1 00:00:11,030 --> 00:00:25,436 Alright, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one podcast for everyone and anyone who wants to level up their English, but specifically with an Australian flavour, right? Get a bit of that Aussie twang in your accent, understand the slang and expressions from Down Under. 2 00:00:27,571 --> 00:00:46,116 Today is part two of the interview that I had with Jonathan Stewart. So, as you'll remember when you heard the first episode, Jonathan and I met when he came over to my house and fixed up the wood oven, he works as a chimney sweep for A1 Chimney Sweep and Co around the Geelong area. 3 00:00:46,180 --> 00:01:08,890 Remember, if you need your chimney sorted out, if you need your wood ovens sorted out, give him a bell, he's a great guy and you'll be able to practice your English with him, I'm sure. Anyway, today we're going to get into it. We're going to keep talking and finish his interview up. I hope you enjoy it. John, thanks so much for coming on, mate. It was an amazing time and I'm sure we'll have to get you on again in the future. Anyway, I give you guys Jonathan Stewart. Let's get into it. 4 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:17,570 Yeah, I read a book about a murderer in Australia. 5 00:01:18,606 --> 00:01:20,980 There's a lot of them. 6 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:22,640 This guy... 7 00:01:23,230 --> 00:01:24,230 Is this Ivan Milat? 8 00:01:26,281 --> 00:01:37,492 No, no. It wasn't actually. I've forgotten his name, I first got here and I got this book and it went about the Blue Mountains and that one of the reasons why it was sent to prison, but you couldn't find the two victims. 9 00:01:38,020 --> 00:01:40,986 That he'd killed. Was this early in Australian history too, or...? 10 00:01:40,987 --> 00:02:11,659 No, no, this were in the 80s, I think. So, he kidnapped a woman and held her ransom, and they never found her body and he lived basically in a town that brought some to the Blue Mountains, and apparently when you go over the Blue Mountains in the area there are a lot of sunk crevices and it's really dangerous if you don't know the terrain, you can fall down them or you can hide things down them. And they think that that's where he put... And they said it's impossible, we'll never find them. 11 00:02:11,980 --> 00:02:17,082 Well, I'm amazed that for Ivan Milat that they found a lot of his bodies in Bangalow State Forest. 12 00:02:18,689 --> 00:02:19,088 Yeah, that's right. 13 00:02:19,089 --> 00:02:29,009 Because it's just so vast, it's like how did... And there's a whole bunch of other, you know, British backpackers that have disappeared and you're like... where are they? 14 00:02:29,530 --> 00:02:32,870 Yeah, I think one of the backpackers that got away were from England. 15 00:02:32,871 --> 00:02:33,871 Yeah, he was. 16 00:02:34,390 --> 00:02:36,932 And they brough him back and he were terrified. They had to really convince him to come back. 17 00:02:36,933 --> 00:02:39,970 Is that guy. It's that guy there. It's that guy. He was the one. 18 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:41,980 That's right. A pommy fellow escaped. 19 00:02:42,400 --> 00:03:03,078 He got out by the skin of his teeth, man, because I think he realized that he was getting a lift somewhere, And Ivan just suddenly took a diversion, took him down a dirt road and he was like 'where the hell are you taking me? I want to get out', Ivan was like 'no'. And he managed to, I think, open the door and jump out and then another car came and Ivan had the gun behind his back. He'd gotten out a car with the weapon was going to like...knock him off. 20 00:03:03,079 --> 00:03:04,234 So if the car hadn't have been there, he'd have been... 21 00:03:04,235 --> 00:03:14,311 And they pulled over and said 'are you guys alright and everything?' And the guy was like 'let me in the car, I need a lift out of here'. I think his name is something like Paul Onion was his name. Paul Onion. 22 00:03:16,509 --> 00:03:21,639 Could be, yeah. Yeah, I wonder why he didn't... I wonder why he didn't kill the people in the car as well, I wonder why he didn't just do them all. 23 00:03:21,970 --> 00:03:27,242 I think, yeah, who knows, but he was nuts. I think he's dying at the moment of cancer or something in prison. 24 00:03:27,940 --> 00:03:33,423 His stepdaughters come out and said 'look, we should we should let him out and give him treatment' and all that, and everybody's like why? 25 00:03:33,850 --> 00:03:53,048 He's a nut job, man. And you hear about his family and he ended up shacking up with his brother's wife, having children with her, and so one of the brothers is like half the family is like really divided, because they're old Croatian stock. And so, originally it was all like we're a family, you don't lie, so you don't like betray the family and, so... 26 00:03:53,730 --> 00:03:55,409 All of them were really sort of close knit? 27 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,448 I think there's only one guy, one of the brothers, because they had 11 children. 28 00:03:59,690 --> 00:03:59,805 Wow. 29 00:03:59,806 --> 00:04:06,400 Massive, yeah, Catholic Croatians and he one of the brothers is the one that came out and was like yeah, he totally did it. 30 00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:11,090 I know one of his nephews try to make a name for himself. 31 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:13,554 I think, so yeah he's in the same jail with him or something. 32 00:04:13,603 --> 00:04:16,382 Thought it was cool to go out and shoot someone. 33 00:04:16,959 --> 00:04:22,131 It's crazy, yeah, there's a lot of that, but does that get romanticized back in Britain? The sort of Wolf Creek style stories. 34 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:24,814 It's great. 35 00:04:24,815 --> 00:04:25,599 It's great! 36 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:33,132 I love those, I love those Aussie horror stories. What's that other one? Charlie's farm. 37 00:04:33,430 --> 00:04:33,849 Yeah? 38 00:04:33,850 --> 00:04:34,850 You have to watch That. That's a good one. 39 00:04:35,020 --> 00:04:35,679 Charlie's farm. 40 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:40,237 Charlie's farm, but Wolf Creek pretty creepy because it's supposed to be based on Ivan Milat. 41 00:04:41,546 --> 00:04:42,546 Yeah. 42 00:04:43,270 --> 00:04:46,180 I know it's probably totally different to what he did. 43 00:04:47,440 --> 00:05:00,962 A lot of it's based on it, because Ivan they found out had been using a knife to sever the spinal cords of people before he killed them to prevent them from running away and that's what they do in Wolf Creek, right? He took that from it. They took that from... 44 00:05:00,963 --> 00:05:01,257 Stick it in... 45 00:05:02,193 --> 00:05:08,822 Yeah, it was crazy. So, sadistic dude, but anyway before we finish up coming back to the chimney sweep story. What's the history there? 46 00:05:09,820 --> 00:05:32,948 So, yeah we saw an opportunity and we got in quick, we decided we'd build a whole industry around cleaning mill chimneys, and obviously it were a big challenge. They had the sophisticated equipment at the time, so they were using steam powered bellow pumps. You can imagine the size of the brushes that they were using, but I think it was more... what people don't realize is a lot of them chimneys have got access ladders in them. So, you can actually get up inside them. 47 00:05:41,614 --> 00:05:42,614 How big are these chimneys? 48 00:05:43,220 --> 00:05:45,964 Huge. Like some of them are a several hundred feet high. 49 00:05:46,178 --> 00:05:49,730 But how wide would they be? Like I like a room, right? Something massive. 50 00:05:49,910 --> 00:05:56,569 Huge. Just if you want an example of a small one, go to the one down by the old paper mills in Geelong. 51 00:05:56,810 --> 00:06:00,130 This is like a sort of shot tower kind of thing, right? Like a big cylindrical... 52 00:06:01,580 --> 00:06:04,700 Big red brick. Big old red brick (building) like the one at the Little Creatures Brewery. 