Left:  van Popering family leaving the Netherlands by air, 1955

Lena: I tried hard not to cry. Everyone else was - well most of the grown-ups anyway: my lieve (darling) Oma, Tante (aunt) Corrie, my Mama and Marga. The other day cousin Carma had cried when she gave me a present.  David wasn't crying. He was with kleine (little) Eddie and they were watching the rag man in the street below calling out 'fodder, fodder' as he collected rags. 

We had just had a very special meal at a restaurant at the airport with Tante Corrie's family. That was fun even though I was worried that David would spill something. He was only two and I didn't want him to make a mess. I was four so I knew my manners.

It was a cold day, with fifteen centimetres of snow. It was the 18th of March, I've since been told, and we were about to get on the plane. I thought that would be fun and exciting, but instead there was lots of crying. I held onto my doll, and my tiny suitcase filled with balls and a book, and kissed everyone. There was a lot of kissing. Papa gave his money to Oom (uncle) Eddie and said,'I won't need this anymore'. That seemed very strange to me at the time. The last thing that happened was that we posed for a photo - the five of us who were leaving and two stewardesses too. It seemed to be a very special photo because it has been in a frame in our house ever since.

We had spent the last few days staying in Amsterdam with Tante Corrie, Oom Eddie, Marga and kleine Eddie. That was a big city, and it was different to be there while Mama and Papa went and did things so we could go on the plane. We had all been living in the house on the farm at Angeren that Mama had lived in with her parents since she was about twelve years old. So when we had left, Tante Annie and kleine Henkie and Oma all went to live in Arnhem. They must have been very sad that we were leaving because they had lived with David and me since we were born, and Mama had always been there. Luckily, we had no idea of what was to happen or we would have been sad too. Adrie had lived there too with us. He was my Mama's brother but because he was so much part of the family, we just called him Adrie.

Above: 1955 passport photos of Pieter, Brunetta (Netty), Adrie, Lena and David.

It all started in the November of the year before, 1954. Pieter and Netty had often talked about emigrating; many of their neighbours had. In the Netherlands, they worked very hard, with little prospect of getting ahead. There was no chance of ever owning their own farm and they lived in a church-owned house. Besides cleaning the school and church and cemetery in return for free rent, they grew small crops and fruit, Pieter dug graves, and both Adrie and Pieter worked for the local milk factory. Adrie drove a truck to deliver milk and Pieter packed milk bottles into crates and checked for cracked bottles on the assembly line. Pieter worked long days and often had to do night shifts as well and both of them could be called in to work at any time, often at two or three am. Sometimes a bottle would be smashed on the floor to keep the workers awake, for they would start to nod off while working on the assembly line.

Above left: Life in Angeren with Oma. Above left: Lena and David playing in the snow at Angeren, near Arnhem.

In the 1950s, people were emigrating to Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Pieter and Netty didn't want to go to Canada because it was also a cold country like Holland. New Zealand only accepted single people, so they chose to go to Australia. Pieter had been keen to leave Holland after spending four years in Indonesia, but Netty had never left her family home. She had shared this home with her parents and her sister Annie and younger brother Adrie, and it was also the house in which her father died as a civilian casualty during the battle of Arnhem.

Above left: Last meal at the airport. Above right: David and Lena with Oma before their departure for Australia.

Leaving here for another country would not be easy. So Pieter was surprised and jumped at the opportunity when Netty suggested in November 1954 that they go. They needed to travel to Bemmel (about 15 km away) to register to emigrate so they headed off on their bikes, as you did in Holland at that time. On the way there, they met Adrie who was returning home on his bike. They told him they were going to register to go overseas, and he said he would go with them - not just to Bemmel, but to Australia also!

Above left: Pieter, Adrie and Netty at Customs before leaving NL. Above right:  Adrie and Pieter (wearing hat) at Customs.

