Freedom's Land (7 page)

‘Are the other bunks free?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll sleep on this top one, then.’ She set down her suitcase and climbed up, smiling across at Janie.

Another young woman arrived and stared round as if suspicious of what she might find.

‘That bottom bunk is the only one free now.’ Norah pointed to it.

‘Who told the child to take the top one?’ the newcomer asked in a shrill voice.

‘I did.’ Norah replied.

Matron stopped in the doorway just then. ‘Everything all right here?’

‘No, it isn’t!’ the angry young woman snapped. ‘They’ve given the top bunk to a child, and that’s not fair. I’m not sleeping at the bottom.’

‘I’ll take the bottom one, if you like,’ Irene said. ‘I don’t mind.’

Matron looked from one to the other, her expression grimly assessing. ‘Very kind of you to offer, Mrs Dawson, but there’s no need. Mrs Grenville can perfectly well sleep in the bottom bunk.’

‘But I don’t m—’

Matron held up one hand to stop Irene continuing and looked at the complainer. ‘If you want to change to a cabin lower down the ship, without a porthole, Mrs Grenville, you can have your choice of bunks. We work on the principle of first come, first served and we’ve not started assigning those cabins because there are more people yet to arrive. Otherwise, you can stay here and take that last bunk. Decide quickly and be done with this fussing. I’ve got some real problems to sort out.’

The angry woman hesitated then said in an aggrieved voice, ‘I’m not going into a cabin without a porthole. I’d suffocate in one of those.’

‘No one has done so yet. But please yourself.’ Matron hurried away.

Norah introduced herself and the newcomer said grudgingly, ‘I’m Susan Grenville.’

Irene sighed. ‘I didn’t think we’d be separated from our husbands.’

‘It’s a cheat, that’s what it is,’ Susan grumbled. ‘I didn’t want to come anyway, but Bert insisted, and now look where it’s got us. Separated. It’s a bad sign, that is.’

Norah could see that the woman was a grumbler. It was going to be a long journey.

She found it wearing in many ways, the main one being the way Janie still clung to her like a leech. And since she was used to working and keeping herself busy, Norah found the hours of idleness hard to cope with, in spite of the concerts and clubs and organised activities.

The sight of Irene, struggling to embroider a blouse, led her to start teaching her cabin mate sewing, and other women asked for her help, which led to a sewing group forming. The purser proved to have some material, thread and buttons for sale, and the women set about making garments by hand for themselves or their children.

‘Thanks for doing that, Mrs Boyd,’ Matron said.

‘I couldn’t have done it if there weren’t sewing materials for sale.’

The other woman laughed. ‘There’s usually a sewing group starts up. And our Purser makes good money from his sales, one of the perks of the job. He has a fair idea of what’s needed.’

Andrew grew friendly with a group of older men, some of whom had farming experience. He spent a lot of time talking to them.

Norah would watch him wistfully, wishing he spent half as much time talking to her, really talking, not making polite chitchat. Then she chided herself for being unrealistic. How could they have serious conversations when they were never alone, always surrounded by people?

And when Janie refused to leave her side.

Irene also complained of having little time in private with her husband. ‘There’s always someone nearby so you can’t really have a conversation, let alone a bit of a cuddle.’

Norah would have settled for a private conversation. But when she one day insisted Janie stay with the other children and began to walk round the deck with Andrew, it wasn’t long before another woman came to find her.

‘Your Janie’s upset. She’s crying for you.’

You couldn’t refuse to attend to your child when she was upsetting other people.

Andrew held her hand for a moment before she left him. ‘We’ll have time to talk in Australia, Norah.’

But she wanted to talk now, wanted to spend the lovely balmy nights chatting to him without Janie’s scowls and sighs interrupting them.

The ship docked in Fremantle in early February. It was a searing hot day, because the seasons were the opposite to England here in Australia. The children complained about having to wear their coats, but it was the easiest way to carry them, since each had a bag to carry as well.