53 00:06:04,930 --> 00:06:05,419 Yeah yeah. 54 00:06:05,420 --> 00:06:34,009 And if you look at the base of them from a distance, when you get close up they're huge. We were... Imagine that on a on a chimney that's several hundred feet high. And there'd be... You know, they'd be 30-40m across, you know. But they'd also be huge... You know, they'd be... They'd probably be nearly a metre thick at the base, you know, because of the... So, yeah, that's what they decided to get into and built this business up from nothing, and before long... 55 00:06:34,370 --> 00:06:41,420 How did they decide that though? Like, what do you do, back then, in the 1800s or whatever, and you're like, "I'm gonna do this!"?. They just bought the gear and were like, "Yeah. We'll do it! We'll work it out!". 56 00:06:41,620 --> 00:07:14,513 It's... There's no real documentation. We haven't been able to find any. Like, now, there'd be emails and print out, and the things that we do now will be probably in cyberspace forever. Whereas then, things got lost. But we do know that there were some... a lot of shenanigans going on and strange things and underhand things, you know, to get these contracts with these big mill owners. A lot of, you know, things were exchanged, you know, a bit of, you know, a parcel here and there, you know. 57 00:07:14,870 --> 00:07:15,870 Corruption was rife, was it? 58 00:07:16,350 --> 00:07:22,721 This goes right back, you know. But at the beginning, you see, we're pretty much at the picking. And then obviously all the companies start up. 59 00:07:22,722 --> 00:07:23,722 Yep. Competition. 60 00:07:24,553 --> 00:07:38,190 Competition. Yeah. There's old stories in the family archives of maybe even, you know, really really naughty stuff going on, you know. People actually from companies... you know, from all the companies disappearing. 61 00:07:39,060 --> 00:07:40,060 Chimney sweep wars. 62 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:42,893 The chimney sweep wars. Well, there were big money involved. 63 00:07:42,894 --> 00:07:44,620 These contracts, huh? 64 00:07:45,050 --> 00:08:10,589 Yeah yeah. So, our family, pretty much back in the day, were quite wealthy. There's nothing of it left. We've never seen any of it. So, to cut long story short, they did really well. The ancestors built this big company up, and then, at the decline of the industrial revolution sort of at the end of the 1900s, that's when the decline sort of started. 65 00:08:10,910 --> 00:08:16,449 Because they're no longer using coal the same way or whatever that's going to dirty the chimneys and it moves away from that? 66 00:08:17,300 --> 00:08:17,888 Yeah. You know, mills... 67 00:08:17,889 --> 00:08:18,889 They used steam and everything, or? 68 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:43,789 Yeah I think things started to change. You've got people moving away from steam. Probably by about maybe not in the 1900s, probably I'll say about the 1920s-30s, you know, steam trains started getting replaced by diesel. And the same were happening in factories. It were turning electric. Things like that. So, they got rid of a lot of these... These chimneys were redundant. They didn't really need them anymore. Things got modernized. 69 00:08:44,270 --> 00:08:47,890 So, did your family have to pivot, and be like, "Alright, we're going back to houses and those chimneys..."? 70 00:08:48,000 --> 00:09:01,340 Yeah, they kind of... It slowly... You know, over generations the chimney sweeps, they did different things. My dad and is brother... so, my dad's one of ten. 71 00:09:01,899 --> 00:09:02,569 Holy molley! 72 00:09:02,570 --> 00:09:34,355 Three brothers. Seven sisters. So, him and his two brothers, I think one of the brothers they'd already got out of it in the 60s or whatever. So, yeah, he said to me, he said, "Look, when you leave..." 'cause I'd grown up doing it. I used to go with him on jobs on weekends when I weren't at school or after school. I thought it were great. You know, working with grown ups getting treated pretty... You know, like one of the fellows, you know. You know, you get a... they'd let you have a sip of the beer if you went to pub with them, and... you know what I mean? You felt really grown up. You know, you'd go to school and tell all your mates and... 73 00:09:34,356 --> 00:09:35,797 And making your own money, right? 74 00:09:35,798 --> 00:09:47,341 Oh yeah. You'd get a few quid for helping out. But, yeah, me dad said to me, when I left school in about '88, 1988, he said 'Don't come into this industry. It's dying. It's gone.". 75 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:49,589 And you were like, "Too late.". 76 00:09:50,380 --> 00:10:01,341 Well... Well, yeah. So, but there writing were on the wall 'cause North Sea gas had come in in the '60s. Everybody were ripping the fires out and putting gas in or electric. So, we... 77 00:10:01,930 --> 00:10:05,360 And you started watching Home and Away and Neighbours and saw they were doing that down here, did you? 78 00:10:06,910 --> 00:10:15,660 And you know, it seemed... it were deemed a dirty fuel. You know, everybody were sort of, oh you don't use coal. And it's funny cause it's all come full circle. 79 00:10:15,940 --> 00:10:29,019 What do you think that is? Because like, as a quick story, my grandparents, they bought a farm up near Bendigo and it's a wooden cabin. It was a kid house. He built it. My grandfather built it. 80 00:10:29,020 --> 00:10:29,482 Oh, a kit house, yeah! 81 00:10:29,865 --> 00:10:35,970 I think he had the big chimney and everything, the fireplace, made out of stone, but then around that built the house. 82 00:10:35,971 --> 00:10:36,370 That's right, yeah. 83 00:10:36,721 --> 00:10:48,400 But I remember that... There's no electricity there now, and so, every time we go up we have like gas lights, candles, and the fire, the open fire, and this smell was always so... like, I used to love it so much. 84 00:10:48,740 --> 00:10:50,408 I know smells stay with you forever. 85 00:10:50,409 --> 00:11:00,066 Yeah. And you just can't... You don't get that from a CFL light in the roof, right? So, do you think that's part of it? People like burning things because there is some sort of primitive thing going on there that we really feel nostalgic? 86 00:11:00,067 --> 00:11:07,711 I think what you just said there's one aspect of it, you know, without thinking about it. We all remember certain smells. You know, when you strike a match. 87 00:11:09,021 --> 00:11:11,470 Yeah. phosphorous, right? Oh yeah. 88 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:21,090 So, tar when the do it roads, recently, or today, you know, that smell of tar coming in window and burning fires. It all takes you back to a to a childhood. 89 00:11:21,510 --> 00:11:33,116 I wonder how much for tourists just... especially, with fire, because especially boys, right, are obsessed... When I was growing up at the farm there with my grandparents, I'd always be the kid next to the fire hiding from the heat around a corner with a stick poking the logs and everything. 90 00:11:33,117 --> 00:11:34,792 That's right. Always messing about with it. Getting into trouble. 91 00:11:34,860 --> 00:11:37,915 Yeah, exactly. Mum and dad would be like, "That's enough! Get away from it.". I'm like, "Nah!". 92 00:11:38,369 --> 00:11:42,903 Yeah, starting another little fire around the corner in dry grass, and thinking, "Oh, no it's getting too big! And panicking and throwing some water on. 93 00:11:43,026 --> 00:11:44,026 That's it. 94 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:56,830 But, do you think...? I wonder how much of it is related to human evolution and how much we've been staring into the fire for hundreds of thousands of years, right, and it would be a weird time to move away and not have fire anymore. 95 00:11:57,190 --> 00:12:17,917 Yeah. It's strange, isn't it? I think it's like everything. Everything comes around. Just related to that but jumping off a different subject just briefly, first time around it 1980s, when I were a kid, I always wanted a Casio Digital watch, they were quite expensive and we couldn't afford them, you know, I couldn't get one for Christmas, I never had one, so one of my mates had them at school and there were really cool. 96 00:12:22,169 --> 00:12:24,299 For me I think the equivalent was a Gameboy. 97 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:25,720 Yeah, yeah. 98 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:28,650 My parents were always like 'screw that, I'm not buying you that, you get it when you're older'. 