In the next few months Pieter and Netty had to complete a number of procedures. They had medical and criminal check-ups and also a check for 'political delinquency' during the war. (To see Medical Reports click on following links: Netty and Pieter). They had to produce letters of reference from neighbours and previous employers. They even had some English lessons from a local teacher. From him they learnt words and phrases like: 'the cows are in the meadow,' and 'farmhand' and 'garage' all pronounced the American way. They did become dairy farmers in Australia, but have never used the words, the 'the cows are in the meadow'! Just after New Year they were given the okay to leave. (Click here for links to documents one and two.) 

A form shows that they were considered to have 'average' prospects of assimilation, and it was noted that they were an 'average group on appearance and intelligence'.  (Click here for link to document in which the Selection Officer added: " Man was 11 years in mixed agriculture (grain and root crops). Can drive tractor and trucks – can milk (hand). Since 1950 on own small farm: mainly pigs and poultry. One hectare vegetables and potatoes. Wife also prepared work. Recommended NGSS”.)

It was not long before they left that  Pieter was told that they would be going to Australia by plane. The other people they knew had gone by ship. He was speechless for he was afraid of flying and would not have applied had he known he was going to be in a plane.

Left: Five cousins, three families, with  David and Lena on far left. Photo taken a day or two before they left The Netherlands.

Pieter and Netty packed their bedroom furniture, a sewing machine, two wooden chairs, Leni's little bike, and some other items into a large crate: like other families, all they were allowed to take was three cubic metres of possessions in a large wooden crate to be sent by sea. The last few days were spent in Amsterdam with Corrie and Eddie. KLM flight KL843 (the plane was PH LDD) left Amsterdam in the evening of Friday the 18th of March, with 103 people aboard, all migrants heading for a brand new life. As the engines started, Adrie could see fire and smoke coming from them and cried, 'Oh Piet, hij staat al in brand' (the plane is already on fire), and it hadn't even taken off!

The first stop was Cairo where the passengers were provided with a meal and spent the night at the airport hotel. The second overnight stay was at Karachi in Pakistan. Here Pieter and Netty remember a servant sleeping on the mat outside each hotel room - their role to quickly respond to any requests during the night. From there the plane flew to Bangkok. This was the mid-1950s when the planes only flew short distances and no meals were served during the flight. It must have been a long trip for Mama and Papa. Apparently I was sick all the time and vomited on my nice dress, but the stewardess looked after me. David kept walking up and down the aisles calling out 'fodder fodder' and mama and papa were really worried that people would think his father was a ragman. When we got to Bangkok we were asked to leave David behind so that a businessman could have his seat! This seemed a very strange and odd request given that David was just two years of age - and we were both sharing the one seat! Then mama and Papa told them very clearly that we would all stay, or all go, and so they let David come with us. Sometimes we tell him he should have stayed behind!

The last stop was in Biak on an island in Netherlands New Guinea.  The family arrived in the afternoon and travelled to a small village. Here Pieter used his Indonesian to speak with the locals, who welcomed them into their homes record the happy visit with Leni looking cool in her sunnies.

Photos above and left: meeting with the local people during their short time in Biak, Netherlands New Guinea, en route to Australia.

Finally, on March the 22nd, the plane landed at Mascot airport in Sydney. Netty recalls leaving her crocodile skin handbag (a gift from Pieter from his time in Indonesia) on the plane, and Pieter had to return to the plane to retrieve it. All the migrants were met by officials and taken to accommodation to stay the night. Once again, no-one had eaten on the plane and the children were hungry and upset. Netty mentioned this to the official who immediately directed her attention to a tap. Did he really think that migrants only needed water at the end of a long day! 

The next morning a meal was provided and the family was put on a train to Brisbane. They were given meal coupons to use.  However they were unable to use the coupons because they did not know how long the train would stop each time, and didn't dare leave the train for fear of being left behind.  The family had also been separated as Adrie had been put into a separate carriage for single men.

At first it was fun on the train. Every time we stopped, Adrie would come running and get in our carriage. We were all pleased to be together again. And then a guard would come and put Adrie out again. We didn't get anything to eat. We were hungry. David cried again. This train was far older than the ones in Holland - it was just a steam train and Mama and Papa thought that was very strange. And then we were covered in soot, and Mama was upset by how dirty we were. David and I didn't care; we just wanted something to eat.

