RELATED CONTENT: Bert hits welcome chord
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As Dang Audt, from Sudan, said about freedom from fear: “Only those that have experienced fear will understand when they are free.”
Moruya was first settled in the 1820s, and the first European settler was Francis Flanagan, originally from Ireland. John Hawdon, an Englishman, settled Kiora in 1831. The Moruya township was gazetted in 1851 and claimed municipality status in 1891.
Granite was first quarried on the south side of the Moruya River in the late 1850 near the present site of Preddy’s Wharf by the Louttit brothers, of Scottish heritage and forbearers of the present day Louttit clan. This granite was used for many key Sydney landmarks, including the Base of the Captain James Cook statue and the pillars of the General Post Office in Martin Place, Sydney.
My personal connection with migrants, like us all, is within my own family. I am constantly amazed at just how much travel the older generation did in search of work and lifestyle. On both sides of my family, my great grandparents came out of England, Ireland and Wales, but the interesting twist is that both my fathers and mothers parents came via NZ. My Father’s father was born in NZ before travelling back to England with the family for a number of years. The family then relocated to Australia, settling in Moruya to work at the Donkey Mine in Dwyer’s creek. These were gold and silver mines and Dwyer’s creek was a busy settlement which included a healthy number of people in residence, with its own school.
Open our hearts and minds, and ignore the different clothes and religions - that is the true meaning of “Fair Dinkum Aussie”.
Growing up in Moruya, we had significant migrant uptake from many parts of the world. A notable and solid addition is the now well-known Nader family arriving in Moruya of Lebanese origin in 1929 to set up business and raise a family, making a considerable contribution to this community, which continues today. It is through this diversification of cultures that our community grows stronger and develops a sophisticated understanding on how our world works.
After the Second World War, the immigration levels increased significantly, as people fled the bloodshed and decimation of parts of Europe. Whole families had been wiped out and disappeared under the reign of Adolf Hitler. Six million Jews were exterminated, along with many other groups of people from different religious or ethnic backgrounds, for no other reason than ideology and hatred. Imagine - the entire population of Sydney is still less than five million and in the 1940s Hitler dictated the hatred that saw six million innocent men, women and children, from just one religion, put to death in a short five-year period.
Add to that the innocent communities throughout Europe that were battered with bombing and fighting, plus the very brave soldiers who never returned home - we don’t have to be very smart to realise that war is never the answer.
Their backgrounds could be doctor, nurse, dentist, chef, mechanic - it didn’t matter, they all picked beans in Ted Hunt’s paddock.
My first recollection and involvement with this new wave of European migrants was during the 1950s, when on my family farm we contracted with the then equivalent of the Department of Immigration to employ a significant workforce of new migrants in the bean and pea paddocks at Kiora. My father was operating the Kiora farm under lease from the Hawdon family.
Our farm was one of several in the district that undertook the same migrant contracts. A couple of hundred workers would be housed in garm sheds, working farm work while full-time employment was found for them by the authorities in the trade they had learnt in their homeland. They would travel to Moruya on three-month contracts. Their backgrounds could be doctor, nurse, dentist, chef, mechanic - it didn’t matter, they all picked beans in Ted Hunt’s paddock.
As a child, I got to know many of these people and quickly realised that while the Aussie name generally thrown at them at that time was “Wog”, obviously meant in a derogatory way, they were just like the rest of us. They were caring, good people down on their luck and had in many cases been displaced by war. They worked hard, were respectful and all they wanted from this new chance at life was a fair go at becoming an Australian.
This town has a community spirit second to none when it comes to looking after our fellow citizens
My personal attachment to all this is through meeting my beautiful wife in Moruya in 1966 when she was first posted here as a young school teacher. Along with her mother and father, hers was one of those small family groups that fled Europe in 1949 on a rusty ship looking for a better life in a safe and welcoming country, after the living hell her parents had endured.
The 1950s in Australia was a time of great change. We had a government that undertook the massive infrastructure project that is the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme. It employed thousands of new Australians, along with the local workforce, directly and indirectly. It gave hope to communities and created lasting employment.
Locally, rural life was booming, This was reflected into the local business houses as additional trade, as this town like many, had a real influx of itinerant workers, while the district’s family farms were all in full production, supporting large extended families.
An interesting historical fact is the number of cheese factories and sawmills running down the coast from Moruya to our south. One can only imagine now the amount of employment available in our district just from this small list of industries.