99 00:12:30,300 --> 00:12:41,119 You see them now, you know at flea markets and, but I've just recently bought myself the brought about out again, a retro 1980s Casio world time digital watch. 100 00:12:41,340 --> 00:12:45,940 Is that nostalgia, right? The Nokia 2210, right? They came back out. 101 00:12:46,670 --> 00:13:12,720 Exactly, and I don't think fire's any different. And I think there's quite a few reasons, but I think one of them particularly in England, we all got duped with this clean, new technology that were North Sea gas. So, you come home from work, you didn't have to light a fire. There were no mess, no hassle, you didn't have to wait to build the fire up. You flicked a switch and within a couple of minutes you had a roaring hot fire. 102 00:13:12,900 --> 00:13:15,546 So, this is the gas that was being mined in the North Sea about Scotland and everything, right? 103 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:25,869 That's right. Which made Edinburgh wealthy again, parts of Scotland really, really wealthy and a lot of people really wealthy, but that never comes down. 104 00:13:26,909 --> 00:13:27,599 Neve trickle down. 105 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:28,272 Never trickle down to Yorkshire. 106 00:13:28,273 --> 00:13:30,690 Just in the form of gas that you bought. 107 00:13:30,720 --> 00:14:23,553 That's right, yeah. But all the time, from that period up until I'd say the late... Early 90s late 80s, it starts to become more expensive and people will go and will sort of say 'hang on a minute', especially in England where you've got a crap climate. You know, seven months of the year are cold and, you know, all the... what's that, 7, 8, 9, well the 5 aren't good either, you know? You know, a mixture of cold and warm, so seven or eight months a year is pretty crap and people will say 'hang on a minute, this gas is no longer cheap' and fires will be coming less stylish, there were pretty old, clunky things stuck on walls and people starts ripping them off, renovating their houses, ripping the gas fires out and going 'oh, there's a lovely, big fireplace behind here', you know, they'd never seen it before. 108 00:14:23,629 --> 00:14:24,249 'We could use this'. 109 00:14:24,250 --> 00:14:29,891 We could use this. And actually making the fireplace a feature and a beautiful feature and putting a wood heater in. 110 00:14:31,050 --> 00:14:39,780 Because what? It would have been the original TV, right? The end of the night, you sit around it, that's light, it's warmth, you socialize around that until it dies down you go to bed. 111 00:14:39,990 --> 00:15:15,471 Well, I'll say that's how it would have been, wouldn't it? And it's still got that...you know, whatever situation and, yeah, everybody loves to sit round a fire whether you're having a drink of whisky or a cup of tea, whether you're chatting or you've got telly on in the background, you know? But it also became so that... I had one put in my house, I renovated my house in England before we came here, and I put a lovely wood heater in... into the existing fireplace and renovated in, exposed it all and it were like a beautiful feature and I didn't pay a cent for my wood.I used to go out and get it. 112 00:15:15,488 --> 00:15:22,243 Off the back of a truck. From the Royal Family's Woods, right? 113 00:15:23,370 --> 00:15:54,030 Well, that's actually a little thing as well. Somewhere down the line, back in the day, we... For a short period of time, my family business had the royal seal of approval for chimney cleaning. Somewhere down the line we'd done something to do with one of the royal houses. Not necessarily Buckingham Palace, it could have been Sandringham, it could have been one of the royal estates, it could have been Balmoral. We'd clean the chimney somewhere and when you do provide a service for the royal family, you get the royal seal of approval. 114 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:59,995 Is this just sort of like you'll get passed onto...The other royal family will know, you know, they can use this guy, he's good. 115 00:16:00,210 --> 00:16:13,339 And you can use that advert, you see. You put the royal seal of approval, but you wouldn't have back then, there would have been very little advertising. Yeah but nowadays, you'd have the modern chimney sweeps at Buckingham Palace, have the royal seal of approval on. 116 00:16:13,620 --> 00:16:22,049 That's an actual thing! We have that expression, right? 'I got the seal of approval from my dad', meaning, you know, like he said it's ok. That's awesome, that was an actual thing. 117 00:16:22,103 --> 00:16:44,939 It's still a thing. If you were going any supermarket now and look on the shelves for things like... Off the top of my head, what'll have it? Quality Street. If you look at Quality Street tins in shops somewhere on that tin, there's the Royal Seal of Approval. Roundtree Mackintosh got the Royal Seal of Approval from the Royal Family because they... Quality Street. That's how it works. 118 00:16:45,053 --> 00:16:54,049 Far out! Most products in shops, something has got, you know, a certain line of it has got a royal seal of approval, certain Gins of God. 119 00:16:54,210 --> 00:16:56,100 Does it mean anything then, though, if everyone has it? 120 00:16:56,610 --> 00:17:06,604 Well, no, not everyone. What I mean by that is say you've got a hundred items in a store, they're all different. Each line at some point that one of that particular brand.... 121 00:17:07,670 --> 00:17:08,695 And that's what the best one is. 122 00:17:08,970 --> 00:17:28,970 So, you may have gins in a supermarket, one of them love the royal seal of approval. And that's not surprising considering the royal family. I think that's one of their favourite drinks, especially the Queen Mother and Princess Mary, I think, likes her gin as well, but yeah somewhere down the line I heard that we got it, but then we lost it. 123 00:17:28,983 --> 00:17:30,180 How do you lose it? 124 00:17:30,420 --> 00:17:31,730 Well, we must have done something wrong. 125 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,942 Is it just one and they give it to someone else or they can give it to as many people as they want? 126 00:17:36,180 --> 00:18:02,890 Well, you'd get the contract and we've got the royal seal of approval from the royal family, we do their particular chimney and then someone might've turned up and done half a job, you know, made a disaster covered the living room in soot, so you know, Princess Ann stood there, covered in head to toe in soot, and 'Look what you've done. Get out, you commoner! You disgrace', you know, 'we're taking your seal off you. Go back to Yorkshire, you plebe.' 127 00:18:06,030 --> 00:18:14,880 So, what was it like moving to Australia with, you know, I mean, I don't even know this story. What made you decide to move here and were you thinking I'd be a chimney sweep there or? 128 00:18:15,180 --> 00:18:29,292 It's actually... It's funny, actually. So, when I left school I took my dad's advice and I trained as an electrician and I left chimney sweep behind, I left it, I kind of walked away from it. In England chimney sweeps attendant panic and what I mean by that is don't if you've got that... 129 00:18:30,641 --> 00:18:31,505 A dime a dozen. 130 00:18:31,506 --> 00:18:32,661 Yeah, exactly. 131 00:18:32,980 --> 00:18:33,442 There's a lot of them. 132 00:18:33,443 --> 00:18:48,984 That's right. So, you couldn't really make a good living at being a chimney sweep because there were that many of them, you could only charge, you know, a pittance. So, I did a little bit on the side if it were a quite one with the electrical, I go do a couple of chimneys, you know what I mean? So, I trained as a sparky... 133 00:18:48,985 --> 00:18:58,132 So, you use the sparky thing to go into people's houses, and then, be like, 'you know you need this cleaned, right? This chimney needs to be cleaned. I can do that', that would just be an extra hundred bucks. 134 00:18:58,340 --> 00:19:01,210 You're doing a socket in there and be 'Oh, your chimney's a bit...' 135 00:19:01,930 --> 00:19:04,359 Looks like a bit of a fire hazard. You might need to get that sorted out. 136 00:19:04,660 --> 00:19:08,301 So, do you know anyone? Oh, well, as it happens, you know. 137 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,072 You go outside, you just chuck on a different suit and you come back. 138 00:19:12,385 --> 00:19:26,139 Quick change of clothes, top hat, cigar, moustache, "Chim-, Chimney?". So, getting back to coming here. So, I started my own business up when I were probably about 25. 