Norah saw Andrew’s arms go round his boys’ shoulders and wished he would hold and touch her as easily as he did them. As they stood waiting, she lost herself in her own thoughts. The main one was how glad she was that the voyage was over and she wouldn’t be shut up in a stuffy cabin any longer. And she’d be relieved to see the back of Susan. Irene was a delightful young woman, but Susan had a very sour nature and nothing ever seemed to make her happy.

Norah knew she’d been sharp with her a few times, but give the devil his due, Susan never seemed to hold a grudge about that.

At last they were let off the ship, shuffling down on to dry land, where they were directed towards a huge metal shed. There was laughter as they found it hard to walk properly after so long at sea, then grumbling as they had to stand in queues again, waiting for medical and customs checks.

These didn’t take very long, thank goodness.

After that, the group settlers were gathered together in one corner. A rather podgy young man, who introduced himself as a representative of the Group Settlement Board, began to call out their names in alphabetical order, ticking them off on a list.

‘This seems to be taking a long time,’ Norah said to Andrew with a sigh. ‘I want to see something more of Australia than a big tin shed.’

‘Tired?’

‘Only of having nothing to do. I prefer to keep busy.’

‘Me, too. Ned, come here and stand still!’

She was glad Andrew kept a firm hand on his sons. She didn’t approve of children being allowed to run wild. No need to tell Janie to stay next to her. She was never more than a few inches away.

The young man and a clerk then gave them back their landing money. Andrew had had to deposit twenty pounds before leaving England, so that they wouldn’t be destitute on arrival. She wasn’t sure how much he had left after that. Money was another thing they hadn’t really had an opportunity to discuss. She’d got some of her own and hadn’t offered it to him, because it made her feel more secure to have something behind her.

And then, at long last, they were escorted outside ‘into Australia’ as Janie called it, and directed to a charabanc, which would take them to the old Immigrants’ Home, where they were to stay until they could go down to their farms. Its top was open to the evening sunshine and she wished the drive had taken longer, because she was fascinated by everything, the little wooden houses with verandas, the strange trees and once, what she thought were parrots flying freely over the house tops, only the driver said they were white-tailed black cockatoos. But that was a sort of parrot, wasn’t it?

So much to learn.

At the Immigrants’ Home men and women were once again separated, which caused much grumbling. Females were to sleep in long dormitories and males outside on the wide verandas, which would be no hardship in such warm weather.

Norah was relieved when Susan was assigned to another dormitory and quickly found herself and Janie beds. Irene, looking a lot rosier than she had at the start of the journey, came to take the next one.

‘Do you mind if I stay near you?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know anyone else here.’

‘Not at all.’ The narrow camp stretchers they were sleeping on were set about four feet apart. Janie sat on the edge of hers with a tired sigh, suddenly losing her energy. ‘Can I go to bed now, Mum?’

‘Not till you’ve eaten, love,’ Norah said.

‘I’m not hungry.’

‘Well, I am. And you must try to eat something or you’ll be hungry in the middle of the night.’

‘I thought I’d be with my Freddie tonight!’ Irene said as she took her nightclothes out of the suitcase and then pushed it under the stretcher bed. ‘I do miss him.’

‘You’ll be with your husband when you get to your farm.’ So would she, Norah thought. And how would that go? After the one kiss, Andrew had made no attempt to touch her. Was he perhaps not a very passionate man? If so, that would be a big disappointment.

And what was she doing brooding, when she had a child to feed and was ravenous herself? ‘Let’s go down to the dining room.’

They rejoined their men folk and found a hearty lamb stew and fresh crusty bread waiting for them, followed by fruit – melons, which many of them hadn’t tried before, and grapes, a luxury item in England. Here, it seemed, they were very cheap at this time of year and many people grew their own.

Before they went to bed, a roster was read out because the women had to take a share of the cooking and cleaning. Norah found she’d be on early duty, getting breakfast ready, which she didn’t mind.

As soon as the meal ended, she turned to Andrew. ‘It’s been a long day and Janie’s exhausted. I think we’ll go to bed now.’

He looked out to where some of the bigger lads were playing catchers. ‘Those rascals of mine seem to have got a new lease of life, but I’m tired too.’