Left: Wacol Hostel in 1955

On the morning of the 24th March, the family arrived in Brisbane after a 22-hour train trip. Officials wearing the same uniform as those in Sydney drove the family to the migrant hostel at Wacol, where the Arthur Gorrie jail is now. Adrie was then separated from them again as he was taken to a hostel for single men - 'Yungabaí in Kangaroo Point. Pieter gave him five pounds as he left.


Adrie had to use the five pounds to pay for meals and his bed, but after just two nights he only had ten shillings left. And he'd left his passport and other papers with Pieter, so he had to find the rest of the family. Somehow he found out where they were and he had the details written on a scrap of paper. He left early in the morning and simply started walking! When he reached a fork in the road, he approached someone, showed them the piece of paper and they pointed out which direction he should take. So he managed to get to Wacol from Kangaroo Point, crossing the Storey Bridge and walking all the way. Twenty kilometres!

Once reunited with the family, everyone was determined that he should stay, whether he was allowed to or not, and they hid him in the hut. He took one of the children's beds, with David and Leni sharing the other. Everyone brought food back from the communal kitchen, each bring just that little extra for Adrie.

It was exciting when Adrie found us again. He stayed in our hut, and we were told not to tell anyone that we had an extra person. He couldn't go out to get his own food, so we brought some for him. So it was strange then, when he saw a kookaburra laughing, that he picked up a stone and threw it at the bird. The bird fell off the pole; it was dead. That was not a good way to stay hidden.

The camp at Wacol consisted of wooden huts and old aircraft hangers. Each housed two families. There was a just a lounge area and sleeping area so the families had to go to the communal kitchen for their meals, and to the bathroom for washing. People mostly stayed at the centre till work became available, very often for weeks or months. Some stayed for years, and their children attended local schools.

Right: Wacol Hostel outside Brisbane in Queensland.

During the time the family was at Wacol, they had medical tests and x-rays in Brisbane City. Pieter and Netty went to the office at the hostel and were given instructions and maps to the city; they would then walk to Wacol Station where there was a little cafe that sold Dutch croquetjes. Pieter remembers, as they got off the train in the city, being immediately directed to George Street for their tests. Clearly he 'looked' like a migrant!

Left: Pieter, Netty, Lena and David, Christmas 1955

Pieter and the family were at the hostel just five days when Farmer John (pseudonym) from Lamington contacted the Migrant Centre looking for migrants to work on his farm. He was allocated Pieter and the family, and there were two cars - one driven by John and the other by a migration official - that left the centre at 10am on the 29th of March, taking the family to a brand new life. On the way, they stopped at Beaudesert to have a meal in a cafe, and to stock up on supplies, which included a seventy-pound (thirty-five kilogram) bag of sugar and five loaves of bread.

The migration officer left the family at the farm with the words: 'You're here, and you stay here - don't hang on the phone all the time'. The house on the farm was a shock to them. There were pigs living in the semi-detached kitchen - three sows and a boar, behind the stove. There were chooks in what should have been the dining room. The previous farmer (named Desai) was spending one last evening there to hand over the premises to the new workers and he and farmer John showed Pieter and Adrie what they needed to know about the milking. They had never used milking machines or a separator before. They then left the family in a house with no furniture, no bedding, no crockery or cutlery, no means of preparing a meal or even of making a cup of tea. Pieter found some old herring in tomato sauce cans in the rubbish and Netty cleaned them so that they could be used as temporary plates and cups.

The house we went into was very different. We had funny cups and plates.  When it was time to go to bed, Mama and Papa said we had to sleep on the floor. I knew that that wasnít right, so I looked everywhere for the beds, but I couldn't find any. David found an old mattress that the dog had slept on and Adrie shared it with him. When Mama and Papa showed me that they were sleeping on the floor, I knew that I had to as well. So Mama put a towel on the floor and told me to lie on it. At the time it seemed like fun, so I didn't understand just why Mama was crying as we all lay down on the floor. The next morning we realised that David shouldnít have slept on the dog's bed. He was very itchy and Mama tried to catch the fleas he had. She stopped counting when she got to two hundred.