139 00:19:26,430 --> 00:19:27,209 As an electrician? 140 00:19:27,210 --> 00:19:39,010 As a sparky. You know, then moved to South Yorkshire, Doncaster where my wife were from because we...She fell pregnant with our first child so we decided she wanted to move near her mum. 141 00:19:39,980 --> 00:19:41,772 I always love that expression to fall pregnant. 142 00:19:43,430 --> 00:19:44,961 It's kinda like what? She fell and then she was pregnant. 143 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,764 Fell pregnant. I think I was struggling to think of another word. 144 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:50,418 To get off the duff. 145 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:54,976 She got in the family way. 146 00:19:55,003 --> 00:19:56,866 Yeah, that's a more polite way of saying this. 147 00:19:57,420 --> 00:19:59,674 She got preggers. She's got a bun in the oven. 148 00:20:02,210 --> 00:20:03,210 She got knocked up. 149 00:20:03,270 --> 00:20:32,420 She got knocked up, that's a pretty, pretty common one. So, she wanted to be near her mum, so that's when we moved into the house of the council estate, in the council state we were paying cheap rent. I had just started my business, Abigail was born, everything were good. And then my sister at the time had been at university doing different courses after school, she'd never really done a job. She just seemed to stay at university and kept doing degrees 150 00:20:32,999 --> 00:20:37,013 Your sister sounds like me. This is my first job after finishing uni, I was like... 151 00:20:38,220 --> 00:20:44,781 I think, you know, looking but sometimes I think I should have taken that path, you know, and stayed at school a bit longer, but, no, it weren't for me. 152 00:20:46,670 --> 00:20:51,530 Man, take a look around. You can buy a podcast, get that set up just as easy as going back to uni. 153 00:20:52,858 --> 00:21:08,660 It's a... You've got quite a good set up here. I'm quite impressed you. I've got a computer. I only just know how to get around it and I don't do anything on it that I don't have to do. I only use it as a small tool in my daily life. You know, I'm quite happy to use a pen and paper. 154 00:21:08,780 --> 00:21:13,115 Man, I'm envious, once you get on down this road you have to start using this crap every day, there's no escape. 155 00:21:13,910 --> 00:21:26,412 Going back to what we I saying about pressures in early working class lives, you know, they had enough pressures at the time, but they didn't have all this sort of pressure, you know, the modern..the car, the the holidays abroad. 156 00:21:26,479 --> 00:21:29,668 Checking your phone every 20 minutes with Facebook notification. 157 00:21:29,790 --> 00:21:39,380 Or kids, you know, they're sucked into buying, the latest gadget, you know, and it's just... Poor mum and dad, thinking 'oh God, how much is that going to cost' you know? You've got all that to come. 158 00:21:39,740 --> 00:21:40,740 I know, it's going to be fun. 159 00:21:40,741 --> 00:21:40,972 It's great. 160 00:21:40,973 --> 00:21:44,710 I can't wait to be the first parent to be like 'no, you can get that when you can pay for it'. 161 00:21:46,105 --> 00:22:17,329 It's funny it doesn't seem since 2 minutes ago since I were in your position and I've got three now, 21, 16 and 13, so all still at home, which is great. My sister, getting back, my sister came out here, she did a degree in environmental science and all her friends from that course, when the finished and graduated, they decided to go to Australia, they got a 12 month visa, and they came out here and had a fantastic time. 162 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:18,480 When was this, which year? 163 00:22:19,610 --> 00:22:25,616 So, my oldest daughter was...young, I had to start my business out, I were about 27 at the time. 164 00:22:25,728 --> 00:22:28,220 So, was this like early 2000s, late 90s or? 165 00:22:29,430 --> 00:22:40,786 It had been about 2000, late 90s, early 2000s. My sister came out here and she came back and caught up with family, and she were telling me how great it was. 166 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:43,179 With a tan. 167 00:22:43,180 --> 00:22:57,830 With a tan. How great Australian were, you know, I'm trying to run a business and I've got other commitments and, you know, I'm like yeah, yeah whatever. You know, half listening, not really taking much notice. And she said 'you really need to go out'. She said, 'to try it out for electricians'. 168 00:22:57,970 --> 00:23:08,279 Yeah, yeah. That's one thing, to pause you there, did you find that weird that we've got 'CUBs', right? Cashed up bogans, which is this sort of derogatory term. 169 00:23:08,570 --> 00:23:11,086 I've never heard that, when you said cubs there I were thinking... Cub scouts? 170 00:23:11,087 --> 00:23:11,927 I saw in your face, you're like 'what?'. 171 00:23:11,931 --> 00:23:12,931 CUBs are 'Cashed Up Bogans'. 172 00:23:16,300 --> 00:23:54,559 So, that this was a funny thing, when I was at school, I remember going into high school and one of the guys I went to primary school with was like 'fuck this, I'm out', at year 10. So, he turned 16 and became I think an electrician or a carpenter, a chippy. And I remember in the next year he had a brand new Ford car, you know, V8 and then all of a sudden he had a house when he was 18 and we were just like 'what the fuck? How is this guy already...? And, so was that a weird thing when you came here and you found out that all these like electricians, sparkies, plumbers... Everyone with these otherwise, you know, labour jobs end up loaded with a lot of money because there's so much building out here. 173 00:23:55,570 --> 00:23:59,294 Yes and no. I was quite successful. Well, when I say that I was quite lucky. 174 00:24:03,481 --> 00:24:04,481 Busy. 175 00:24:04,650 --> 00:24:29,325 Busy. Exactly. I moved to Doncaster at the right time. I start my business at the right time. Everything fell into place at the right time. And I were work in seven days a week, I were flat out and I loved it , you know, I were kind of money hungry. I were earning good money. You know, we had quite a lot of money in the bank and everybody else didn't. Most of our friends had debt, we had cash. 176 00:24:29,610 --> 00:24:30,610 And two chimneys. 177 00:24:30,792 --> 00:24:45,889 And two chimneys. I've never been one to talk about that. I don't talk about money. I don't believe in that because, you know, people... Wrong people can hear, people get jealous. You know, it's a private thing money. 178 00:24:47,148 --> 00:24:49,230 Ah, fuck them, If they get jealous, whatever, you know, 'haters gonna hate'. 179 00:24:50,400 --> 00:25:22,230 Yes. So no, I mean, I were earning good money for England. So, but this thing.... And also one thing that I did forget to mention, is in the 60s, before I was born, before my dad met my mum, the side of the family, so my dad's side, the chimney side side, throw the towel in, an immigrated here. So, in the 1960s my daddy, his two brothers and his seven sisters and his mom and dad, so that's 12 of them. 180 00:25:22,430 --> 00:25:23,430 Oh holy moly. 181 00:25:23,460 --> 00:25:31,200 Emigrated out to Brisbane. Now, at that time, they didn't really have a choice there, you have to go where you were told. 182 00:25:32,236 --> 00:25:37,099 Ok, so there was like an incentive will bring you out here or pay for you to come here, but you go where we want you to. 183 00:25:37,800 --> 00:26:20,920 Yeah. So, at the time my granddad with his background in chimney, in chimney work, also people who went into chimneys also had boiler making as a side job, all got into boiler making, because boilers came along and were there with the steam and the chimneys, so a lot of chimney... People who were heavily chimney industry going to boiler making. And he were a boilermaker by trade and so was, I think, he's eldest son, Ian, that's why my dad and his other brother were still chimney sweeps and his other brother were a boilermaker with his dad. So, they came out here, his older brother and his dad as boilermakers got a job in Brisbane, came over on ship six weeks later, London to Brisbane, didn't have the jobs. There were no job. This job didn't exist. So, they had to live on a lot of people when they emigrated out here lived on like campuses. If you ever heard about that. 184 00:26:33,596 --> 00:26:35,815 No. I know a Uni campus, but... 185 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:43,301 Yeah, well, probably to a lot... So, they get off the ship, and then be sent to all these different areas and basically they lived in these communes. 