Blog No. 272 – Successfully Dealing With Terrible Situations, Part 8 – 8 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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Continuation of Blog 270.

Although I had passed my exams and had qualified to get my university degree, I still had to find a job and make sure I was able to take care of my new family.

I was offered a job selling life insurance on a commission basis, but apart from selling insurance, the only real job offer came from the Commonwealth Public Service.  The CPS offered me a job in Canberra but it did not start until March 1970.

I had to find work long before then.

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Margaret on the 3rd of February 2005.  We were in New Zealand and her health was poor.

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Treaty House at the Museum of Waitangi, North Island, New Zealand.

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Adelaide city centre as seen from deep within Morialta Park on the 15th of August 2005.  The blue immediately above Adelaide is the sea and beyond the sea you can just see Yorke Peninsula.

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In the face of fear, be daring, In the face of anxiety, trust. In the face of impossibility, begin. Forget misery and do your best. If there is ignorance, give knowledge If there is disillusionment, give purpose. Where there are reasons for concern,  Reject despair. When failure beckons, hold on to hope, When facing death,  Believe in your own future life, Always give the sacred gift that money cannot buy Give Love Always

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To do the impossible, we have to keep going when “common sense” says we should give up.

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Go with a clear, open and receptive spirit, and the universe will not treat you badly.”

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Long Time Sun – Sung by Amrit Nam Kaur May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on May the long-time sun Shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light Within you Guide your way on Guide your way on Guide your way on Sat nam

I wept while this song was played at Margaret’s funeral.

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I ceased work as a labourer with Pethard Industries wrapping insulation around the overhead pipes at the Ford Motor Company factory in Broadmeadows when the Commonwealth Public Service told me I had to work in Melbourne for the four weeks immediately preceding my official start date in Canberra.  I have no idea what work I did at that time; I have zero memory.

My wife and I were given tickets for an overnight train trip from Melbourne to Canberra and we left from the now abolished Spencer Street Station.

I had expected someone would meet us at the Canberra Railway Station when we arrived, but there was no one there.  I knew I was supposed to work for the Immigration Department but I had been given zero information about the location of my work or anything else.  I had been told accommodation would be arranged for us in Canberra, but I was not told the name of the accommodation or where it was located.

I had never left the State of Victoria after my family arrived in Australia in 1952.

I had barely $5.00 in my wallet.

Credit cards did not exist.

I knew no one at all in Canberra.

I kept a clear head and told a taxi to drive us to the Immigration Department in Canberra.

When we got to the Immigration Department, I walked in the front door, said I had arrived, demanded to know where I was working and demanded to know what accommodation had been organised for me and my wife.

I doubt anyone felt intimidated by me.

My pretended bravery didn’t come close to fooling me, so it certainly did not deceive anyone else.

After a period of waiting, I was told I was working with an obscure branch of the Immigration Department called the Committee on Overseas Professional Qualifications in the Jolimont Building in Canberra City centre.

The Jolimont Building no longer exists.  When I got there later that day, I discovered it was a wooden building which had been set on fire about two weeks earlier.  The COPQ staff were working in the gutted remains of the building.

I was also told that my wife and I had been booked into the Beauchamp House.  I have found this about Beauchamp House.

The building was originally known as Acton Private Hotel. It was renamed Beauchamp House in recognition of William Lygon, seventh Earl of Beauchamp, Governor of NSW from 1899–1901. The Australian Academy of Science took possession of the site in 1985 and, following refurbishment during 1986–87, gave the building its current name in recognition of philanthropist and Academy Fellow, Sir Ian Potter.

Beauchamp House was operated by a government agency called Commonwealth Hostels Limited.  Commonwealth Hostels had one primary goal – charge as much money as it could get away with, while providing as little in the way of services as it possibly could.  Commonwealth Hostels was the same agency that had operated Fisherman’s Bend Migrant Hostel, where our family had been stuck in Hut J 3 for four terrible years when we arrived in Australia.  The services at Beauchamp House were about the same as at Fisherman’s bend Hostel – simply awful.

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This is what was then called Beauchamp House.  Life there was miserable.

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It was now most unlikely that I would ever be a lawyer, but I knew I could provide a decent living for my family.

I focused on the immediate needs of that day.

We needed somewhere to rest and eat and I needed a lot more information before trying to work out a plan.

We slept that night in Beauchamp House and I reported for work the next day at Jolimont Building. 

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Terrible situations can be overcome.  Whatever you do, do not panic.

Add meaning to your life by acting with purpose.

When you add meaning to your life, the way out of the terrible situations becomes clearer.

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I refused to panic.

I would work out an answer when I had more information.

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I will tell you more tomorrow.