Born in Sheffield but now live in Australia

[Agent Orange 11]

Nothing to do with this thread, so please accept my apologies in advance of what I'm about to type.

 

To all Ex-Sheffielders out in Australia.

 

I'm currently planning a trip to Australia next year, probably will be backpacking and slumming it in average hotels. I intend to get an internal airpass so I can fly between the major cities and maybe get a railpass to travel the not-so huge distances. Anyway, I would love to hear from you and if you can give me any advice on places to see, places to stay and maybe advice about places not to go to etc then I would be most grateful.

 

Thanks!!

 

PS Please PM me with any answers or advice.

[Greybeard 10]

Originally posted by Janet Olsen

. Pity you didnt try a few years in Oz for the experience of it.

 

 

 

Jane

 

I did get out to Oz eventually - had a fortnight in Freemantle courtesy of the Admiralty in 1964. Didn't find the natives very friendly...how they can getting fighting drunk on that yukky Swan lager still puzzles me

 

Anyway a couple of nights in Perth was enough - we settled for the much friendlier Jugoslavian and Italian quarters in Freemantle...glorious food and wine, gorgeous girls too, but we had to be careful not to be seen oggling them or Papa would chase you with a pretty big kitchen knife:o

 

The highlight of the trip was a Kangaroo shoot - but trying to shoot a bouncing roo from the back of a bouncing landrover at 40 mph with a Lee Enfield 303 is probably the height of frustration, - no wonder Oz is overun with them !

 

Didn't have the nerve to look up my relatives.

 

The whole of the site of the old Middlewood hospital is now a huge housing estate with one entrance off Stockarth Lane right at the bottom - but it's still all open fields on the left as you go up to Worral.

 

GB

[BigD 10]

Originally posted by Janet Olsen

Hi there, I also now live in Australia, just outside Brisbane, I used to live in Oughtibridge &

 

Another of life's little coincidences - as you can see, I live in Queensland now, but in my youth, I used to go camping for a week on a farm above Oughtibridge. The farm belonged to the cousin of the guy who ran the youth club. And that was "camping" - no fancy stuff. Cooking over a log fire, fetching water from a stream, sleeping in a home made sleeping bag(a blanket sewn up one side and along the bottom. And a walk of a mile or so to go to the pub for a drink. Well, we were just a little under age.

[Janet Olsen 10]

Big D, can you remember the name of the pub you used to walk to? I probably either drank in it or was working behind the bar.

Most of my family live on the Gold Coast & I visit every week & shop at Australia Fair.

What area did you live in, in the UK?

Don't you just love the weather here though?Wehave family from Barnsley coming to visit in 4 weeks time & intend taking them to Tamborine & of course down the coastline to Coolangatta.

[Janet Olsen 10]

Greybeard, what a lousy experience for you in WA, I also lived there for about 12 months & discovered that they do not like even Oz people from other states invading WA, they used to refer to me as that girl from the Eastern States because I had gone from Qld to live in WA. But it is a beautiful city I was there again just for a short trip a couple of years ago & have to say Perth really is a lovely city& yes they still love the Swan Lager, give me a pint of John Smiths anyday.

Yep I know what you mean about the kangaroo shoots, thank God they don't make it compulsory inOz.

[BigD 10]

No, Janet, I don't remember the name of the pub, but I do know that it was on the left on the way down the hill, and I don't think it was too far from the main road. Go on, tell me that all the pubs were on the left on the way ....

 

Yes you must take your visitors to Tamborine Mountain, it is beautiful. We are between Robina Town Centre and Pacific Fair, a great area :D

[speeder 10]

Pub was prob The Hare & Hounds, had more than a few in there myself, I'm originally from Wharncliffe Side but used to drink in Oughtibridge and lived with my dad in Stocksbridge for a while, so drank/drunk there as well, live in Longley now but keep in touch with the old areas

[Janet Olsen 10]

Well looks like Speeder beat me to it Big D & whats even worse he is right, it would have been the hare & hounds(trust a Yorkshire man to always be right) We were truth be known probably all in the same pub at the same time & all too blind to see so to speak. Just wish that when my visitors come they would bring some John Smiths with them. Always used to drink Tennants before I left the UK. Don't like the beer in oz though even after 30 years. I used to work in a pub in Oughtibridge called the Travellers Rest, also used to drink at the Blue Ball at Wharncliffe Side & friends of the family had the Middlewood Tavern for many years & yes nearly all those pubs were on the left hand side. At least you live in a nice area of the coast, I lived at Ashmore when it was first built our house was one of the first to be built there, we paid $26.000 for it, imagine trying to buy a house at Ashmore now for that price hah. Great to hear from you & Speeder thanks for your help on that one.

Regards Janet.

[speeder 10]

If you have been in Oz for that long, I would have been in short trousers when you left our fair city(only 34 you see)

[Janet Olsen 10]

Speeder, I have seen many a Yorkshire Man in short pants downing a pint in a pub in Yorks.

Its good to see not much has changed then in the 30 years since I left haha.

[BigD 10]

The Hare and Hounds certainly rings a bell. I suppose the same applies now but at that time, we drank in a pub only because of the beer they sold, so we didn't necessarily drink at the best pub in an area cos the beer might not have been much good. We usually liked Stones - got used to it where we lived - but hated Tennents. Those were the days - when we went into a new pub, to us, the first thing we did was look around to find what the locals were drinking. Best, mild, pints, halves, as they usually knew the best beer and the best way to drink it. Don't have that problem now, as all beer in Oz is sold everywhere more or less, and tastes the same. Ah tjhe old days.

[BigD 10]

Janet Olsen,

I think you may need a little more than $26,000 for a house in Ashmore now:P