186 00:26:44,094 --> 00:26:50,175 There's just some way to get them started, cause they don't have a house, they don't have a jobs, they don't have any income or of any kind. 187 00:26:50,640 --> 00:27:12,534 You know, there'd be clean places. They'd be, you know, fed, watered. Everybody'd start to get to know each other', it would be great, you can just imagine, everybody's in the same boat. They've only just come here. So, anyway, they don't get a job and eventually they get a house in Queensland, the Queenslander on the stilts, but this is early 60s, so there were no air-con. 188 00:27:13,981 --> 00:27:14,981 Hence the stilts. 189 00:27:16,410 --> 00:27:29,934 Hence the stilts. So, my gran, bless her, apparently never settled. She'd gone from looking after all these kids and being, you know, a wife to my granddad and doing all that sort of thing, to suddenly live in a really hot environment. And there were no real way to cool down. 190 00:27:31,591 --> 00:27:33,250 It must have been a bit of a shock. 191 00:27:33,580 --> 00:27:51,496 Yeah, I don't think... She never really settled. She didn't like the bugs and the insects, my brothers... no, sorry my brothers, my dad and his two brothers and my grandad all got jobs. Dad were a labourer on a building site, you know, one of them worked in a plastic bag factory, believe it or not. 192 00:27:51,540 --> 00:27:52,079 Really? 193 00:27:52,080 --> 00:28:03,900 Yeah, that must have been pretty hot. But yeah, younger ones... me aunties went to school, a lot of them went to school there for three years. It took them basically several years to save up to go back. 194 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:05,959 So, they chucked in the towel? 195 00:28:06,030 --> 00:28:07,030 They chucked in the towel. 196 00:28:07,980 --> 00:28:11,265 Screw this, you guys keep the weather and the bugs and the lizards and everything to yourself. 197 00:28:12,300 --> 00:28:29,970 I think my grand must have been getting on at my granddad, you know, every day I can't be doing with this, that, and other, and my granddad might have thought, well...you know, what we're going to do here? You know, they might have all started thinking... As soon as you start doubting and you get that seed in your head, it's hard to then turn that round. 198 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:31,120 Becomes a snowball. 199 00:28:32,370 --> 00:28:37,679 Missing the family, missing the sister, and things like that. So, eventually they ended up going back, but it cost them a small fortune. 200 00:28:37,930 --> 00:28:47,210 Well, this would have been the time where you can't just say 'we're going to go for a holiday back home', it's kind of like ok, yeah, you're going to drop, you know, a massive, a house worth just paying for the tickets on the boat, right? 201 00:28:47,680 --> 00:29:23,350 Imagine back then before computers and mobile phones, they had to, not only get on a boat and go back to England for six weeks, but then when they got there they ought to get back into housing. So, they had to start again that way. So, they went back, but ever since I were a small child growing up, my dad always up this fascinating little old fashioned sort of brown suitcase, you know, with the two clips at the side, like a briefcase, you'd click them off and then release the two catches and you'd lift the lid open it always smelt musty and he had all these fantastic things in there, he had a boomerang. 202 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:26,120 Oh, really? 203 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,314 He had a little sort of bowie knife in a sheath and all these black and white photos of Australia. So, from being a kid.. 204 00:29:31,610 --> 00:29:32,282 You always had that fascination. 205 00:29:32,283 --> 00:29:56,920 I'd grown up with this other side of my dad's life. I had no idea, no idea about it, you know, but saw the photos was and he told me all these stories about him and his brothers going out, 16, 15 year olds surfing, you know, cutting tops off of beer cans and throwing them at snakes and things like that, you know, all these all these wild.... 206 00:29:57,369 --> 00:29:59,912 So, were they chuffed to go home or were they like 'oh bugger!'? 207 00:30:00,740 --> 00:30:06,867 My dad, my dad regretted it. He didn't want to go, but he were only about 16 when they went back. 208 00:30:07,190 --> 00:30:08,420 And he had no choice in the matter? 209 00:30:08,450 --> 00:30:30,450 No choice, so whatever the family decided, everybody had to do, you know, in 60's I suppose. So, they end up going back and I grow up, my sister grows up and then my brother, when he was born, we all get shown these fantastic stuff, these stories and my sister planted the seed in my head about electrician's. 210 00:30:30,451 --> 00:30:30,535 Yes. 211 00:30:30,711 --> 00:30:45,313 Now, it were burbling around in my mind for a few years, you know, I were about 27 at the time. By the time I was in my early 30s, without a second child, Thomas were born.... he's 16, so he's about five years younger than my oldest daughter. Me and my wife started loosely talking about Australia. 212 00:30:53,029 --> 00:30:55,504 What spurred that? What made you decide? 213 00:30:55,505 --> 00:30:55,778 I don't know. 214 00:30:57,333 --> 00:31:02,030 Was there something you were trying to get away from? Not like in a private way, but like you were just sick of English lifestyle. 215 00:31:02,060 --> 00:31:05,329 No. Everything were going really well. I was still making good money. 216 00:31:05,510 --> 00:31:07,332 Just wanted a change. 217 00:31:07,430 --> 00:31:18,469 But we'd always... Me and me wife had both had itchy feet. We met in France, when we were in ours early twenties, we met in France grape picking, we both doing a bit of travelling. 218 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:24,559 That's what I envy about you, guys, being able to just go for 20K, you know, a little tunnel ride and you're in a completely different country. 219 00:31:24,590 --> 00:31:34,379 I've never been on that actually, but yeah. You don't realize until you leave what you had. had never been on Channel Tunnel, but thinking about it now, I'm thinking why did I never go on that? 220 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:40,035 Well, that's the same here with a lot of people who hang out in the cities and they're 'like oh, what? The You Yangs?', or you know, like, 'we could've gone to Uluru, it's only 10 hours away. 221 00:31:43,250 --> 00:32:00,559 They're quite cool actually, the You Yangs, I've been up there, me and my son, but yes, so we started talking about Australia and from...I can't remember exactly how, but we knew that you can ring this number and they can score you over the telephone. 222 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:03,296 In terms of how easy it's going to be to come over here and get a...? 223 00:32:03,850 --> 00:32:05,009 Yeah. It's all about points. 224 00:32:05,010 --> 00:32:06,010 Yeah. 225 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:07,489 And I think it still is. 226 00:32:07,670 --> 00:32:17,184 Well, they want certain jobs, right? They'll be like look, and be like 'ok, we don't have enough doctors in rural areas, ok, we'll say anyone who gets over here on a visa who's a doctor, bam! We'll set you up in a rural area'. 227 00:32:17,420 --> 00:32:20,652 And you've got to remember this war before everybody had a PC. 228 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:22,219 Yeah, yeah. 229 00:32:22,220 --> 00:32:29,593 So we had a little laptop, a lot of people didn't have a computer at home. There were no smartphones, we were all working on the old Nokias. 230 00:32:30,830 --> 00:32:34,854 Man, it wasn't... Yeah. I had a Nokia back at uni, I remember playing snake. That was the bomb! 231 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:41,884 Yes, snake, yeah. That's a blast from past. Oh, those are comign back now, retro, you know, the whole game stations. 