A Board Brush Stroke of My Life – Meet General Committee member Gudrun Wilkinson
Posted on: 7 May
My Life: By Gudrun Wilkinson
Born: 1948. That is quite a while ago 🙂
Where: West Germany. My parents met and married after the 2nd World War in a small village in Northern Germany. Dad had been a prisoner of war in Poland eventually brought across to Germany to work as a prison farm labourer.
In 1945 as the war ended my father was assigned to a British reoccupation unit. He did not go back to Poland for over 18 years. That is another story.
My parents met at a dance fell in love married and with two young children in 4 years realised that Europe (Germany) was not the easiest place to raise children especially of mixed races.
We migrated to Australia in 1950, set sail on the Fairsea landed at Station Pier Port Melbourne in Victoria seven weeks later. We were then transferred immediately to Bonegilla a small country town situated in north west Victoria.
My parents applied for entry into the United States or Canada but both countries had closed their boarders having taken more than two million displaced persons at the end of the war. Their only option now was Australia a placed so very far away.They soon realised this was the best choice it was indeed “The Lucky Country”.Those willing to work hard could find multiple jobs sharing in a wonderful healthy happy lifestyle.
This photo was taken shortly before we embarked on the Fairsea in the coastal port of Norderney, Germany.
