Dads stories

Melbourne 28^th April 1973.

Dear Gretchen,

Many thanks for your dear greetings. I really enjoyed getting your letter, and I hope that our correspondence is ok with you. Easter this year we had a lot of holidays because the Australian National day (Anzac day) fell on the following Wednesday. Because of that we had off from Good Friday until the Wednesday after Easter. I also had taken off the Thursday before Easter and packed my children into the car with air mattrasses, blankets, food, and drove to Sydney where Helga and Bill now live, at least near there. They live in Kangaroo Valley, a most beautiful area. Bill works there with a new Electrical Works, a giant undertaking. A french company are building it. The weather was wonderful and we had a nice time (bathing in the ocean, fishing, picnics etc).

Hedwig is currently in Neuss visiting her sister and she took our young Peter with her. So I am on my own with 3 children. Hedwig cooked for us all sorts of meals which we have frozen in small portions, also cakes. We have a very large freezer. (It is cheaper to buy sheep and vegetables in large quantities and then to freeze it all). I am not the most talented cook but we make do. On the way back we drove along the coast. Australia is a wonderful country, a bit wild and unpolished maybe, and sometimes a bit behind when it comes to culture but appealing and beautiful. Very healthy climate, and healthy and casual people who are stress free, tolerant and polite. Our german restlessness, which does give us our drive to progress, isn’t always the best way.

Apart from the large cities and the big towns (we drove through 4 or 5) the country appears to be uninhabited at frst glance. Here and there are a group of houses (called towns) but inbetween for 20 to 60 miles is nothing apart from bush. The Australians call everything bush, from bushes to forests. And then you constantly pass these warning signs – Kangaroos for 2 miles or 9 miles etc. And here and there you see a Kangaroo that has been hit. We also saw a small car standing there which was quite dinted in the front from hitting a Kangaroo.

Australians don’t celebrate feast days the way we do at home. They usually pack the family into their car and go camping, fishing or whatever. Those who stay home go to the races or the football or into the pub.

One thing that one is constantly reminded of is the hugeness of this country. When we came back home on Wednesday we had travelled 1600 miles, nearly 2600 km. The population is concentrated in the few capital cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart – approx 7-8 million people. And the rest (4-5 million) are distributed on the land. Most of those live here in Victoria. Victoria can be compared to Mecklenburg also in the way the country looks. NSW along the coast is very beautiful. But the interior is hard to describe. Hills which appear to be sparsely covered with trees, Eucalypts, many of them dead and some white grey, ghostly! But at least fascinating. The air in summer is filled with the scent of Eucalyptus and over the hills there is a fine blue veil. This is probably where the name Blue Mountains comes from. There are very few rivers and they are mainly very small. In the interior rainwater is collected for water. Often this is not sufficient and then water has to be delivered with tankers. The industry in the country depending on which area is usually very specialised and some of the properties are fantastically huge!

So one comes from the hundreds into the thousands and I don’t even know if all this interests you. But you can see that I love it here.

Sounds like Neuss is undergoing quite a lot of development in the name of progress. Hedwig has written and told me that everything has changed. Somehow I get a bit sad when I hear this. Maybe I am too far away. It seems to me that this massive concentration of population takes us further and further way from the wished for Utopia of modern civilisation. But possibly I have formed a picture that is far from reality. Paradise will probably never eventuate.

I have a good idea of your project. I wish you all the best with your building. Do you have enough workers? Here is a shortage of workers.

And with that I will finish. I wish you all the best. Kind greetings. Peter.