232 00:32:43,306 --> 00:32:50,439 As you were saying before, doing the full cycle I think people are getting out of the... They want to get out of the loop, they're like 'oh my God, I'm just being too stimulated by this crap'. 233 00:32:50,840 --> 00:33:05,589 Modern technology has got its place, but I think people are being sucked into this technology sort of scenario and people are like, you know. It's nice to be able to step out, you know, like you say, go to your house with the gas and your open fire and you wouldn't cook. It's just..it's kind of a.... 234 00:33:08,165 --> 00:33:18,170 The most annoying thing about my grandparents place now is there's reception there now. I think in the last year they've obviously built a phone tower that's, so close that you can actually get your phone out and the batteries last so much longer today. 235 00:33:18,710 --> 00:33:21,494 Turn it off, just turn it off and leave it, say you've lost it, you know what I mean? 236 00:33:21,620 --> 00:33:45,290 Exactly So, we start, we made the call. I remember us both making the call and on loudspeaker and talking to this lady, I can't remember if you were in England or Australia, I can't remember if the number where it went, but I remember at the time she said basically 'you've got enough points. You speak fluent English, you've got a train... 237 00:33:45,780 --> 00:33:46,080 More or less. 238 00:33:46,081 --> 00:34:06,808 Yeah, exactly. I thought you were being quite kind. Because a lot of people say 'what did you say?', you know, they don't understand me, 'what's he talking about are you foreign?, but yeah we had enough points and we were like ' oh, great', you know, she said, you know, 'if you want to take it any further, you've got to do this bit'. There are another step. We left it probably about another year, we rang up again and... 239 00:34:09,730 --> 00:34:13,680 Was there a point? Was this something that made you just flip a switch and be like 'you know what? Screw it'. 240 00:34:13,870 --> 00:34:18,130 Well, I think my sister were always in the background. You know, because they were quite close to us... 241 00:34:18,341 --> 00:34:19,307 She was still out here at that point, was she? 242 00:34:19,308 --> 00:34:34,936 She gone back. Actually, there were a bit I missed out about that, so she met a bloke over here and went back to England because the visa expired and she had to go back, one thing or another, and they told her we don't want an environmental scientist, we've got enough. 243 00:34:36,500 --> 00:34:38,395 Stay in Australia, stay in the Colony. 244 00:34:38,739 --> 00:34:51,582 You'll have to go back to England to do a teaching degree. We want teachers. So, ironically, she went back to England did a teaching degree, and I'll come back to that in a sec, because it's quite ironic. So, she started doing a teaching degree. 245 00:34:52,769 --> 00:34:53,980 Why didn't you tell her become an electrician? 246 00:34:54,580 --> 00:34:59,149 Exactly. Exactly. I should've told her become a plasterer or a tiler, shouldn't I? 247 00:34:59,890 --> 00:35:02,195 She'd given you that idea and you found that there was enough points, you should have just been like.... 248 00:35:05,690 --> 00:35:36,246 Yeah. So, we found out that it's a really tricky process. Early on and we're advised to get an agent and we did. We got an agent called Mick Breen, in London. He guided us through it, it were very, very complex and it's designed in such a way, your system's a great system, it's designed as a filter. If you're not 100 percent committed to coming out, you won't pass it. 249 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:38,050 Time wasters not welcome. 250 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:49,681 You just won't commit yourself because it is so complicated. I'll just give you a quick, you know, just an example. Some of it boils down to the quality of the paper. 251 00:35:50,798 --> 00:35:51,429 What? Really? 252 00:35:51,430 --> 00:36:14,035 So, our agent said, one of the things don't go buying paper from a supermarket for your print. Go to a specialist shop and buy water-marked expensive coloured paper. So, some of it we'll do do on green, some of it we'll do on blue, some of it we'll do on white and each section had a different colour. 253 00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,803 Just to make the process as easy as possible for these people that are doing it. 254 00:36:18,820 --> 00:36:33,154 That would add cost, obviously, and the reason behind it were, he said, if it comes down to two of you, which you know, you never know if it does. They will have to pick... Make a decision and that decision might be based on something as silly as the paper. 255 00:36:33,330 --> 00:36:35,189 Really? Because they just can't pick anything else. 256 00:36:35,290 --> 00:36:36,772 This guy's done it on expensive paper, this guy hasn't. 257 00:36:36,773 --> 00:36:37,851 He takes it seriously. 258 00:36:38,588 --> 00:36:39,588 Yeah, exactly. 259 00:36:39,763 --> 00:36:48,580 It is screwed up, though, because like we have to apply at the moment for my wife's partner visa, seven and half grand. I have to drop seven and a half thousand dollars to apply. 260 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:49,590 That's just to apply. 261 00:36:49,591 --> 00:36:53,840 Yeah. They could say no. They could look at the paper and be like 'no', even though it's online. 262 00:36:54,450 --> 00:36:58,800 So, because you're Australian, you're born here. Your wife's from? 263 00:36:58,870 --> 00:36:59,106 Brazil. 264 00:36:59,107 --> 00:37:08,399 Brazil. That's right. You were talking when I were here, which were pretty cool because you were talking in Portuguese. So, is that the national tongue of Brazil, Portuguese? 265 00:37:08,830 --> 00:37:30,610 Exactly. Yeah. So I think more South American speak Portuguese than Spanish. Yeah. Don't quote me on that, but Brazil is definitely the biggest country there. But yeah. So, anyway it's for her to stay here permanently, like Noah can stay here because he's born here and he's my son. I can obviously stay here, but she has to get a partner visa, and even though she's married to me, she has a child that is Australian, she has to still go through the process and pay. 266 00:37:30,820 --> 00:37:31,669 And getting a visa. 267 00:37:31,670 --> 00:37:34,570 Yeah. And they're about to put the price up again. So, it's about to get even harder. 268 00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:37,557 So, it's seven thousand dollars to apply? 269 00:37:37,690 --> 00:37:38,439 Seven and a half. 270 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:39,970 Seven and a half. Don't forget the half. 271 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:41,269 To apply. 272 00:37:41,270 --> 00:37:42,219 That's $500 and that's a lot of money. 273 00:37:43,300 --> 00:37:52,780 It's ridiculous and there were some people, she had a story about a friend of hers was married to a guy who had overstayed his visa here by six years. 274 00:37:53,380 --> 00:37:54,380 Six years. 275 00:37:55,510 --> 00:37:56,074 How did he get caught? 276 00:37:56,075 --> 00:37:58,595 They applied for this visa. 277 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:00,038 Are you joking? 278 00:38:00,039 --> 00:38:07,444 And paid the seven and a half thousand dollars, but included that information. They said no. They took the money. 279 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:10,635 Thanks. Thanks, but no, thanks. 280 00:38:10,636 --> 00:38:11,720 What the hell? 281 00:38:11,830 --> 00:38:12,830 Thanks for (?) Yourselves up. 282 00:38:13,030 --> 00:38:22,744 Kel told me that and I was like 'what were these people thinking?'. Like of course they're going to say no, you overstayed your visa by six years and you've been dumb enough to pay the seven and a half thousand dollars. They're going to see this and be like 'no'. 