Coming to Australia: 1928 to 1940

Edith prepared for her trip to Australia with both trepidation and excitement.

This series of letters start in 1928 as Edith is living in Helsinki, Finland, and is preparing for her journey to Australia to marry her great love, Sverre. The letters are filled with optimism and hope, as well as sadness at the thought of leaving her family behind.

In these letters, she describes her daily life, interactions with her partner Sverre, and events happening around her. Edith talks about their routines, birthday celebrations, visits from friends, and the challenges of being apart from family. She expresses gratitude for gifts received, shares details about her activities like cooking and sewing, and the weather where she lived.

Edith had lived a very cosmopolitan and cultured life in Europe. This contrasted greatly with the challenges she came to encounter in Australia. In the early years she often lived in makeshift cabins constructed wherever Sverre got a job. Her sense of adventure mostly made up for the hard work, but there were also periods where it is clear Edith longed to have access to art, music and theatre, and to be among more educated people. They made many friends, particularly in the bird watching community in Sydney, most notably Norman Chaffer and his entire family and Keith Hindwood, and this offered some comfort.

By 1936 Edith had given birth to Marie and they started to settle down and Sverre established himself as a builder in northern NSW. However, times were tough and Sverre went bankrupt in 1939. And then the second world war started...

Notes:

• The following are a high level summaries of the letters, with links to transcriptions of the original letters written mainly in German. You can find some letters from 1931 and 1932 that were edited and translated by Ediths’s daughter Marie.

• The transcriptions are unedited and include notes and pictures of text, where I am unable to read it (for example if Russian).

Letters

• 1928

  • October to December - Living in Helsinki, Edith has not been home with her family for nearly four years and is planning for her great adventure, moving to Australia to join her beloved Sverre.
    Working as a secretary at a Finnish company called Mercantile, she has an active social life, attending regular lectures, the theatre, joining in Russian expat community activities and playing as an active member of the Helsinki Balalaika Orchestra (quite possibly as the first woman in the orchestra).  She has an extended circle of friends and family who she visits regularly. The Streng family are a particularly important part of her life.
    She is very excited about coming home to visit her family in Zittau before her journey to Australia. Much is to be done, she proudly buys a large travel chest, with room for all her belongings, and plans to make the journey in the new year.
    For some time she is worried when Sverre will have enough money saved for her to join him. She is hesitant to accept financial assistance from her parents who offer to lend her the bond required for the journey to Australia.
    

• 1929

  • January to July - (also in English translation) - The date of departure gets ever closer. There is lots to do, with friends to visit, final celebrations at her workplace, concerts with the balalaika orchestra and finalising the practical – packing for the trip to Australia and resigning from her job. Edith is also excited about seeing her family again in Germany, for the first time in more than four years – her parents in Zittau (near Dresden) and her brother Leo in Berlin.  She has loved her time in Helsinki and is sad to leave. There is little about her visit to parents. She has an enjoyable visit to her brother Leo in Berlin, and then she starts her journey to Australia, first travelling by train to London via Ostende in mid May.  Arriving in London, she has several days enjoying the sights and sounds of the city with friends. And then it is off to Southampton to board the Largs Bay, a passenger and freight steamer travelling to Sydney via Port Said and Colombo, departing on 29 May.  She is met by Sverre waving a giant Norwegian flag on the harbour in Sydney on Monday 8 July.  They marry at St Stephen’s Church in Willoughby on 9 July, with arrangements organised by the Hindwood family. Edith feels both sad and endlessly happy, starting her new life in Australia.

  • July to December - It is a joyful time as Edith settles into her married life. Sverre has got a room for them in a central location in North Sydney, and she slowly starts to get used to life, shopping for food and enjoying the new world around her. She notes that Sydney is a large city, but only in its centre.  Socially, she gets to know the Chaffer family and joins them for social tennis afternoons (though she has no racquet and doesn’t play), sees other friends of Sverre’s and catches up with the friends she made on the journey to Australia, Mrs Marsden, Mrs Wagner and the Purser.  She thinks of getting a job and joining a local balalaika orchestra, but makes it her priority is to settle in and support Sverre. Sverre has a contract until Christmas, and it is unclear what he will do once that finishes.  Before they settle in too much, they have to move to other rooms, rented by a Mrs Clifton.  Then disaster strikes. Edith is badly injured when a truck hits the car she is a passenger in. It was a grey Wednesday 11 September, and she had joined Sverre and a few friends to see snow in the Blue Mountains. She ends up spending more than 12 weeks in Parramatta District Hospital to be treated for broken bones in her hip and leg. The staff at the hospital are lovely, and she is grateful for the love and support from Sverre and the Chaffer family. But it is also a time of trauma for Edith, with her seeing patients who are dying, have psychotic episodes and suffering great pain. She describes her experience in the hospital in considerable detail.  As she is discharged in December, it is with prospect of a full recovery. She at first stays with the Chaffers to convalesce. Christmas is coming and she looks forward to spending it with Sverre and friends at the Zoological Society cabin at Waterfall just south of Sydney in the Royal National Park.