Dairy farms were producing an enormous quantity of milk for factories manufacturing cheese, butter and milk. This following list of dairy factories are now all gone except for Bega.
Factories that are now just part of history include:
Kiora, Moruya, Bergalia, Bodalla, Tilba Tilba, Central Tilba, Erina, Candelo, Bemboka, Kamarooka
Timber cutting was big business, employing large numbers, with an equal number of operational sawmills along the coast – three sawmills in Moruya alone, now all just a memory, plus a very healthy business supplying mine props to the Illawarra collieries.
Someone was here before us and they welcomed us to take our place and share at the table.
Add to this the crop farming, where on our property at Yarragee alone, we employed in the order of 100 people on a daily basis, made up of local, migrant and itinerant workers. From the combined Moruya district, three full semi-trailers a day left town for either the city markets or Edgells cannery at Cowra, filled with bags of beans or peas.
These were great times of employment and it seemed that everyone had work.
Sport was also a winner out of this strong employment and prosperity. Our towns were full of young people and every town along the coast and indeed the tablelands had football teams and the like.
Surf Clubs were big deals in each town, providing good healthy sporting opportunities, friendships and importantly community service in helping to keep the public safe.
This town has a community spirit second to none when it comes to looking after our fellow citizens and putting our shoulder to the wheel for a good cause. We only need look right in front of us at the Moruya Swimming Pool. Through the hard work of many of our town elders at the time, Moruya ran an annual major Mardi Gras event every year, closing the main street and raising enough money to build the facility we now all enjoy.
Add to this list in no particular order:
The RSL Hall, Basketball Stadium, Golf Course, Football Oval, Surf Club, Race Course Car, Race Course Horse, Oncology Unit
All worked hard for by community for community.
Only with a concerted effort to add infrastructure will we fix the lack of employment that cripples small communities
On this Australia Day, I say to everybody that we should all take a look back and understand who we are and where we came from, so when we look forward it can be with a different level of understanding and consideration for others.
Our Indigenous countrymen have had their roots in this country for thousands of years. Their culture is one of the oldest on earth and we are still learning to understand it. We came to Australia in 1770 and I can only imagine what the Aboriginals who first encountered us would have thought as they watched the White man in his funny clothes staking a claim on their land with a flag.
The Flanagan’, Heffernan’, Honan’, Hawdon’, and all those other great Moruya community foundation families will understand that at some time our forbears all came to this land from another. Someone was here before us and they welcomed us to take our place and share at the table. They all of course worked hard, but work was available and Australia benefited by learning from yet another batch of new Australians
In the 200 years since white settlement we have done some things well and some not so well, but what we have done is blend all the different cultures from all over the world to become what we now refer to as “Fair Dinkum Aussies”.
What that term means I’m not really sure, and it probably means different things to different people, but to me it means tolerance, it means living together, it means taking just as much as we need and making sure others have something of what we all treasure in this country.
Just like the middle Europeans who joined us in the 50s, the Asians in the 60s and 70s, after yet another futile conflict, would probably have rather stayed at home, but they didn’t have a home because war ruined their lives. Their arrival has been a major coup for Australia, as they have helped us develop our culture, our food, and most importantly our horizons.
I’m not a politician, but I believe as a country we need to start really developing major infrastructure in shifting water around our country to where it can be best utilised, so we can service most of our country like happens elsewhere in the world – and not just the fringes. We need a modern freight transport system, whatever form that takes.
Only with a concerted effort to develop things that will add infrastructure value to this country will we fix the lack of employment that cripples small communities as well as larger ones. It is a terrible shame that our young are virtually forced away to find work when maybe some would rather work and stay within this community.
Finally, to the current crisis that is decimating parts of the world and once again scattering thousands of refugees as they look for a safe haven for their families: just like those that came before them, we should be doing all we can to help provide that safe haven. I know the solution to this conflict isn’t easy, but the solution in the 1940s also wasn’t easy and the world must stand united, not to necessarily fight another war, but rather to find a solution that will return a safe environment to all those poor people currently terrified for their lives and the safety of their families.
If that means we open our hearts and minds, just like others before us opened their hearts and minds, and we ignore the different clothes and religions in welcoming the next generation of Australians to share our great culture - then to me that is the true meaning of “Fair Dinkum Aussie”.
Bert Hunt
Moruya Australia Day address
2016