283 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:31,480 That's terrible. I can understand the feelings behind it, they might wanted to feel more secure, they might have been wondering, thinking about settling down. 284 00:38:31,500 --> 00:38:38,639 Definitely, but leave the country, like leave, turn yourselves in, leave, sort it out, come back privately, then, you know. 285 00:38:42,186 --> 00:39:09,672 Do it from your comfort of your... Like we did. Comfort of your armchair, a bit of a, you know, saying. You're already here or you're doing everything that you're normally doing. You try and do it, but if it fails you have lost, you've lost some money because it is quite expensive, long process. And at times we'd be pulling ours hair out because things would disappear and we'd be ringing up and it's all at opposite ends a clock, so we'd have to stay up till 2:00 in morning. 286 00:39:10,140 --> 00:39:11,389 To get them during the day. 287 00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:29,876 To catch you guys. And it were all done through Adelaide. Government department called Vetassess, Vetassess. The paperwork, mountains of it, mountains of it, which is interesting what you just said because I've given you a bit of heads up there. Get some good quality paper. 288 00:39:30,330 --> 00:39:32,222 Well, it's online. That's the problem now. 289 00:39:32,340 --> 00:39:40,079 It's all online. I wonder if it is for emigrate to come here and things like that, I wonder if it's still, if they still want the printed version. 290 00:39:40,350 --> 00:39:48,691 I don't know. I don't know, but it says crazy what they need Facebook conversations, not specifically, but they need evidence of when you first met, how long you've been chatting together. 291 00:39:48,692 --> 00:39:49,692 Photographs and stuff. 292 00:39:49,820 --> 00:40:10,038 Photographs that you're with other people who then writes things saying that they know you've been a couple for a certain period of time, because obviously so many Aussies were getting paid to bring in their wives that they'd met overseas or they were getting paid by other people to be like 'can you just marry me? I'll come to Australia and then I'll give you ten grand and we'll get divorced in a few years and I'm an Australian citizen'. 293 00:40:10,349 --> 00:40:15,840 How crazy is that? I mean, people actually did that, to think that you'd actually commit and get married. 294 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:32,579 It still happens today. They still go through this full process if they have enough money, especially well-off families that for whatever reason want their child to come out here it's still happens from what I've heard here. And that's the government's trying to crack down on that, but anyway you got to Australia in the end. You went through this full process. 295 00:40:32,940 --> 00:40:47,969 Went through the process, it were quite strange at the end, because there was a pause in the system, basically there where they explained it to us was if it's a conveyor belt and you've got three quarters that way up it , somebody presses emergency stop board. 296 00:40:48,250 --> 00:40:48,899 You have to wait. 297 00:40:48,900 --> 00:40:52,169 Everybody's process have been put on hold because of Julia Gillard. 298 00:40:52,410 --> 00:40:53,634 Really? Julia Gillard gotcha. 299 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:55,619 Julia Gillard she came into power. 300 00:40:55,860 --> 00:40:56,279 Yeah. 301 00:40:56,280 --> 00:41:03,306 And paused the whole immigration system. I think she wanted to just have a look and put her mark on it. You know, I'll show you what authority is. 302 00:41:03,870 --> 00:41:04,870 A seal of approval. 303 00:41:05,053 --> 00:41:23,705 I'm the new prime minister and everything is going to stop while I have a look at it, and I said well, we both said, well, you know, how long? It's impossible to tell. How long's a piece of string?It could be a week, a month, a year, it could be a decade. So, they said 'our advice is just carry on as normal and forget about it for now. Don't think about it.'. 304 00:41:24,450 --> 00:41:43,127 So, we actually sold our house. I'm thinking well, at least that's done for when we do emigrate. We were living in rented accommodation, in the countryside, it was a lovely spot, and we start thinking about where should we go then if we can't get to Australia? Should we go to France? That's where we met. France is a nice part of the world. 305 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,423 And at the time, because of the European Union, it's easy for you to move there, right? You can just live there. 306 00:41:47,490 --> 00:41:51,518 And it were full of stories of poms going to France buying old chateaus for peanuts, renovating them, and having a great life, and we thought, well, we'll do that, you know what I mean? 307 00:41:54,990 --> 00:41:57,530 I'm not sure why not more French people do that. 308 00:41:58,610 --> 00:41:59,181 I know, it's crazy. 309 00:41:59,182 --> 00:42:00,182 They'll do it in England. 310 00:42:00,270 --> 00:42:02,129 They'll go to England, yeah, moving to Sheffield. 311 00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:31,869 So, yeah, and it were round about Christmas time. No, we came here... No, we came in here in October 2011, we got the visa. The visa came through the following December. It were my wife's birthday, ironically, it were her birthday on the 16th of December and the letter came through the post and I was just looking the post and I thought it'll be a birthday card, you know what I mean? 312 00:42:32,550 --> 00:42:33,830 From the Immigration Service. 313 00:42:34,250 --> 00:42:45,982 It was sort of in a plain envelope, it didn't say anything really too much on it or I didn't notice it, you know I mean? I threw it to one side and I got this phone call, I'm at work, from my wife and she's really excited. I'm thinking, jeez what somebody bought you? 314 00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:47,640 It's just your birthday! 315 00:42:48,660 --> 00:43:02,157 I'll have to get her a really good present, because somebody bought her...someone has given her... and she goes 'you'll never believe it!' and she couldn't get it out and I'm like 'what's going on? What's going on?', she says "we've got the visa!" and I'm like 'what?'. And she's going 'yeah, it were in that envelope'. And I'm like 'oh shit, I thought it were a birthday card', you know what I mean? 316 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:04,389 She says 'we've been accepted, we got the visa!'. 317 00:43:04,390 --> 00:43:04,900 Almost lost it. 318 00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,513 She said 'the only thing is, it started three months ago'. 319 00:43:10,798 --> 00:43:12,139 Because of this whole delay, it' just screwed it up. 320 00:43:12,270 --> 00:44:09,166 The visa been granted and then it's taken three months for us to get it, so we had nine months to activate the visa and you've got to do it in that twelve month span, otherwise you've got to reapply. So, it were a no brainer. We had to activate this visa, so we sold everything, got rid of everything, just kept our personal possessions, kids, kids toys, sold all our furniture, everything. Anything that he couldn't bring a suitcase or put in a couple of container boxes were brought about twelve sort of boxes, you know, in a container. Book flights, came here on a one way ticket. I got in contact with somebody I had gone to college with. When we moved, when we sold our house and we moved in this lovely house in woods, it were in a suburb in Nottingham and I remembered an old mate of mine from college back in the day moving to Nottingham and saying, 'We'll catch up for a beer.' 321 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:12,602 This is where Robin Hood lives, right? 322 00:44:13,100 --> 00:44:14,989 Well, yeah, Robin Hood's from Nottingham. Yeah. 323 00:44:15,939 --> 00:44:16,931 Did you see the Sheriff? 324 00:44:16,932 --> 00:44:21,146 The Sheriff of Nottingham. Yeah. I've been there, actually, the Old Oak's still there. 325 00:44:21,830 --> 00:44:22,830 No kidding. 326 00:44:23,070 --> 00:45:09,997 I think it's propped up with steel bars because it's dead, and it's sort of, you know, it's there. But yes, so I'm ringing, I'm ringing this guy John, I've got phone number, but you know, especially when you have kids and time flies, it's over ten years ago they said this, and I'm thinking it were only a couple years ago. Anyway, someone answers the phone, says 'no, never heard of John Chadwick, I bought this house off another guy and he weren't John, so this was several people ago.'