Robert Smith
1973-1975 Class 6, Form 1, 2
Email: rhoberts@hotmail.com
I arrived in Penang in January 1973, the excitement
first started for me the moment I boarded the Qantas aircraft for Malayasia, as
this was the first time I had ever been in an aircraft.
I arrived (like
most people arrivals did), at night, after doing the customs thing we were herded
onto a bus for the trip to Penang, and of course my first trip on the notorious
Penang Ferry.
On finally arriving at our house that had been allocated
to us, (Sungei Killian) the first thing that we all noticed was the line of women
all wanting to be our Amah.
As you can imagine, my parents were rather tired
after the journey from Australia, so they had to try and work some way of asking
the interested parties to come back tomorrow. Of course some of them did, whilst
others probably found employment by following the bus.
We ended up hiring
an Indian lady who went by the name of Angela, (well that was what we called her),
Angela turned out to be a great Amah and apart from a short period of time when
she went to hospital to have her first child, she was with us for our entire stay
in Malaysia. We even got invited to her wedding, and it was a normal wedding,
not an Indian style ceremony.
I started off in grade 6, and then moved
through to Form 2 before we departed for Australia in July 1975. I can't remember
the grade numbers, but I can remember some of the teachers.
Mr &
Mrs Sadikursky (spelling?), Mr Hunter, Mr Skinner (principal), Mr White, Mr Murray
(woodwork), there were of course many more, but my memories are slightly faded.
Highlights of my time there...
The Hostel was great, it was a place you
could go and be involved in varoius activities, I was in the scouts, played tennis,
badminton, had a go at boxing, and of course, who can forget the cinema/auditorium,
I remember seeing some great movies there, and one of the biggest highlights of
the auditorium was that I was a part of the production of Joseph & His Technicolour
Dreamcoat.
I also got to conduct the ANZAC band when they came to visit,
I was plucked out the the crowd and given the baton to conduct them to the tune
of Hogan's Heroes, (fortunately they didn't follow my conducting or who knows
what they would have played).
There were of course other not so nice
things that I remember about the hostel, who can forget the six monthly needles
we had to go and have...not me :)
One of the things I remember most about
Malaysia, was the powdered milk, I hated it then and still do. I remember when
we were on our way home on the plane, I asked for a drink and they brought me
a drink of milk, Mum was most insistent that as I had asked for it, I would have
to drink it....well, I started to drink it and expected the worst, imagine my
surprise when I tasted REAL milk, when some of the friends I was travelling with
heard this, they too were asking for glasses of milk...suffice to say I think
we drank them out of milk.
School of course was school, it was a place
to learn and of course rebel...this of course was punished with a couple of swats
of the cane.
I left Penang in July 1975 and returned to Melbourne.
I joined the RAAF in 1979, and discharged 2003.
I am now living and working
in Katherine NT.
I have been back to Malaysia several times, and have
enjoyed my time there immensely, the place has of course changed quite a lot,
the old married quarters look rundown, I went to see the married quarters we lived
in whilst we were there (2), and Sungei Killian is now a very busy little area,
and where there was once empty warehouses, there are now shops.
14 Road
1 Vale of Tempe has definutely changed, the house is now owned by a Chinese couple,
and although it still looks the same it appears more rundown.
Seaview is no
more, it is now a small garage.
The Hostel looks exactly like
it is, an abandoned building, the windows are either boarded up or broken, and
it looks terrible.
SNOWS club is gone and all that is there now
is an empty lot.
The ferry is still there, but it is not used as much now,
as they now have a bridge connecting the mainland to Penang.
If I can
find the pictures I took a couple of years agos, I will post them so that they
can be put on the website for all to see, if I can't find them, I'll take some
more when I go for a holiday later this year....probably August as that is the
best time to go there (off-season).
If anybody knows the whereabouts of John Gregson, ? Murray (sorry can't remember his first name), Ron White, please ask them to email me as they were three of my best friends when I was over there...John was my next door neighbor in Sungei Killian.