We left on the "Orsova" on the 22nd of May, 1961. The trip out wasn't very easy. The first few days were really sad, because we left our family. It was an English ship so we couldn't talk to anybody because we didn't know the language.
Marija Zaknich

I left Messina, Italy at the end of July on the "Toscana". The trip was rough and slow. The food was alright but because it was so rough, no sooner was it taken in than it came out! The ship took forty days to reach Melbourne.
Giuseppe (Joe) Franze

On Dad's journey out to Australia, the ship broke its tail shaft and stayed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for a couple of months. Dad remembered going into the forests of Ceylon eating big snails. These were two or three inches in diameter and that's what they lived on.
Louis (Lou) Forner

There was not really any sadness when I left my country for Australia. I was happy to come here because I knew I was beginning a new life: starting again, and I would meet my father.
Ivan Vlatko

I sailed on the Greek ship "Tasmania". There were five hundred men and two thousand girls! I had a fantastic time and I didn't want the trip to end.
Spiros Niarros

I sailed on a German ship the "Fair Sea", and celebrated my twenty first birthday on the boat. There were five hundred Italian men on the ship, from twenty one to thirty years of age, no younger or no older. There was not one Italian family or Italian female on board.
Dino De Franceschi

One night water was coming to the level of the window and it was like mud. The ship was swaying and I said, "We'll drown tonight!" The children were sleeping; it didn't worry them but I went into the passage and prayed the fifth mystery of the Rosary so that the ship would not sink!
Olga Zanette

I came out on an English ship, the "Orion". I enjoyed going to the lounge after dinner to watch the dancing. People came and asked me to dance but I was too shy. I remembered my father's words. "Don't trust anyone; don't have a drink and don't get too excited dancing, because if anything happens I will jump in the river."
Vasiliki (Vickie) Niarros