged me to look into how many other Europeans had come to Australia many decades ago. His ancestor came from Werben, Silesia on a ship “Victoria” arriving in September 1858 at Port Adelaide.
Interest in Australian History
On 21/8/2002 a 34-minute video was made under a Title;
“PIONEERING THE BENEFITS WE REAP”. Directed by Harold Twartz O.A.M. Yorketown giving fine details of a group of people, Domaschenz and Twartz, who migrated and travelled from Cottbus, Werben in Germany in 1858 on the ship “Victoria” and since 1868, have lived on a farm at Yorketown. Ted Egan provided the musical introduction with a song “Try to understand this land Australia”
In 1961 Wender & Duerholt (Australia) became a Registered licensed builder, strong opposition to M. C. Wood in the Adelaide south-western suburbs. But I was totally unaware that Helmut Link and Walter Wiegelmann had them selves upgraded to directors of Wender & Duerholt (Australia) equal to Mr. Schultz.
Wender & Duerholt (Australia) always managed to submit their tendering price for houses to the Housing Trust at the last minute before closing time. Due to submitting the lowest price they obtained the project. That created another problem for subcontract employees to Wender & Duerhold (Australia). To stay in work the subcontractors had to work for the lowest price paid in the building industry in Adelaide. Helmut Link the director of several building companies including Wender & Duerholt (Australia) always found newcomers who could not manage the English language in this country to work for his company at the lowest price arrangement as subcontractors.
On the 29 October 1957 I became naturalised at the Marion Council, Sturt Road, Marion, a service preformed by Mayor K.E.H. Synnett. (Certificate E.M.
(1) No. 36671). Due to the past World War II history, many Germans and people of German descent born in Australia changed their names in 1948 – 1960. Also some people of Swedish descent bearing similarities of a German name changed their name to an English name from Weisbrodt to Westbrok. On the 27 November 1957 due to my bank loan application, the bank local manager Mr. Kelly advised me to change my name to an English look to Henry Smith. (Memorandum Certificate No. 613).
Dr. Heini Johannes Becker who came to South Australia in 1926 as a German qualified medical surgeon. Days after the Second World War broke out he and his so-called comrades were interned. He never was accepted under the British-Australian Government as a medical practitioner. He was partly blamed for Hitler’s propaganda entering the Barossa Region. Becker was deported on the ship USS General Heitzelmaann which sailed on the 30th of November 1947. On board were 304 internees, 24 children under ten years, nine male invalids and 59 male prisoners of war. There were also a number of Italian deportees on that ship.
Ironically the swastika had been used in South Australia on many different occasions many decades before Dr.
Heini Johannes Becker arrived in 1926 in South Australia.
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State Library of South Australia.
In 1957 as my restriction of land titles became lifted I bought the block 100 feet by 200 feet next door to a retired builder, “Spink” a returned soldier of World War one for 500 pounds at Ocean Boulevard, Seacliff in the Marion Council district.
Photo of Adelaide Brighton Cement Works was donated by the Company and obtained from the Mortlock Library for this project.
The flying fox operations bringing stones from the Hallett Cove area to the Cement works at Seacliff ceased in 1952. Goods-trains carrying the stones from Stonyfell (Penrice) near Angaston, Barossa Valley, to Seacliff Brighton Cement works was in operation. A siding and a spur line, from Marino station to the Cement works had been built. A tractor was used in pushing the wagon from the station into the cement works.
Many homes built before 1950 (an average home) in Australia had the toilet outdoors way down in the back yard, the laundry was on the back verandah and the bathroom had a chip heater fired with paper and pieces of wood.
Due to the shortage of housing in the early 1950’s, a migrant couple with a teenage daughter had been living for many years in an iron shed belonging to the Cement Works while he was employed there. For the people in the district, including many migrants who had started to build their houses in the area, the disappearance of the Cement works, which created dust, was a relief when the
operation came to an end. In 1958 the Cement work was closed down all together.
My block of land at that time was the last block of land in the street where water and sewer including electricity could be connected from the single lane bitumen road with out extending the services up hill further. It was closer towards the sea then the block I had in Thomas Street but it was across the road from the Brighton cement works, a district known as “Cement Works Hill”.
The newcomers became interested in land and August Streunkman, Hans Guenther, Eric Schaefer, Rudi Domnick, Bernhart Meyer and Helmut Neumann bought their first block of land in the Municipal Council of Marion, at Dutch Hill.
Helmut Neumann did not build a house on his block; he moved to Queensland and re-sold his block of land after Cement Works Hill (Dutch Hill) became named Seacliff Park. Due to Bernhart Meyer becoming a neighbour to me I was the lender of my kitchen chairs to the group for their card game evenings, but never joined the group at their social activities.
Ocean Boulevarde Seacliff Park 1958
I had spent many hours voluntarily in the building trade by helping preferentially Australian or English people, occasionally European people, to complete their houses. I did this not for money, but for company and to learn the English language and the Australian customs. Building materials became more available and the restriction on cement became lifted. It became noticeable that profit was being made in the building trade.
Therefore the generosity in helping each other started to diminish after 1957, people became somewhat reserved. I built myself a small house, which carried a State Bank loan of 2000 pounds with a 3.75% interest. With no help other than a plasterer, plumber, and electrician paying their wages I completed my
house. For the foundation I used Readymix concrete. I poured the concrete for the foundation by myself under the watchful eyes of the State Bank Inspector.
Shortly after moving into my house, the local Catholic priest visited me and was quick to request that I should donate 10% of my weekly wages to the church. I explained to the priest that back in Germany, the Catholic priest had refused to allow my mother to pay off a loan that my grandfather had taken out from the church for his house and land, at the beginning of 1900. When my grandfather died, my father inherited the property and the mortgage. But when my father died in 1941, the mortgage became the responsibility of my mother. Since my father had died in 1941, it was my duty to support my mother and two younger brothers. The donation requested in 1957 turned me away from being a member of any Catholic Parish in Australia and I drifted away from the Catholic Church. Therefore I changed my religious practices and became a Lutheran in
1960, with much disapproval from my mother. I wanted to get on in my newly adopted country; therefore I chose to marry an English girl in Australia. The family lived in Gepps Cross; they had the same aspirations as myself have migrated from England to Australia.
The relationship with my mother broke down all together, and my brothers disowned me. My family name changed. My mother returned to Germany in January 1962 on a passenger liner. The cost of her fare was 150 pounds. At her age of 65 arriving back in Germany she started to work on our old run down farm again.
Pioneers Memorial Hall in 1958
Monier tile and Prestress Concrete began to take over the Cement Works plant, (Brighton Cement.) In 1957-58 the plant made the concrete beams and panels for the Pioneers Memorial Community Hall on Sturt Road Marion. M.C. Wood was the principal builder employing some sub-contractors working on the hall. It was the first pre-stress concrete building project for the company where I was employed in helping build the hall.
Due to M.C. Wood moving into larger concrete construction work the cottage building section was very much reduced.