• 1930

  • January to June - Edith spent the days before Christmas with Sverre, Keith Hindwood, Norman Chaffer and other friends at the scientist’s cabin at Waterfall in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. She loved the birdlife, including parrots, kookaburras and a bowerbird display. She was also busy making up for all the time lost setting up home with Sverre, including discarding some of Sverre’s socks that were beyond repair.  They spent Christmas eve with Keith Hindwood and his cousin Bob Emerson, but it was difficult to get in the mood for Chrismas. Sverre starts the new year with a trip to Yass to investigate a job at Taemas Bridge.  He gets the job and Edith, who is now happy to be fully mobile again, joins Sverre at Taemas the end of January.  The workers camp at Taemas has about 35 workers, 6 women and around 18 children. Edith is excited. It is a real adventure, in the vast interior, and life is a bit primitive, but comfortable. They live in a tent (2,3 x3m) and tin room (3.5 x 2.8m), and buy a stove for cooking and heating, and old oil drums used as sinks for washing.  Yass is not much of a town according to Edith, but she enjoys seeing men on horseback arriving in town with their dogs. The river is full of fish and they get their fill of yabbies.  In the meantime, legal proceedings for compensation for damages caused by the car accident continue. In April Edith attends the Supreme Court of NSW to testify and is awarded 300£ in damages. She is thrilled she can now pay back a loan to her parents and possibly buy a car. But it is also a time of uncertainty. The work at Taemas Bridge is coming to an end and it is a time of high unemployment. They are happy not to be in Sydney where work is hard to come by. But she is confident and by June Sverre thinks he may have work at either Burrinjuck or Orange.

  • July - December: Transcription in progress

  • See pictures of her early days in Australia

• 1931

  • October to December - Edith and Sverre are living at Burrinjuck, south of the city of Yass in NSW. Sverre is a labourer. Although they have savings, it is the time of the depression, money is tight and there are restrictions on taking money from the bank. Edith is hopeful that a Labor party win in the coming Federal election will bring some relief. Local personalities cause some tension in the camp where they live - including meetings to arrange a Children’s Picnic. In one letter, Edith notes how most people in Australia appear to have a need to boast about successful and well educated people in their family. But despite the difficulties, Edith appears happy, enjoys the crop from her vegetable garden and shares a recipe for Candy Fruit Cake (on the occasion of Christmas).

• 1932

  • January to June - Life at Burrinjuck is good. The year starts with enjoyable visits from Evelyn Chaffer and Keith Hindwood. Edith wonders how people in Germany can survive on the money they earn and notes Sverre earns plenty with an income of £8.10.- a fortnight. Among the many letters she receives from her mother is a short history of the Ross and Brandenburger families. Edith competes in the local Sports Day where she comes second in rowing (thinks she would have been first if her oars were longer), fourth in running, and failed miserably in shooting. Edith participates in the hunt for rabbits (for food and fur), but on one occasion accidentally shoots the pet cat of a neighbour. Sverre and Edith celebrate the purchase of a car, which their friend Mr Gilbert - a retired pharmacist - found for them for £65. A friend takes Sverre to the local police station in Yass to get his drivers license. This involved an eye examination and a short drive with a police officer. Work at Burrinjuck is coming to an end in April and Sverre looks for employment elsewhere, including as a shearer. They get temporary accommodation as Sverre builds a shearer cottage at Goodradigby Station near Wee Jasper.

