Jean Costello

I don’t have any recollection of being told we were coming to Australia until we came to the boat and they told us that we were going to Australia and all the people were black and kangaroos would be hopping around the streets. My earliest recollection of landing was that there wasn’t a black person in sight and there were no kangaroos. I was bitterly disappointed.

I came out in the knowledge that I was orphaned but this has since been proven to not be so. I actually found out my mother and father were alive when I was in Australia. My father is still alive and my mother died seven years ago. I met my sister for the first time ever three years ago in South Africa but I didn’t get to meet my mother before she died.

When we arrived in Fremantle, we went on what I later learnt was known as the Orphans’ picnic and went to a picture show coming back to our allocated orphanages. It happened to be Christmas Eve so we stayed up until late and went to Midnight Mass and we always laughingly told the nuns in the orphanage that we were their Christmas present.

We were the third lot of migrants that arrived. There were quite a number of children in each lot. I’m unsure of the exact numbers; I think probably a total of in excess of 150 children at different times. Some of us went to St Joseph’s and some went over to the farming home Castledare, Clontarf or Bindoon, depending on your age.

We slept in large dormitories. The dormitory I first slept in, I think from memory, had 60 beds in it. The routine was the same every day - up very early and we used to polish floors and then go to Mass, then go to breakfast, come back, do some more house cleaning around the place and then go to school which was on the site. After school, you would be allocated various tasks. It could be picking up olives, helping in the laundry or minding children.

We learnt dancing, predominantly Irish and Scottish, and each year there used to be a concert. I spent a lot of time learning to sing. I remember I had to sing without hymn books so every night there would be at least two hours choir practice and you would learn off the masses and words, predominantly Latin in those days.

I think the friendship is something that really intrigues people in that you don’t have a family as such but the girls have remained family. I would say most of my friends include the twelve girls who have kept regular contact and we have been each other’s family. Like if someone is in need or sick, a SOS goes out and someone goes over to clean or cook and shops for you. It’s almost like having an extended family.

I boarded at St Joseph’s, Victoria Square, for two years. I didn’t really enjoy that. I missed the kids from the orphanage. I never really felt that I belonged at Victoria Square. At that stage I would have been 11 or 12. The thing was you didn’t sort of quite fit. The entire duration I was there the sister in charge of the boarding school never addressed us by our names. We were always "those orphanage girls". I attended high school at what is now known as Mercedes. I had a ball there - it was just different. I felt more comfortable - we went there daily on the tram and came home at night. You didn’t feel quite so all alone.

Why am I still here? (Catherine McAuley Family Centre)  An opportunity arose to come back, I discussed it with my husband and he thought it was a good idea. So that's where I started. At that time I was working in the kitchen. I stayed there for some time and then an opportunity came to work in the hostel to look after nuns. I jumped at the chance to do something, which I felt had a bit more extension to it. I’m now the Hostel Supervisor and part of my job is to ensure the smooth running of the hostel. Many of the Sisters who looked after me when I was growing up are now residents in the Hostel where I work.

On whether the orphanage had left a good or bad impression on me. It was a bit cold and sterile but because you had the support of the other girls it was not really relevant. It was only when you have your own family that you actually realise what you missed because you didn’t have birthdays. I actually was 18 before I ever had a birthday present, or in fact celebrated my birthday.

The other thing is that I’m not an Australian citizen. It will always be my home but they brought us out here; they didn’t ask us, and when I went to get a passport, they said I couldn’t have an Australian passport. You’re not an Australian even after living here for all these years. So I remain British.

I have great admiration for the nuns and for the work they do and when we were small children the conditions under which they worked in the orphanage were dreadful. I am not sure of the numbers of the children who were there in my time but we all had numbers and I was number 144 and I wasn’t the last.

Through the Catholic Migration Office I was able to trace trace my sister after a search of 18 months.  On receiving her first letter I found a photo of myself in my mother's arms as a baby.  It was a magic moment because even though you know everyone has a mother, it was like pictorial proof and it is quite uncanny really as I now have a granddaughter who is so like that photo, it's incredible.  So it's a piece of history