For the first two nights the family slept on the floor and used whatever they could find for household utensils. A neighbour, Dick Harding, arrived with a rooster strung over his horse and indicated, through sign language, that they were free to kill and eat it. After Pieter showed him that they had no means of cooking it, Dick and his wife returned by car with some saucepans. They then quickly realised that the family was in need of much more material help. So Mrs Harding organised a Dutch girl to help with translation and she also used her contacts on the Country Womens' Association (CWA) to ensure that the family was given mattresses, bedding and other essential items such as kitchen equipment.

Dick Harding organised some lime to kill the fleas that had taken occupancy of the house, and Pieter and Adrie repaired the fence of the pigsty, so that the pigs could not escape again. A section of the floor of the verandah of the house was missing, and this was quickly repaired also.

Left: Playtime at the farm.

Ten days after the family arrived, Pieter went down to the road to wait for the cream bus, which took the locals to the town of Beaudesert. He wanted to get some more provisions. He didn't realise that it was Good Friday and so the bus didn't come that day. He walked to Dick Hardingís house, and asked with gestures about the bus.  When Dick realised that he wanted to go into Beaudesert, he asked, again with sign language, if Pieter could drive. Dick gave him the keys to his car so that Pieter could drive it into Beaudesert.  After this, shopping was done by giving the bus driver, Henry Burgess a list written in Dutch. He gave it in at Enright's store and a Dutch shop assistant translated it and filled the order.

The house on the farm was a beautiful old Queenslander with full verandahs, a generator to provide lighting, and a party-line phone. (The phone number was 6). Pieter began to make chairs and tables from the boxes that came with kerosene cans. Netty found an old jam jar, put bougainvillea flowers in it, and the place had a homely feel to it. When the crate full of furniture arrived three months later, things became a little more comfortable. Then Henry Burgess, a local who had become a friend of the family, helped with furniture. He cut down a silky oak tree and made kitchen chairs for them.

Right: A recent photo taken of the fence built by Pieter and Adrie still standing fifty years later.

The farm was set in a valley with beautiful hills around it. When the family first saw the 'mountains' they were amazed as the countryside was so different from the flat Netherlands. At first Netty wondered if the mountains would fall down on them. The animal life of course seemed very exotic and Adrie was determined that the 'wild beast' living in the rafters of the dairy would not attack him. So he took the gun and shot the possum looking down at him. After only a week in Australia, the score was Adrie: two, wildlife: zero!

Everyone had arrived in Australia with heavy tailored winter coats which were of little use in the mild Queensland climate. Netty had two - one had been given to her by her sister Corrie before she left. These coats were used as blankets for the children's beds for many winters. During the first winter the men worked in shorts and singlets because of the 'heat'; Pieter sent his coat back to Holland for his father to use.

We had lots of fun in our new house. And we had good things to eat; sometimes we ate wallabies and hares. They were really nice meals. Papa had made a little table and chairs where we would sit and I often had tea parties with my doll. One day we even had a party with a little kangaroo joey sitting in the doll's high chair. (This high chair had been a present to me from my Oma when I was still in Holland.) We also had a pram and a wheelbarrow that Papa made for our birthdays and a pedal car that we could ride around the verandah. Every day we walked with Mama to the dairy. Sometimes it was hot and we stopped under the lemon tree that was half way to the dairy - and David had to be carried. He said he couldn't walk because his legs were too sore. And when it was hot, we'd also go to the creek for a swim. We even went to a creek further away for a picnic and a swim as Papa would put the seat from the buggy on the carry-all at the back of the tractor and take us there.

Photos above:  Lena and David with toys made by Pieter.

