Colin F. Jones

~ Australia: The Great Southern Land ~
THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

There were many reasons why work was difficult to find for my father, for there were several jobs for ‘mechanics’ advertised for which he applied without success.

It was difficult to come to terms with the harsh, but skilful Australian sense of humour, and more difficult still to distinguish it from serious ridicule of the ‘Pommy’.

To his credit my father pursued work relentlessly tolerating the rather vulgar references to his Country of origin. But soon he discovered that it was not only, being a Pommy, which was a drawback, but also his religion.

It seemed that Coffs Harbour was strongly influenced by two main groups, those belonging to the Roman Catholic Church and those who were Masons, although obviously there were other religious denominations.

The Roman Catholic attitude, an Irish one, based on the traditional afflictions between it and the Church of England and somewhat influenced by the Irish element, was to a degree understandable, but generally they tended to favour those of their own denomination over those of another.

If those belonging to the Church of England felt the same way, in terms of hiring people, with regards to Catholics, there was no outstanding evidence of it or we were not acquainted with it.

Coffs Harbour was however predominantly Catholic, particularly in the business areas, which made it difficult for a non-Catholic to find work. In fact one was always asked to reveal ones religion when enquiring for employment, and one soon learned to recognize the change in expressions when, ones reply indicated other than Catholicism.

The Masons, far more secretive, than the Catholics, were very selective and firmly reluctant to hire one who did not attend the Masonic Lodge. The Catholic Faith would later modify its firm rules to allow its followers to accept all as children of God, regardless of their religious preferences (Indicating how farcical their unstable laws were and how dominated was the thinking of the followers of the Catholic Faith).

©Copyright circa 2003 by Colin F. Jones