  • July to December - Edith feels sad as they move back to Sydney. She was a bit sad to leave her life in the bush, but admits she enjoys the comforts of the city. The Chaffers welcome her into their home as a member of the family. She enjoys spending time with them, though she finds them a bit boring at time and is annoyed by endless baby talk. She starts looking for work for herself, without success and Sverre has no luck either. He works for a couple of months as a ‘scrubber’ (clearing the bush for farming) but gives it up after a couple of months. Edith describes the city, including that North Sydney has the ‘better’ suburbs including Crows Nest, Willoughby, Chatswood and Roseville where the Gilberts and Chaffers live. As Sverre quits his job as a scrubber, Edith finds accommodation near the Chaffers in Boundary Street, Roseville - she sends a floor plan to Germany. They borrow furniture from a Mrs Horsley when they find a new home at Holmwood, Margaret Street, Roseville. What Sverre will do next is unclear - he even considers joining a Norwegian whaling boat, though the conditions are pretty bad. Throughout this time they also spend time with the Sydney Ornithologist Union, including days in a cabin at Waterfall. Edith’s beloved dog Jippy dies in November as a result of a tick bite. Sverre earns some money by going door-to-door selling fish he has bought wholesale.

• 1933

  • January to June - The year 1932 ended with New Years celebrations with the Chaffer family and Gilberts. They recently adopted a small Fox Terrier dog called Stray and all their friends tell them they should cut its tail off. They reluctantly do it, and immediately regret the pain they have caused. Sverre’s fish business continues with rather limited success. He also attempts to sell tea, but has no success. Edith gets pleasure from listening to the radio which Sverre recently bought at an auction. She observes that Sverre never goes clothes shopping with her – he is not comfortable in women’s clothing stores. Edith is invited to a Harmony Center in the city, where they have meetings about astrology, spiritism and similar things which are of no particular interest to her, but she agrees to make a presentation about places she has visited overseas. She also visits the Royal Sydney Easter Show. Sverre gets some work in the Chaffer tannery in May – physically hard and smelly work.

  • July to December - In July Edith gets some work translating marketing materials and continues to have a very social relationship with the Gilbert, Chaffer and Hindwood families. On one day Edith goes to into the city to visit Mrs Jones who earns money as an astrologist – something Edith calls nonsense. Sverre befriends a builder, Mr Collins, who is a strong advocate of the Douglas Credit System.

    Unemployment continues to be an issue. Sverre continues to get some ad-hoc work in addition to selling fish.  After several attempts, Sverre is led to believe he will get work near Byron Bay, NSW, with the State Monier Pipeworks company. Edith starts preparing for the move in August, but the job offer doesn’t come. In the meantime he gets four weeks employment in October, building a concrete house for a family in Cowan. He finally gets work with State Monier in Brunswick Heads and they move there in November. Edith sails to Byron Bay on the steamer Wollongbar. She describes it as a very beautiful area, but one that would be boring to live in for any length of time. Murwillumbah is in her view a very multicultural and lively town.

• 1934

  • January to June - Edith enjoys the beauty of the country side and explores the region and its many small towns including Lismore, Mullumbimby, Tweed Heads and Southport. She thinks Brisbane has the feeling of a small town. Sverre is treated for a skin infection common in the steamy climate. Living in a boarding house, the sense of adventure is starting to wear off. Edith increasingly longs for the company of educated people who have opinions on things. The books and magazines she receives from her family in Germany are a life saver for her.
    They move to Murwillumbah in March where they set up camp on land they rent from the McKenzies who live in a house on the site. The rent includes the right to use the toilet and access water. Sverre gets work for a builder and is happy not to have to return to State Moniers. He soon starts offering building services with the support of a Mr Crompton, but is up against other local builders who don’t like the competition of a newcomer. Edith initially finds camping, heat, humidity and rain exhausting and speculates on whether they will return to Norway soon. She soon settles as the camp becomes more comfortable and like a proper home. In June she writes about the competition at the annual Murwillumbah music festival. For weeks you could hear people practicing for the competition in houses all across town. All is quiet again the day after the competition final.

  • July to December - Edith continues to long to see her family. She regularly takes pictures to send back to them in Germany. On one day, Sverre holds the magnesium flash too close to their home and when it went off, nearly burnt down their home. Edith loves gardening and helps their landlady. Reading a history of England confirms Edith’s dislike of the English. The climate is making her sick and she end up in hospital with skin infections. The hospital in Murwillumbah is fairly primitive and she is in a room next to a baby who later dies. On her discharge from hospital, Evelyn Chaffer convinces Edith to travel to Sydney for a little while to recover. Back in Murwillumbah the heat and humidity of summer is coming, again leading to thoughts of moving back to Norway. 

