A very common story from the workers on the Snowy Mountians Scheme (where most were European migrants / refugees / displaced persons) was to see people with a tattoed number on the arm. A less common but reported story was to find people with a tattoo on their arm beating up (badly) in the showers a guy with a tattoo in his armpit.
There was a lot of security Aussie people who were posted there precisely to prevent people being killed. "You are all Australians now" was a common fix-it-all order.
There was a lot of security Aussie people who were posted there precisely to prevent people being killed. "You are all Australians now" was a common fix-it-all order.
15 years ago living in Melbs, my regular barber was a tiny (55 kegs max) Hungarian geriatic, cutting hair on Smith St, Collingwood. The haircut was pretty ordinary but the story telling great.
Every couple of mins he'd slip away from my scalp to the corner of his shop for a few drags of his little rolled up durry, plus a few sips of strong black coffee. That seemed to be his calorie intake for a 8 hour stretch cutting hair, a combination of nicotine and caffeine.
He'd worked on that Snowy Mountains scheme in the 1950s-1960s. In the dead of the night sometime post the 1956 anti Soviet uprising, he just soft shoed walked over into Austria, past the border guards. Then got his passage to the Lucky Country. He never saw his parents again. By the time he finally returned to Hungary in the late 90s or whenever they were dead. I also remember for some reason he supported the Western Bulldogs AFL team. Black and white newspaper clippings everywhere.