Not many people would leave their homeland, family and steady job behind to play amateur soccer- unless they're called Alistair McEwan. With his wife of five years, Helen and two young children to consider, Alistair's sole impetus to leave Scotland came in the form of an advertisement asking for soccer players to join the Azzurri soccer club in Queensland, Australia. With his application sent off, x-rays and Tuberculosis checks done, the McEwan family were ready to leave Airdrie, Scotland for Australia in a matter of months.
“It was easy because we had a sponsor (the Azzuri soccer club). Once you passed the health thing that was it,” Alistair states with his broad Scottish accent.
Fifty years have passed since they arrived in Australia as ‘Ten Pound Poms’. However, Helen McEwan has never fully come to terms with the decision to leave her family back in their hometown, Airdrie.
“My sister Mabel was supposed to come with us but panicked and drew out about a week before we left. She came down to Basingstoke as well with a plan to send us off but she got cold feet and she wouldn’t even get out of bed to say ‘cheerio,’” Helen recalls.
With her sister remaining in Scotland, Helen found life in Australia very isolating. While it was difficult working full time and taking care of the children, Helen never wanted to go back to Scotland defeated. “There have been many times when I had regretted it, and there were many times when I would have loved to have gone home, but basically you don’t turn back.”
Both Alistair and Helen admit to feeling excited in preparation for their departure. In Airdrie, Helen and Alistair lived in council housing until they were forced to move back in with Helen’s parents. For them Australia held high hopes for a better financial situation and a better environment in which their children could grow up. Helen’s trepidation for what was to come only came to the surface as the ship pulled out of the Southampton dock.
“I think I stood on the ship then just thought to myself “what on earth am I doing?”
Upon settling aboard the TSS Fairstar the couple realised how lucky they were to be paying ten pounds for their trip. The four of them were given a single cabin in which to live for the next five weeks.
“We were very fortunate; a lot of families were split. The women and children slept together and the men were separate,” explains Helen.
To a number of full-fare paying passengers, it came as quite a surprise to be mixing with all kinds of passengers. Alistair and Helen found themselves at dinner one night sitting across from two ladies who had payed over 100 pounds to take the Fairstar.
“Two ladies had payed the full fare and were absolutely amazed that we had payed ten pounds and we were all getting the same thing.”
Unlike the many cruises Helen and Alistair take today, the five weeks on the Fairstar didn’t prove very entertaining for them.
Some notable past-times included sitting at the bar, playing in the pool and observing others with sea sickness. While many passengers were “hanging over the railings”, Alistair believes, “us four were the only ones that didn’t turn green.”
“Everybody else was so sick. That’s when we realised what good travellers we were- we never missed a meal,” says Helen laughing.
When the Fairstar crossed the equator on the 1st of June there was a big party and dinner held for all the guests, all of them being gifted a certificate “In the name of Neptune” to signify the crossing.
“They put on a really big show for us and somebody dressed up as Neptune,” Alistair recalls holding up the certificate (pictured left).
Unfortunately, the five weeks of rich Italian based food proved too much for the two McEwan children who were more accustomed to sausages, boiled vegetables and potato ‘tattie’ scones. So what was the cure for overly rich foods?
“The doctor put (the children) on apple juice and nothing but apple juice all day until they had cleared their stomachs out,” Helen says wincing.
The five-week voyage to Australia was anything but tranquil for the Fairstar and following cruise ships. The war between Israel and Egypt broke out on the 5th of June 1967 making the Fairstar the last ship to pass through the Suez Canal before its eight-year closure.
Alistair and Helen don’t recall anyone being scared of the situation in the Suez Canal saying, “we were just glad that we got through. The Canberra was behind us and it had to divert.”
For Alistair, docking at Port Said in Egypt was a far more interesting adventure than for Helen as she was told to stay on board with the two children until the ship left the port.
“(A crew member) said ‘don’t even take them out of the cabin because (the Egyptians) sneak on board.”
On dry land for the first time since their departure from the UK, Alistair tried to explore Port Said with another family called ‘Bennet’.
“We didn’t stay off for too long because we were getting hassled all the time to buy stuff. You could only get to a certain point and then the police would say ‘you can’t go any further’”.
Far from certain safety, the third stop for the Fairstar in Aden proved to be too violent for any passengers to disembark due to the continuing conflict of the North Yemen Civil War.
“We had planned to get off at Aden, because I had an Uncle who worked in Aden but there were gun shots on the wharf so they wouldn’t let us off,” says Helen.
The Fairstar was forced to dock at Sydney rather than Brisbane as planned. The closure of the Suez Canal meant all ships had to go around Africa, inevitably increasing the sailing time and so the Fairstar was ordered back as soon as possible.
Upon landing in the Sydney port, Helen, Alistair and the children laid their eyes upon a migrant camp for the first time. They were forced to remain at Villawood migrant camp for around eight hours before being able to board the train to Brisbane, allowing Helen to appreciate her family’s relatively stable situation.
“One of my conditions for coming to Australia when we first talked about it was that we would not be going to a migrant camp. I’d heard of too many people who’d come straight back. (Going there) confirmed my beliefs that we were so lucky,” states Helen.
Exhausted from their five weeks of travelling and the grim environment of Villawood, the McEwan family finally boarded the train to their new home in Brisbane. According to Alistair the train was “full of Kanangra soldiers” ready to start their jungle training before entering into the Vietnam war, completing the family’s drama filled journey into their new life.