    But the adventure continues, as Edith explores nature and environment in the area, and Sverre is having some success with his building business. The weather was bad when the regional show was held in November, but there was plenty to see and experience. The year ends with a sense of optimism. They have money in the bank and business appears good.

• 1935

  • January to June - Edith starts the year with reflection on how each new year in Australia has started in a different place. Where to next?  Evenings at home are often filled with reading. The humidity and regular storms are a regular feature and impact Sverre’s work. Edith asks her family for stamps to give to an 11 year old neighbour. She also requests a building magazine from Germany with examples of family homes. Sverre travels to Sydney to try to drum up some business for houses built from cement stones which he plans to make himself. He comes back having bought a Studebaker truck using nearly all their savings – Edith is not happy, but they get some back selling their old car. He then sells the Studebaker and gets a Chevrolet truck, plus a bit extra in return. The building business keeps growing, but Edith is concerned he is doing it with minimal profit, but is hopeful this will change. After looking for a property where they can build their own home, they buy a block of land on the corner of Condong and Peri Street where there is room for two.  They are aware they will need to build a house on stilts, as the location is prone to flooding. Building a home there will be a challenge, as they have little money and Sverre has little spare time to work on his own home.

  • July to December - Edith has a growing friendship with Mr and Mrs Orme, banana growers originally from Vienna. From them she also learns about the persecution of jews in Germany and which prompts her to ask her mother why this is happening. A new market run by Chinese people opens in Murwillumbah, but the local newspaper will not run advertisements for them and transport companies refuse to serve them. Edith says Sverre has felt this distrust of strangers as well when he arrived in town. They lay the foundation stone for their new home in July and Edith contributes by helping make the cement bricks.  Sverre has several disappointing failures to win bids for his business. He also ends a partnership with another builder. Edith enjoys a visit by a Maori choir and the touring Vienna Boys Choir who bring some life to Murwillumbah, but Sverre is too busy to join her. After several changes, Sverre wins a bid to build a new residence for ambulance personnel in Murwillumbah. The downside is there is less time to build their own home. The year ends on a sad note. Edith has a miscarriage, a little boy, and spends a week in hospital the first week of December.

• 1936

  • January to June - The new year starts quietly as Edith is still recovering from her miscarriage. They spend Christmas and new years with the Ormes. Progress on their new home is slow and the camp is feeling a little cramped with all the books and other things they are accumulating. Locals in Murwillumbah start to recognise Sverre because he won the tender for the ambulance residence. He even receives several invitations to join the golf club where only ‘the most respected people’ can be members. Sverre gets more ambitious and puts in a tender to build a hotel (he doesn’t win), and Edith wonders how someone like him, with so little capital can compete. Cash flow is positive and they feel the decision to ‘go north’ was a good one. When Sverre has an acute throat infection, doctors compete for business and direct the ambulance to their private hospital which was more expensive. It is common practice for doctors to chase business in this way. Sverre recovers quickly and is back at work. Sverre and Edith join and contribute to the fund for a new hospital in Murwillumbah.

  • July to December - Edith is pregnant again and things are progressing well, but she is concerned about the risk of complications and makes plans to go to Sydney for the birth. She writes to a newspaper column for advice and gets a letter from a nurse, Elisabeth Davidson, who suggest she go to the prematernity hostel at the Royal Hospital for Women and book in at the Karitan mothercraft centre for after the birth. The Chaffer family also encourage her to come to Sydney as well. Her Doctor in Murwillumbah suggests no need for her to go to Sydney. Edith plans to go to Sydney in mid September. Then her daughter Marie is born on 24 October at 9.30 in the morning. Sverre made a quick visit a couple of days later as he was busy with work. The letters describe her joy at becoming a mother, life at the hospital in detail, including the busy schedule, people and food. She then stays a week at the Tresillian Mothercraft Centre.
    Meanwhile, Sverre’s work with the ambulance station appears to be going well, with the foundation stone laid in July. He continues the work while looking for next opportunity as well.

