The Emigrants
A photograph of William Bell’s Great Grandfatherwith his dog. The date is uncertain but we know itwas taken in Yarraville.
A Migrant’s Life Today
William Bell, Victoria, Australia
“I am a Technical Officer for a company that has the contract foroperating Victoria's Mobile Speed Camera program. They bust 'em andI fix 'em. My wife Amanda is a Telemarketer. We live in a three storytownhouse in the inner suburb of Moreland 3 kilometers north of thecentre of Melbourne.Moreland is the classic multicultural Australian suburb. Each wave ofmigrants to Australia are represented here. From the anglo-celts of the1850s to the Greeks of the 1950s and 60s, the Turks and Lebanese of the1970s to the refugees from Somalia and Eritrea of the 1980s.
A trip up Sydney Road, the main road through the suburb, gives you asmorgasbord of food shops and small general stores. Within 10minutes walking distance you can try Nepalese, Chinese, Japanese,Italian, Lebanese, Thai, and North African food. Along the same walkyou can buy cheap household goods from small Chinese/Vietnamesegeneral store or blow $10,000 dollars, or more, on a wedding dressthat has won first prize in the annual Australian Fashion Week.Once a year Moreland Council closes Sydney Road and holds a streetparty and a photograph of this event is attachedHere is a picture is of the old Brunswick Town Hall. It can be a bitconfusing about place names in Melbourne since the amalgamation ofa lot of city councils about ten years ago. People tend to use the oldplace names. The new amalgamated council is Moreland of which thetwo old city Councils of Brunswick and Coburg were folded into, butevery one still identify themselves as living in Brunswick or Coburg.Those two names should give you a hint of when the suburbs were firstnamed.”
“Grandma is the daughter of George Alexander and so is theGranddaughter of Johan Munro. The photograph was taken in aboutMarch 1916, just before Granddad sailed for the Western Front. Thetwo little girls are my Aunties: the eldest was called Sadie and the babyIsabel. Here is a remarkable fact - the entire military force fromAustralia fighting in WW1 was volunteer. So here is my Grandfather,who was 26 at the time, volunteering for active duty, even though hewas married with a two little girls. And it’s not as though he wasignorant of what he was getting himself into. His brother-in-lawDonald Munro MacDonald returned in May 1916, after being in theGallipoli campaign, after surviving being shot in the back andshoulder. Donald had been in the second wave that had stormed thebeach on the 25 April 1915. He was wounded on the 26th, but hismilitary records show that he didn't get medical attention untilsometime between the 28th and 30th of April such was the shambles ofthe landing. No doubt something of what had occurred would havebeen in his letters home and definitely in the newspaper reports.”
My Grandfather survived the war, starting as a private on enlistment,a corporal on embarkation, a sergeant by the time he got to Franceand finally commissioned lieutenant by November 1918. I wonderwhat Grandma was thinking when this photograph was taken
After the war Grandma and Granddad opened general store inYarraville and latter at another suburb further west at Tottenham. Granddad finally had to retire in 1947 and become a TPI (Totallyand Permanently Incapacitated) pensioner as his experiences in thetrenches caught up with him. I believe it was mustard gas thataffected him. Granddad died in 1956 just after I was born so I neverknew him, but I do have a photograph of him with me and my cousinJimmy lying on the front lawn of his house in Tottenham duringChristmas 1954. All my great uncles who served in WW1 were wounded,and while they all lived a number of years after the war the woundsthey received in some way hastened their early death. Grandma, blessher, lived to be 95 and died in 1985.
William Belll Brunswick Victoria Australia
William Bell’s Grandma, Sarah Jane MacDonaldand Granddad, Richard Jordan Collard (thegrandson of Charles Collard the ex-convictmentioned earlier).