The local community were wonderfully supportive. Not only was the family lent or given what they needed, the local people also gave them friendship. The children were given Easter eggs the very first Easter. Ray and Jessie McKenzie who were neighbours living just across the creek are still friends to this day. Many evenings and Sundays were spent with the locals, sharing meals and cups of tea, and lots of good times. In this way the family began to learn English. Thanks to friends made in the area, there were lots of presents at Christmas and also the Christmas dinner with Mr and Mrs Dick Harding. This was the first time the family had tasted watermelon and Christmas pudding.

David and I had a little holiday at Mrs Burgess' house. It was good fun - she let me use her wrinkly scissors to cut material, and there were boxfuls of it. Mama was also had a 'little holiday' at the same time. She was in hospital to have a baby - a girl called Corrie. Papa took David and me in the car to see the baby. David fell asleep on the way, but I didn't. I was very excited. When the baby was older, she was baptised at the little church that had a text that Papa had made hanging on the front wall.

Pieter bought a 1927 Chevrolet car for twenty-five pounds, to be paid off over five months. As the seats were badly worn and the springs sticking out, Netty bought some leather to sew new seats. She used the pedal sewing machine sent with our box of belongings from Holland and the neighbours really admired the quality of her work. When Corrie was born, Pieter and Netty would place her in a suitcase strapped between the front and back seats. She could travel safely that way.

Left: The children playing - with the 1927 Chevrolet in the background.

Contact with overseas in those days of course was very limited. Letters and a few photos went back and forth, but no phone calls. Every year Tante Corrie, Netty's sister, sent a Christmas hamper with Dutch food which was eagerly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed as it was virtually the only link to the family's Dutch culture. For the first year or two, Leni and David put out a clog for Sinterklaas, but before long even that was forgotten.

Despite the prediction of the immigration authorities in The Netherlands that the family would only have average success at assimilation, they very soon, and very proudly, fitted in as Australians.

Leni started school at Hillview in 1957. Netty didn't know that other parents would take their children to school on the first day and put Leni on the bus with a piece of paper that gave her name and date of birth. What was of concern to Netty was that Australian children ran around barefoot: 'mij kinderen mogen nooit op blote voeten naar school' (my children will never go to school in bare feet). So Leni was sent to school nicely dressed and wearing shoes, but when she returned home her shoes were in her bag!

Right: Life on the farm

In the arrangement set up by farmer John, the family had a half-share in the farm. That is, they would get half of the monthly profits in return for their full-time labour. John, as the owner, got the other half. This was a dairy farm milking about one hundred AIS (Australian Illawarra Shorthorn) cows. There were no records kept of when the cows would calve and cow feed was the only crop grown. In the first month the profit from the cream cheque amounted to twelve pounds - but the bill for the food was fifteen pounds.

Pieter, Netty and Adrie worked hard and the farm began to prosper. With better management of the cows, and better feed being planted, the return from the cows improved. Crops of oats, wheat and corn were also planted. They worked very long hours and often didn't stop working until midnight, even ploughing till that late.

The corn was harvested by hand and loaded into a buggy behind a horse. Netty worked with the men. But one day the horse she was riding shied when it heard the irrigation motor suddenly start up; it jumped from the creek bank into the water below, and took Netty with it! After that she left horse riding to the men.

The migrant family's good income did not sit well with John and his family. After nearly two years their share of the monthly income was 244 pounds. So Farmer John suggested to Pieter that the income be split four ways: John was to get half, his son one-quarter and the family just one-quarter. They realised that this was very unfair, discussed it with friends Dick Harding and Henry Burgess who took them to see Mr Westemann, a Dutch accountant, in nearby Beaudesert. He told them they could not contest this break of contract as they were only ever given a verbal arrangement.

Pieter told John that the family would leave the farm. John possibly had not expected the family to stand up to his unfair tactics. When reminded that they would have nowhere to live, Pieter said, 'We'll sleep under the trees'. Then John strategically pointed out that he wouldn't have any work to support his family, to which Pieter responded: 'I'll take my two hands with me'.

The family had planted a crop of corn that was due to be harvested and they were entitled to half the proceeds given that they had done the work. As a final insult John said they would not get any of the returns from this and, if they tried to harvest it, he would put the cows in.

