The First Ten Years in Australia Revised
About this audiobook
A Dream for Ten Pounds… A Decade of Upheaval
In 1959, ten-year-old Peter Harris left post-war England for Australia under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. With his family aboard the SS Orontes, he traded the familiar streets of Blackpool for a future imagined only through government brochures.
This revised edition follows the Harris family’s search for stability as they navigate the hardships and bright moments of resettlement. Peter’s first decade in Australia becomes a whirlwind of ten moves across New South Wales, from migrant-hostel Nissan huts to drafty farmhouses and cramped caravans.
Through Peter’s eyes, relive the epic ocean voyage—with its exotic luxuries of ice cream and orange juice, and the raw freedom of 1960s Australia: surfing at Bateau Bay, prawning at Long Jetty, exploring the bush. But adaptation has a cost: a teacher who mocks “Pommies,” constant school changes, blistering heat, and close calls with snakes.
The First Ten Years in Australia brings the vibrant, chaotic 1960s to life, charting one boy’s journey from wide-eyed migrant to resilient young man. It is the story of a family determined to build a new life, even if it means starting over ten times. Did the ten-pound dream deliver the stability they hoped for?