. So, I'm thinking 'oh, shit, you know, I've lost contact with him', but then I remembered at me mum's, her older address book from when I were at college had his mum's number in, and I thought, it's a long shot. I rang his mom's number and low and behold she still lived there and I'm talking to his mom. 327 00:45:10,300 --> 00:45:35,090 And I said Jonathan from college, do you remembered me? Which were great, we had a bit of a chinwag, and I said 'I'm trying to catch up with John' and she said 'well, you'll have a job on there', she says 'he lives in Australia'. How weird is this? And I said I've just applied, we're immigrating there. Not just applied, we're immigrating there, you know, that's why I wanted to catch up, because I'm leaving soon. And she said 'well, he's already there.' 328 00:45:35,100 --> 00:45:35,759 I'll meet you there. 329 00:45:35,760 --> 00:46:11,593 So, I said 'do me a favour, don't tell him, don't give him a heads up, I'll ring him and I'll have a bit of a joke with him'. So, she gave me his number and it took me a couple of attempts because he worked and then I realised I had to ring a really odd hour like two in the morning or whatever it was, to work out when he'd be up at five five o'clock or whatever. And straight away, you know, he answers the phone, his broad Yorkshire accent. 'Hello, John speaking' and I'm trying to put on an accent I'm like 'Yeah, G'day day Mr. John Chadwick?' and he's like... 'Yeah', I can hear him thinking 'who the hell is this?'. 330 00:46:14,350 --> 00:46:29,516 So yeah it's the Australian Embassy here. We've got a problem. We've got a problem with your visa' and I can hear him... Who the bloody hell. You know, all the fucking hell is this?' .So, I'm like, 'it's me, John' and we were laughing and he was like 'yeah, I knew it was someone pulling my leg' he says, 'I could tell you put on a crap accent'. 331 00:46:29,710 --> 00:46:31,866 So, we got talking and he lived in Drysdale. 332 00:46:33,952 --> 00:46:37,194 Yeah, really? That's just down the road, guys. That's ten minutes away. It's a small world. 333 00:46:37,195 --> 00:46:53,377 So, not only did we sort of come here on a bit of a, you know, think we're all a bit sort of open air, it were this great sort of adventure coming to Australia, we didn't really have a plan, where we were going to settle? 334 00:46:53,460 --> 00:46:54,460 Just flying by the seat of your pants, huh? 335 00:46:54,960 --> 00:47:05,770 Yeah, we just knew we were going to fly to Melbourne, because we knew a few people that were being now, tradies, joiners that's I'd worked with, come Melbourne, some had stayed, some had gone back and they said 'oh yeah, that's where you want to be, that's where all the work is'. 336 00:47:06,450 --> 00:47:17,231 So, we thought, alright, Melbourne, so he said to me 'I'll book you in at Barwon caravan park. So we landed to Tullamarine, got Skybus to Southern Cross. 337 00:47:17,410 --> 00:47:20,573 V Line from there, right? all the way down to Geelong. 338 00:47:22,430 --> 00:47:31,875 And it were the 16th or 17th of October, it was Geelong Cup day and everybody on the train were dressed really smart and the trains were packed and there were cops on there walking up and down. 339 00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:33,381 This is the horse race, guys. 340 00:47:34,459 --> 00:47:35,589 Me and my wife were like ' wow!". 341 00:47:35,990 --> 00:47:37,117 Australia's screwed up! 342 00:47:37,432 --> 00:47:42,096 Everybody dresses real posh. You know, it's like England used to be. 343 00:47:43,097 --> 00:47:44,180 Just wait until the night, they'll be trashed. 344 00:47:44,700 --> 00:48:09,180 And then we found out it was Geelong Cup Day, you know, that was the reason. And then we found out as well that a completely new concept AFL, Australian Rules Football. We'd never really seen it, we didn't know much about, you know, on they just won the last flag, 2011. Literally a couple of weeks before we got here. 345 00:48:09,750 --> 00:48:11,243 The grand finals always at the end of September. 346 00:48:11,244 --> 00:48:31,975 Yeah, yeah. So, we came in a real sort of iconic time like, you know, you'd just won a flag, Race Cup day were on. It were about 22 degrees, we thought were red hot. We've got our shirts on, T-shirts, which, you know, everyone's clothes, everybody's still got jackets, you guys thinking it's still quite cool. 347 00:48:32,030 --> 00:48:33,019 Yeah. 348 00:48:33,020 --> 00:48:34,609 And we end up Barwon Caravan Park. 349 00:48:34,610 --> 00:48:36,374 Which is, again, just down the road. 350 00:48:36,390 --> 00:48:53,050 Just down road. Yeah. For three weeks until we change our driving lisences over, so we could legally drive here. Pretty straightforward thing, bought an old Falcon had it converted to gas, got the government rebate on the gas conversion and start exploring area and ended up renting a house in Port Arlington and that's where we still live. 351 00:48:58,640 --> 00:48:59,640 Far out. 352 00:48:59,873 --> 00:49:18,510 Ten years later we still here in Port Arlington. My oldest daughter now has got full citizenship. She she's just passed that. If anybody's listen to this, don't tell her, because she's told us all to be very secretive about that, until she gets the official document on Australia Day. That's when the do all the actual exchange. 353 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:22,605 So, what are you doing? Are you doing the same thing? You hoping to get it or you don't need to, you've got to...? 354 00:49:23,209 --> 00:50:01,081 It would be nice too. I am seriously thinking that me and my wife and two younger should do it, because we're on permanent residency, but we haven't got permanent... Sorry, is that the right way around? We came on a permanent visa, but we haven't got citizenship. So, we've got permanent residency, but not citizenship, which does have some implications, like if we wanted to leave Australia now, I'd have to get a visa to come back. Pay for a visa to come back. And other things, I think, if you want to buy or build a house you don't get that grant. There's a few, you know... 355 00:50:01,490 --> 00:50:04,381 Minor things. Man, it's like 10 questions, you'll be sweet. 356 00:50:04,846 --> 00:50:47,663 So, my oldest daughter is now a citizen and I'm really proud of that. I think we've gained what we wanted to do, I think the main game behind it were, if we had come here and we're still single people, our outlook could have been totally different. Would probably come here and had a wild time, and maybe ended up going back to England or somewhere else, I don't know, we might have stayed. But because we came with our family and we were fully committed to Australia, we've now given our kids a lot better life, I feel some people disagree with me, in particular my parents get a little bit annoyed about it, but I feel we've given our children a lot better start in life because Australia is a great place to be. 357 00:50:48,290 --> 00:50:48,969 No regrets. 358 00:50:48,970 --> 00:51:03,330 No regrets, no regrets whatsoever. You know, what we're here for the long haul, we love it. We love the people. People are friendly, we love the space, we love campaign, we love doing what you guys pretty much take for granted, is great. 359 00:51:03,500 --> 00:51:08,302 It's true. Far out, John. Well, that's probably long enough today, man, but we could talk all day. 360 00:51:09,391 --> 00:51:11,444 Yeah. Thank for that, just spilt a bit of beer on my shirt. 361 00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:16,290 I'll have to get you back on in the future, but thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it. 362 00:51:16,291 --> 00:51:19,960 No problem. Pleasure. 363 00:51:23,249 --> 00:51:54,139 Alright, guys. So, that was the end of this two part interview series with Jonathan Stewart. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast, John. It was absolutely amazing, and yeah, guys, remember: if you need your chimneys checked out, if you need your wood ovens fixed, anything to do with open fires and chimneys, contact John, he works for A1 Chimney Sweep and Co, around the Geelong area, he's an absolute legend and will hook you up. I'm sure he'll sort you out. Ok? Anyway, guys, it's been a pleasure as always. I hope you have a great week and chat to you soon. Peace.