Australia has become a divided, uncertain and troubled country. Our current leadership is mediocre, lacks vision or integrity, and fails to display any semblance of a soul……
Looking back
May 1959 saw me — a young hopeful among thousands of migrants flooding into Australia from post war Europe and the British Isles. All were intent on leaving the lands of our birth for the promise of a better future on the far side of the world.
We and many others who arrived since from the four corners of the known world have put down deep roots in a vast, still relatively thinly populated island continent.
The Australia of the late 1940s and 1950s was still in the process of recovering from a debilitating war. It was an ancient land, while still a young democracy. Australia and its rapidly growing and diversifying population was seeing the need to grow and establish itself as a respected member of the world community.
At the time, the ‘antipodes’, as Australia and New Zealand were also known, were still being regarded as far-flung distant British colonies, ‘down under’, relatively remote amidst the South Seas.
My decision to move to Australia was regarded as foolhardy by most of my British friends. Some even suggested that my sail…
