Family Van Ras 1956   from left to right…Josie, Albert (Dad) Helena, Nellie, Maria (Mum) and Eric.

On the 13^th March 1956, we departed from Holland by boat" the Sibijak " to travel to a new place called Australia.  It was of course quite an adventure for us children, and a whole new beginning for Mum and Dad.

Quite an undertaking as both were in there 40’s and to take 4 children under ten with them to a new country would have been quite something.

Our trip across on the boat was for us a real adventure and we loved every moment of it, the excitement ,the thrill of meeting new people and being on the boat for 6 weeks, was something new to us all.

We arrived in Melbourne April 21^st and that was the beginning of our new life in Australia.

On arrival in Brisbane Queensland , we were met at the train station by a dutch family, and taken to there place for coffee, I can still remember Mum’s shock at the thongs the people were wearing , no shoes on there feet, but soon that would also become familiar  foot wear for us.

Our first home in Australia was Wacol Camp, a place were all migrants went before they settled into there own homes, again Mum was sad and I can see her still ,sitting on the steps crying her eyes out "what have we done."  Dad soon was working and before long we had our home in Woodridge where the majority of migrants had homes, so Mum felt al little more at ease, as quite a few dutch people lived in Woodridge. 

After a while we moved to Mt Gravatt a farm, and I started working on the farm as a house help and learned all the basics about cooking, it was my first introduction to the world of cooking and that would take over most of my life later on.