So the family took their few possessions to an old shed belonging to Dick Cahill. He gave them rent-free accommodation, plus a Billy of milk and a cream can full of water every day. The shed was on stumps, with no facilities, no running water, there were gaps between the floorboards, and there was a pigsty underneath it. So, as Pieter said, 'we had bacon all day'. This was a very bleak time, because conditions were now worse than they had been for some time, and there was no guarantee of any work.

Our new house wasn't as nice as the old one. It didn't even look like a house, but there was also a lot of good things about it. When Mum swept, the dirt would go straight through the gaps in the floorboards, so that saved her work. David and I had fun putting potato peels and other food through the gaps in the boards, and then we could watch the pigs come and eat the food we had dropped for them. It was funny living on top of a pigsty.

Left:  A sunny Queensland day at the farm

There was much community support for the family, particularly because of the way they had been so unjustly treated by farmer John. The Cahill family, brothers Jim, Tom and Stan, and their cousin Dick gave Pieter and Adrie contract work. One of the main jobs they did was splitting posts for fencing, and erecting the fencing. This involved felling trees, cutting them into post sized lengths, splitting them into posts, putting them in the ground by hand, with the help of a crowbar and spade.

They were paid by the post. Pieter clearly remembers the first tree they cut down - it was the 'curliest' one he had ever seen - and they were only able to make 11 posts that day. Before long, they were making at least 100 posts a day, sometimes 120. At that time, the wage for a day's work was two pounds ten per person per day. The rate of pay for splitting posts was twelve pounds ten per one hundred posts. And so the hard work and long hours paid off, for it earned them about three times the average daily wages. They were never out of work.

It was, however, very hard physical work. The men often had salt on their backs at the end of the day from all the sweating. Whenever possible, Netty helped the men work. She was at one end of the crosscut saw one day when her finger became caught in the cut they were making in a tree. It was firmly caught and Pieter had to put a wedge into the cut to make a gap for the finger to be removed. She still has the scar on her finger showing the damage that was done.

Pieter was a chain smoker, smoking sixty to seventy cigarettes a day. He smoked so heavily that he could say that he only used one match a day: he would light up a new cigarette from the stub of the previous one! However, the money that the family needed was being spent on tobacco and he was also coughing badly every morning. One day in June 1957, Pieter told the family that he would never smoke again. He put the cigarette packet in his pocket, saying that it would stay right there. Sometimes he reached for it, felt the cellophane, and would say, 'noweg'. After two weeks he gave the cigarettes to Adrie and has never smoked since.

Things were very different in those days. One time the men had forgotten their lunch so Netty decided that Leni should hitch-hike to where they were working.  (Clearly stranger-danger was not a concept in those days.) She showed Leni how to thumb a ride as the trucks drove past. The first truck driver obviously wasn't expecting a six year-old to be hitch hiking, so he waved back to what he thought was a friendly greeting. So Netty took over. When the next truck stopped for them, Netty asked the driver to take both Leni and the lunch to where the men were working. 

There seemed to be a lot of problems with lunches. At one stage Pieter and Adrie were taking tomato sandwiches to work. There was no cooling available and the lunches needed fillings that would not go off in the heat. Tomatoes were easy to grow and provided cheap food. However, tomato sandwiches quickly became very soggy and were not at all appetising for men doing hard physical work. One day the men decided that they couldn't bear the sandwiches any longer, went to the nearby farmhouse, and told the lady that the dog had eaten their lunch. She kindly provided them with more sandwiches - all with tomato fillings!

Right: Pieter's contribution to the Lamington Methodist Church. This fretwork is still present in the church today.

Pieter used the evenings and any spare time for various projects. In Lamington he had made furniture at night: beds, a cabinet with glass doors, an ornamental fireplace, and adjustable lounge chairs for which Netty made cushions. On wet days when they were unable to do contract work while living at Hillview, he made farm gates and calf feeders to sell.

