did you ever have the chance of being a ten pound pom?

We were £80 poms. It had gone up by the time we came and we flew out, didn’t come on a ship. We were more or less the last subsidised people, I think it all stopped by the mid 1970s. We were lucky because my husband already had a lecturing job. Have to say the journey out was a total nightmare with 2 little babies , one of whom vomited the whole way. It took over 30 hours including a delay in Bahrain at their non air conditioned airport.

My sister and her family were £10 poms. They stayed in Australia for 7 years and had their fourth child there. They loved the outdoor life there and found it hard to settle back in UK and went off on another adventure before eventually settling down back in the UK.

My parents almost took up the offer in the mid-50's when I was about 8 years old. Then my Grandmother was taken ill, and it all went onto the back burner. By the time she'd recovered, Dad had a new job, so it never happened. Sometimes wonder how it all could have turned out differently.

My cousin did, she has had a miserable life in Oz until recently, there are just as many bad boys down under as here. Her third marriage is much better and they won £1/2 million in the state lottery, so happy now.

We went out to NZ from London when I was a baby in 1950. Not sure if my parents considered themselves to be £10 POHMs
DF was a university lecturer and a native Kiwi. He was killed in an airplane accident in 1954. We stayed there for a few more years but then DM brought us to England. That trip by ship was amazing.
Now one of my DS has emigrated "home" and is very happy there. No long boat trips anymore though - too expensive.

My husband’s parents should have gone, had tickets, everything sorted and at last minute his Mum refused to go. His Dad regretted it for the rest of his life. They were to go with his best friend, wife and family who did go and kept in touch and made a good life for themselves.

I was a ten pound Pom in the forties. We settled for a while in NSW where my aunt who had married an Australian lived. I don’t remember much about it as I was only 3 years old. My mother had saved enough money for the return journey if things didn’t work out and I should think was was a substantial amount. I am not sure why we returned except that things did not live up to expectations and I was not particularly well and snakes and possums played a part too! Other families were quite envious of us returning and so I guess there was quite a lot of unhappiness. I often wonder where I would be had we stayed.