Veronika Wild

- This image is courtesy of Pixabay As we have seen, migration has brought many wonderful people to Australia and greatly enriched both its economy and its culture. While none of it was perfect, there were several reasons why early post war migration was such a success. The economy was booming. There was virtually no unemployment. Even though migrants may have started from a somewhat lower base, everyone could aspire to owning a home and having a good future, migrants and locals alike.    There was a high degree of equality. Although some may have a had a bigger house and some may have had higher wages, overall the differences were nowhere near as great as today and not as great as among people who came to Australia later,   especially after Australia switched to Business and Skilled Migration. Previously foreign qualifications were not recognised and while first generation migrants remained something of an underclass, there wasn’t much resentment as there was a high ...

-This image has been generated by Copilot  It was Mother’s Day this Sunday and thank you to my children and theirs for making mine special. I was also thinking about my Mum who sadly passed away over fifty years ago, but there’s a lovely quote I want to share with you. I’m sorry that I don’t know who said it. It went something like this. “It’s only when we have children ourselves that we realise that it was our parents who gave us our magical childhood.” So this heart is for my Mum, who gave us our love of nature, art, music and literature and how to make beautiful things, even though we had very little. She told beautiful stories and showed us how to make dolls from old stockings, how to make puppets out of papier mâché and fabric scraps and how to use them to tell our own stories. Even though we were jealous of the things which other children had like bicycles and beautiful homes, they were always at our house and wanted to play with us. They were jealous of the freedom whi...

The vegetation is much denser here and there are lots of lovely tree ferns At last, we came to the Liffey turnoff, then took the right turn towards the picnic ground.   Would we or wouldn’t we?  Surprisingly, there didn’t seem to have been a drop of rain on this side of the mountains and the second road was completely dry. Gingerly, I took the van down. It’s narrow and caravans and long wheel -based vehicles aren't allowed down because of the tight bends. There's a car park for them not far from where the road turns off the highway, but it would have been much too far for either of us to walk down to the start of the track. It didn't say anything about campervans. The van is tall but only the length of a normal delivery van, so on I went. About three quarters of the way down there was a wide 4WD coming up and we couldn’t pass each other. The driver motioned to me to back up but on my side there was a soft edge and a steep drop and I don't have great visibility...

That was last week  PS: I am so proud of my fellow Australians who have overwhelmingly voted for fairness and unity over greed and division (91 seats to 34 at last count), despite all the money being thrown at the latter by vested interests.   Coming soon..... Taking a bit of a break to catch up with family and friends this week, so I thought it might be time to finish telling you about the visit to Liffey Falls. On the other hand, May 3, our election day, was also World Press Freedom Day which is vital to healthy democracies, so I want to write something about that over the next few days, as well as thinking about some of the lessons we can draw from the migrant experience. I'm sure I have given you far too much to read already.   Today* *PS. No, Climate Change deniers, this is not evidence that climate change doesn't exist, nor is the rather large snow pack in Antarctica just now, but rather proof that predictions for temperate regions are coming true - that is...

Getting ready for the Dragon Dance at a Multicultural Festival in Hobart The tripling of the oil price in the 1970’s was not the only shockwave to hit the Australian economy. When Britain joined the European Common Market in 1973, Australia had to scramble to find new markets for its produce which had hitherto reliably gone to the UK. It entered into a number of free trade agreements such as the one between Australia and New Zealand, between Singapore and Australia and one with China in the 1980s. It also led to the dismantling of tariff barriers between countries which meant that labour intensive industries such as clothing and footwear could not compete with those produced with cheaper labour in Asia. Soon other companies also sought to take advantage of cheaper production abroad and Australia’s factories began to close. Australia could now no longer accommodate large numbers of unskilled workers  -"factory fodder” as it were, and shifted its focus to skilled migration, bu...