• 1937

  • January to June - The Chaffer family were a great help to Edith in the first month after the birth of Marie.  Having a baby is clearly exhausting, but Marie is a lovely and healthy baby! Edith says she has a lovely round face in contrast to her own sourpuss look. Back in Murwillumbah before Christmas, Edith discovered Sverre had found a flat where the family could live more comfortably than the camp. To help out, the landlady, Mrs O’Regan, agrees to take them in on full board. The Christmas food was a highlight – with a goose, two ducks and a large ham, as well as plum pudding.  Edith and Sverre take a while to think of a name for Marie – options include Alfhild and the German family call her Inga Astrid, but they settle on Marie, nicknamed Mariken. Their own house is progressing well and they move in to the incomplete home in early February. But finances are tight. People don’t pay Sverre on time for contracted work and much to Edith’s sorrow, they sell their home at the end of March to help manage the cash flow. Sverre says he will build a smaller and cheaper house instead. In the short term, they end up renting a unit downstairs in the house from the Howells who are the new owners.

  • July to December - July is a chilly month in Murwillumbah, but there is no problem with heating as they have plenty of wood to burn. Marie is growing happily and her first two teeth have emerged. Edith enjoys the support and companionship of her landlady, Mrs Howell. Sverre is having difficulties with the ambulance contract – as is an electrical subcontractor Mr Hicks, who consults with Sverre about choice of swear words to use in relation to the Ambulance Committee. Keeping the accounts is complicated with all the sub-contractors. Edith can only estimate the profit Sverre makes on a build. Edith celebrates receipt of letter number 400 from her mother – a milestone!  September brings bad news. A major customer is unable to pay Sverre and this means he has gone into debt without a clear path to recover. Marie’s first birthday is celebrated with friends. She now has four teeth, which worries Edith a little when she compares with other children. But she is developing well and claps her hands when Edith sings to her, recognises relatives on photographs and she starts to walk on 12 December. It is a quiet Christmas. It is very hot and the candles melt fast.

• 1938

  • January to June - The summer heat persists well into January, but it doesn’t seem to bother Marie.  Life is hard and Edith longs for her family overseas, but Marie brings her much joy as she continues to grow and learn. She is clearly at the centre of Edith’s life. In April Sverre spends three weeks in Mullumbimby to renovate a home for a Chinese grocer who is building a shop there. In April Edith starts to feel concerned about Marie’s legs developing crookedly.  Sverre builds a small wardrobe for Marie our of cedar and coachwood.

  • July to December - Edith continues to worry about Marie’s physical development – her legs being crooked from the knees down, a rash, a small fever, etc. Her doctor tells her not to worry, but she thinks of going to Sydney to see a specialist. The finances are very tight and a continuing source of stress.  It is a very wet winter and people a coughing all over Murwillumbah. The family moves to Tweed Heads in September to recover – at first living in a boarding house, with the aim of building a small home of their own with the support of the Kastren family who intend to get Sverre to build a couple of houses for them. Edith raises concerns that war might be coming. Edith spends a week with the Söderholms, a Swedish couple who have a banana plantation, which is hard physical work and a constant struggle against weeds. Edith notes how times are changing, with censors and import restrictions, as well as the many Jewish people are coming to the country from Germany and Austria. The family spends Christmas at Crystal Creek with the Söderholms.

• 1939 - January 1940

  • There are not many letters in 1939 - The holidays are a very busy time in Coolangatta, with hundreds and hundreds of visitors filling the beaches and streets. But Christmas was a disaster as Marie became very ill with a high temperature. A doctor tells them to take her to hospital in Brisbane, but Edith has little respect for the skills of the local doctors who have a reputation of escalating things quickly and talks to a local nurse who ‘thoroughly rinsed Marie’s intestines’ She made a quick recovery and Edith says she enjoyed the summer life in Tweed Heads more than she has enjoyed herself for years.  The family have moved into a home of their own. It is incomplete, with some windows not finished, but it is their home.  But war is encroaching. Their friend Mrs Orme’s mother in Vienna, Austria, died suddenly. Edith is told the family doctor was not allowed to treat her as he was Jewish and there were not enough Aryan doctors available to help.  It is clear the future of letter writing is uncertain. In January 1940 she writes she hopes the letter will arrive safely in their hands. The next letter did not arrive in Germany until 1946.