Living in Australia for five months

Living in Australia for Five Months


The rest of the trip was fun and I enjoyed a lot of freedom since Mom was taking care of my little sister.  As my got closer to Australia the weather turned to spring because their seasons are the exact opposite of ours in the USA.  Still swimming was great in the heated pool and the nights I was still allowed to wander around and watch the grown-ups at their parties.  The best party was the costume party where everyone dressed up.  They also had a children’s party and I went as a princess in pink.  It was just a simple costume that my mother had made before we left, but I thought it was grand.  Since I had a key to the stateroom I was sleeping in I stayed and watched the grown-ups at their party.  The music was loud and I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway.  As the drinks were served and drank they got to be very funny.  Lamp shades on men’s’ heads and most of the costumes seemed to look the worse for wear.  But it was great fun sitting in the shadows and watching them have fun.

Since it was spring in Australia we went on a short tour of Aryes Rock. We rode in a very small and very old airplane, at least to me, to see this great rock formation.  In the middle of the country surrounded by desert flat land sits this huge rock jutting out of the ground.  We also saw kangaroos and Koala bears from the plane and I loved watching the kangaroos hopping along.  Luckily I had a much closer look at a Koala bear later in Sydney Park.  We flew over Ayres Rock a few times and then landed and I got to see the full force of nature up close.  I even got to climb a little on the Rock.

Then we flew back and caught another plane to Rockhampton, and my Grandfather, who I later called “Poppy”, met us for the drive out to his ranch.  I met my Uncle Bob who was an ancient 21 years old at the time.  When the grownups sent me outside Uncle Bob would take me to the stables and show me how to groom “Betty”, the horse they let me ride. I loved Betty and she responded to me very well.  She loved to have her head scratched and for me to bring her carrots and sugar cubes for her to munch on.  Uncle Bob had a huge white Stallion that was only part broken and he was a wild thing.  As soon as I would see his eye flash red I knew to run and get out of the way.  One day when Uncle Bob was getting his horses saddle his stallion walked over to me on Betty and kicked her in the side.  She moved out of his way and neither of us was hurt but we were both scared.  From that day on Uncle Bob never left us alone with him.  That stallion turned out to be the death of him a few years later. 

When school started I was fitted for school uniforms, which was fine because they were made for the hot summer weather when school was in.  It was an old country school with wooden and iron desks attached together, something I had never seen before.  Grades 1-4 were in one room and grades 5 and 6 in another smaller room.  The first graders sat up front, which was what I was.  The school was at the top of a hill, which seemed to me to be very high.  You couldn’t whisper or hand notes to each other, that was forbidden.  What happened is you’d be called to the front of the room and told to hold out your hand, palm up and the teacher would hit you once with a wooden ruler to make you remember the rules.

I’d always bitten my finger nails and Mom would put this pepper polish on them, but it never worked.  So I asked her to put some fingernail polish on for me to go to school, hoping that I could stop biting them.  Little did I know that it was against the rules to wear fingernail polish.  So for that I was kicked out of school and told to go home and have it taken off.  Instead I sat on the front steps of the school and pealed it off my nails and then went back in and joined my class.  The rest of the school days went fine after that. 

For Thanksgiving we went to Sydney to see my Grandmother, who I called DI.  There was a lot of sightseeing and tours here too, but the nest one was to Sydney Park.  You could take a Koala Bear right out of a tree and hold them.  I got to hold one for the longest time and my Mom explained that they ate only Eucalyptus leaves and that made them very docile and quiet, which was why you could hold them and love them just like a regular teddy bear.

Then it was time to return to the US.  We boarded a plane in Sydney with the temperature in the 90’s and flew to San Francisco where it was cooler, but still in the upper 60’s.  Then we boarded another plane to fly to Portland, Oregon.  When we got off the plane it was snowing and very cold.  My Dad met us at the airport and drove us home.  I was lucky to have three weeks instead of two off from school just to get used to the cold weather again.  We had a great trip and I loved it all.


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