When would they be sent to their new homes? she wondered as she lay in bed. She was fed up with being ordered around like a schoolgirl, wanted to start her new life and try to pull the family together. They still felt like two separate families and that was no way to go on.

And Andrew never seemed to want to spend time with her. If he’d suggested putting the children to bed and going for a walk round the grounds, she’d have done it, been glad to talk. But he hadn’t.

And she’d been hesitant to suggest it to him, fearing a rebuff.

What sort of life would they have together if they didn’t talk? How would she go on a farm? There were all sorts of questions bubbling up in her brain, but very few answers.

Well, she’d made her choice now and there was no use grumbling. She just had to get on with it.

Gil and another man were sent down to Northcliffe to help set up a new group. Pete was Australian, another ex-serviceman. He was to take up one of the blocks and act as a sort of deputy foreman to a new group.

So many settlers had been sent out from England that the authorities had decided to release more land. Gil was assigned to be foreman of Special Group 1, which was a farce, really. He’d seen the general area, but didn’t know where the land they were to be allotted was, or the exact facilities that were waiting there for the settlers. He too would be allotted a piece of land. He’d almost told them not to bother, then had decided to accept it. If he didn’t want to stay, he could maybe sell it.

He met Pete at the railway station and since his head was thumping with a hangover, sat quietly in a corner of the compartment, making no attempt to start a conversation.

‘Easy job this,’ Pete said as the train set off, ‘telling others what to do.’

Gil stared at him in surprise. ‘
Easy!
Teaching ignorant Poms everything about dairy farming here in Western Australia. You can’t mean that.’

‘Well, I read in that pamphlet that the farms are already laid out, so it won’t be too difficult, surely?’

‘I think you’ll find yourself with more to do than you expect. I went down to have a look round a few weeks ago and they’ve hardly got anything set up down there, let alone cleared and laid out the farms. The town has a store and a couple of huts, and that’s all.
They
can call it a town. I wouldn’t. So unless they’ve had an army of workers down there in the past few weeks, I can’t see much being ready.’

‘But it said they’d surveyed the town site, marked out thirty-two quarter-acre blocks. There must be some people and amenities there,’ Pete protested.

‘There aren’t, you know. They’ve only recently done the town site survey. They’ve not got any houses built or any businesses going apart from the one store.’

He’d brought some gear of his own with him, including a tent, to make sure he had somewhere under cover to sleep. He didn’t even trust the Board to provide a roof. It was getting towards the end of summer now, and he’d been told it rained more in Northcliffe than in Perth, and was cooler, too, so he thought it best to be prepared. He wanted to buy a horse and cart too, if he could find them at a reasonable price, but would buy those locally.

Pete scowled at him. ‘If the authorities haven’t got things set up, why are they rushing this new group through and sending us down?’

‘Beats me.’ Gil thrust his hands into his pockets and stretched his legs out. He often found it hard to understand what those in charge were thinking of, they did such damned stupid things. Someone made a decision without thinking if it was possible, then left the poor underlings to try to carry it out.

He’d learned in the Army to keep his mouth shut and make the best of things in your own way. No use complaining, just get on with it.

Three days after their arrival at Fremantle, the settlers were notified that they’d be leaving the following morning. Their group was to travel by train to a town called Pemberton. A map was displayed and throughout the day there seemed always to be people near it, pointing, discussing, speculating as to what they would find down south.

Norah was glad that Irene and Freddie were in their group, but to her dismay, the Grenvilles were in it as well. She tried not to let her feelings show, but Bert was as sour-tempered as his wife and she didn’t trust him, though he’d given her no reason for this.

They set off early in the morning, snatching a quick breakfast of bread and jam, and taking with them a package of sandwiches and metal bottles of water.

The journey seemed very long indeed and even with the windows open, the railway carriage soon grew unbearably hot. They’d got used to hot weather on board the ship, but there had usually been a sea breeze. Today the air was still and heat seemed to press down on you like a heavy weight. The children drank their water then complained about being thirsty.