“At last, we are in our new country and far from Europe.”
These were the first impressions of then 17-year-old Nikola Stanishewsky (now Nick Standish) upon arrival from Europe to Australia in 1949 with his father, Nikolaj, and older brother, Sergej.
While Nick’s early visions of Australia included boomerangs and kangaroos, the reality that greeted the trio was far from the imagined warmth of a tropical country.
Disembarking Skaugum at Melbourne’s Station Pier in the early hours of July 28, Nick was met with the biting conditions of Australia’s winter.
“There we were, in Melbourne, in short sleeve shirts and shorts. I don’t think I could ever be as cold as I was on that wintry and windy morning in Melbourne,” Nick recalled.
Their journey continued aboard a train bound for Bonegilla, with a few brief stops for refreshments along the way. For Nick and his family, the experience contrasted sharply from the coal and cattle wagons they had known in Europe.
“We were received by the Camp Commander and his officers, and the Commander made a speech, but he wasted his breath because he spoke English and we did not understand a word,” Nicked shared.
“We also received some clothing… at long last!” Nick was issued with long trousers, a long-sleeved shirt, a woollen vest and a sports coat. He later discovered these were outdated second-hand garments, but that didn’t faze him.
“It kept me warm and it really looked a lot better than the clothing I wore in Europe.”
In the days that followed, the Stanishewsky family began to settle into life at Bonegilla.
English classes commenced, alongside preparations for their future employment, an obligation tied to their assisted passage to Australia, requiring them to work where directed by the government for two years.
During Nick and Sergej’s three-month stay, the brothers spent their time playing cards, catching rabbits and learning their new language.
Visits to nearby Albury also left a lasting impression as Nick recalled watching “everybody and everything on the NSW trains having to change and be reloaded onto the Victorian train network, and vice versa” because the two rail gauges operated separately across the two states.
“I remember well our first visit to Albury, because we bought two strawberry cream sponge cakes – one and thrupenny each, I think - and gorged on them until we made ourselves sick. We certainly missed things like that in the last ten years!”
But perhaps the most impressive way of passing time at Bonegilla was the combined efforts of Nick and fellow migrant Georg Sodbinow, where the pair took to constructing a large-scale depiction of Australia’s coat-of-arms using pebbles gathered from around the centre.
Before long, Nick and his brother were both allocated to work for the NSW Government Railways (NSWGR) and began the journey north to Chullora, Sydney, following the resumption of rail services after a strike of the coal miners.
From here, Nick’s early employment life was colourful. Determined to embrace every opportunity and guided by a sense of politeness as a newcomer to Australia, Nick rarely refused any job, whether he understood what the position entailed or not.
This saw him dabble in a range of roles from the Eveleigh Railway Workshops to the office as an interpreter.
“I was transferred because somebody said my English was good. Well, that was big news to me! Honestly… my English was appalling,” Nick shared.
Soon, a career as an interpreter was not foreseeable and instead Nick took up a short-lived stint as a worker in the Pay Station, before transferring to the Concession Tickets section. Eventually, he entered the Railways Cadetship, undertaking an apprenticeship in metallurgy.
Meanwhile, his father Nikolaj remained at Bonegilla, working as a cook in the migrant centre’s Block 22 kitchen. Despite the more than 1,000km distance between Bonegilla and Chullora, Nick would often journey back to visit him, including a return to celebrate Christmas in 1950.
In the years proceeding Nick’s early beginnings in Bonegilla and Sydney, he went on to complete a diploma in metallurgy, followed by a Bachelor of Science, and in 1961 a Master of Science, eventually becoming a professor specialising in blast furnace aerodynamics – becoming a world-renowned expert in his field.
Nick’s story is one of resilience, adaptation and quiet determination in the face of an unfamiliar world – an experience shared by many who began their new lives through Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre.
In 2017, Nick published his book ‘Survival & Success: The True Story of a Luftwaffenhelfer’, a memoir on his early experiences as a child soldier forced unwillingly into the German army before moving from one displaced persons camp to another, then eventually beginning a new life in Australia.
Nick preserved his Bonegilla beginnings by contributing his recollections to the Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection.
Read more about his first year in Australia, including his memories of navigating a world where speaking English was critical, plus the story behind how Nikola Stanishewsky became Nick Standish, by visiting his Bonegilla ID Card.
Do you have a connection to Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre? Preserve your family’s story today.