They moved into a house owned by the Cahill family and continued the contract work. They put up many fences. One was about three hundred metres long on the property owned by the Waters family. Many of these fences can still be seen today. When Netty wasn't helping the men, she also worked for the Cahill family as a dressmaker and earned three pounds per day.

We had a house to live in again, that was better than the shed. There were fun places to play outside, and every morning when it was time to go to school Mum would call out, 'Ready, Set, Mark, Go'. And I had to go. We had a nice red table with six red chairs. Mum said that we were able to buy that because Pap had stopped smoking. One day we packed all our furniture in a truck and that night we got to sleep on the floor again, like we had those first nights in that other house. That was fun. Then the next morning we woke up when it was still dark, because we had to go to our new farm.

Pieter and Adrie were never short of contract work and were making good money. But this was not what they had come to Australia for. So they continued to look for a share-farming position and eventually heard of a farm at Lowood. Aaron Stubbings, a neighbour, went guarantor for them and put one hundred pounds in a bank account in Lowood; Jack Bright's truck moved all their furniture and then, on 10th April 1958, they were able to begin work on Tom Payten's farm.

Left: Netty, Lena, David and Corrie at the Lamington Methodist Church.

This was a difficult move for the family as they had made strong friendships and were well-respected in the Lamington/Hillview community. At Lowood they would have to start over and, once again, it was a poorly-run farm that needed people prepared to work hard and long hours to make it successful. In those days most people had monthly accounts in the grocery stores. However when Pieter went to set up his account, he was told by the grocery store owner that he would have nothing to do with Tom Payten or anyone else who worked on his farm. There had been ten share-farmers over nine years and it seemed clear that most had not paid their bills. All this was to change, and it wasn't long before the business owners of Lowood knew that Pieter van Popering was a man who paid his bills.

One day I came home from school and Adrie said Mum had gone to hospital, and Pap too, because the baby was coming. I thought it might be a trick. Pap was always playing tricks. I looked everywhere for the hospital bag but it was gone, so it must have been true. That night David, Corrie and I stayed up watching TV for a long time with Adrie because Mum and Pap weren't there to send us to bed. When Pap finally came home he told us there was a new baby - a girl named Jannie. You could see it was a very special time because he brought all of us the biggest packets of chips I had ever seen! So we watched more TV and ate all the chips!

The difficult times weren't over yet. The hard work continued and there were a number of setbacks, but Pieter and Netty continued to make the tough decisions and the risks that allowed them to upgrade the farm and to make successful progress. The family built a new dairy themselves, using bricks that they made by hand. The farm prospered for the very first time and this was a great credit to the management of the van Popering family. They applied for Australian Citizenship as soon as they were able. This was 1961.

Migration was a big commitment and it took a long time for the challenge to pay off - but it did. Fifty years after taking that big step, there are now four generations of the van Popering family in Australia, spread over different states, and employed in a range of activities. It is these new generations who will be the real beneficiaries of the courage and foresight that Pieter and Netty and Adrie showed. They have learnt that 'wie waagt, die  wint' -  'who dares, wins'.

Right: Pieter and Netty on a return visit to the farm in 2005

Lena's footnote: It is now more than fifty years since my parents migrated to Australia in1955, with me as a four-year-old, and my two-year old brother. Now, in 2007, my daughter and her husband and their four year old son and two-year old daughter, are living in - of all places - The Netherlands! They will spend about eighteen months there, living in Krimpen aan de Lek, near Rotterdam.  So I have a grandson who attends school there, and with whom I can have conversations in Nederlands. His two-year old sister is just starting peuterzalleschool, so she is also beginning to speak what was my mother tongue.  It is a very special joy to hear them speak in Nederlands.

It has been delightful to visit with them there.  I ride my bike to the shops, and speak to the locals in Nederlands. I enjoy riding around the beautiful polder countyside, past the sloots, windmills, and the little farms and, wherever I go, the scenery is beautifully and typically Dutch. Through visiting with them for extended periods of time, I have had the opportunity, as an adult, to live in a small Nederlandse town, to experience every-day life in the land that just might have been my homeland.

Lena Darlington, Brisbane, June  2007.