Pope gave us a blessing
After all sorts of different experiences during and after the war, I arrived in Australia on 25th January 1950. I spent the first year working in Tasmania - building a dam for a power station. I remember hunting for rabbits and kangaroos in a primitive forest in central Tasmania, where during the winter, in June and July, the snow covered the ground for many weeks and animal footprints could be seen from afar. I did not want to stay there long because as the forest beckons to the wolf so did the city beckon to me. I missed the culture, especially having spent three and a half years in England.
Sometime towards the end of July 1950, I went to Melbourne, which made quite an impression on me being a large city with over two million people, mostly of European origin with the majority of people being English, Irish and Scottish. Ships were always bringing more Displaced Persons* from Germany, France, Italy and various other countries. I always felt more comfortable mixing with other Poles, although, I lived with an Australian family, first in Elwood and then in Coburg. I worked in a confectionery factory in Carlton, which moved to Braybrook after a year. I seemed to be moving closer to St Albans where I had a few Polish friends. These friends encouraged me to buy my own home and in May 1952, I did this and moved in with a school friend whom I had helped to emigrate from England. The address was 13 Foxton Street, St Albans. I also changed my job because I found one that was close by in Deer Park in a factory where I ended up working for 28 years until I retired. More and more migrants were arriving in St Albans, including quite a few Poles because work was available and blocks of land were cheap there at the time.
Everyone set about building their own homes, especially as the local government allowed us to partially build and finish them off one bit at a time as our finances and time allowed us to. Many migrants' wives lived far away from their husbands in hostels and we helped one another to build as quickly as possible so that families could be together. St Albans belonged to the parish of Our Lady's in Sunshine and the priest would ride his bike from house to house to visit us as there were very few roads finished and quite a few of them not even named, with temporary water pipes and cables leading to power poles. I believe it was in 1951, that St Albans was first visited by a Polish priest - Father Józef Krasocki, a Silesian, who first said mass for new Australians, mainly Poles. When Father Ray appealed for help to build a parish centre, a catholic school and a hall, many people volunteered. Amongst them, many Poles such as Mr Bąkowski, Mr Czyżewski, Mr Mauksch, Mr Malewski and a great many more who started with the digging of the foundations and finished by putting on the roof.
The first mass was said on Christmas Eve in a church without a roof but the weather was fine. After the parish centre was finished, Father Krasocki started saying mass in Polish for the Poles on a regular basis, every Sunday and on special days. He also initiated the Rosary circle, which with only few small breaks has existed to this day. Polish Mass used to be at 12 noon.
Two years previously, the first Polish organizations had started to operate. At first, the Polish organization was in St Kilda and then in the City, in Roma House. The Sports Club ‘Polonia’ also started at this time and then the Polish Scouts Group and the Ex servicemen's Association. Religious groups were also formed by Father Stanisław Skudrzyk, a Jesuit, and later taken over by Father Jòzef Janus. A few people from St Albans belonged to these groups, from the families of Smolarek and Kipka. In St Albans, a committee was formed with the goal of starting a Polish Saturday school. Sisters Albina and Gertruda very kindly offered to teach and in 1953, classes started in the Catholic School of the Sacred Heart. From 1953, the sisters taught the Polish language, history and religion. A year later, Father Krasocki introduced sister, Anastasia. He would bring her in his car and later other people with transport used to bring her, too. This lasted for about 10 years. Many other people also taught in the school, amongst them Maria Wójcik. D. Liszukiewicz, F. Łęczycki, G. Cieśniewski, his son Tomasz, A. Bąkowski, Matusik and others performed the function of a librarian. After a while, the first students became teachers, such as Krystyna Gruba, then Bogusława Graczyk and Mrs Czarnecka.
A very important event took place in Melbourne - it was the 1956 Olympics. It inspired the creation of a sports club St Albans called ‘Olympia 1956’. At first it consisted of seniors only, but later juniors aged 12 to 16 joined. I was ‘borrowed’ from the Polish Association as the secretary. The young athletes later joined the seniors’ club KS ‘Polonia’ in Keilor. A group of polish girls formed a choir under the direction of Maria Wałachowski and with the help of Wanda Mazur. Bolesław Buniowski acted as their manager. They sang during mass, produced theatrical plays and put on traditional Christmas plays called ‘Jasełka’ with very great success. Bolesław Buniowski managed to get some young adults together, such as Jurek Urbaniak (wonderful in the role of Herod), Jerzy and Adam Wykow, Mr Bielicki and some older men, myself included. On public holidays, such as Australia Day and Labour Day, with help from the ladies, we would organize bus trips to Healesville, Ballarat, to the beach at Sorrento, to reservoirs such as Maroondah Lake and other places where the children could have a good time and get to know Australia better. A very successful trip was the one during winter to Mt Buller where many children saw snow in Australia for the first time, together with parents and teachers from the Saturday Polish School. Father Christmas was organized in the hall near the school or in nearby parks. To raise money for these trips, dances were put on, as well as concerts for the May 3rd (1) and Polish Independence Day around November 11th. Towards the end of November, it was usual to have Eucharistic meetings at the school with trips to the Salesians in Rupertswood Drive, Brookfield, to which we used to go with Father Krasocki.
During the 1960s, despite numerous problems with obtaining permission to leave communist Poland, many more Poles started arriving in Australia. After nearly two years of trying, I was fortunate enough to be able to bring my fiancée to Australia in May 1962, and Father Krasocki married us in June. At this time a new organization was formed in Melbourne under the name of ‘Rada Organizacji Polskich’ (Polish Organisations’ Council), which operated in St Albans in a slightly different role as a building cooperative.
For many years, I helped sell Polish papers, such as ‘Nasza Droga’ (Our Way), ‘Tygodnik Polski’ (Polish Weekly), ‘Przegląd Katolicki’ (Catholic Review) and others. We enrolled our three children in the Catholic School of Sacred Heart and then the boys went to St John's College in Braybrook and our daughter to Marian College in West Sunshine. Later they all attended Chisholm College in Braybrook where they passed their HSC.
On Saturdays our children attended the Polish classes, first in St Albans and later in high school at Princes Hill in Carlton. Father Józef Janus from ‘Sodalicja Mariańska’ (Marian Association) came up with an initiative of buying a house for the Sisters of the Resurrection, a project with which I was involved right up until the time of building the Polish Sanctuary in Essendon. I was not alone in this as the family of Józef Solaria, who had 3 sisters in this convent, helped very much. After buying the neighbouring block, the old building had to be taken apart right down to the foundations. This was undertaken by the family of Józef Smolarek with the help of other Poles such as Mr Borczak and Mr Kipka. We appealed for funds for the building of the Sanctuary not only in Melbourne but Australia wide. I was one of the directors of this project through Father J. Krasocki.
When the Eucharistic Congress took place in Melbourne in February 1973, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (future Pope John Paul II) from Cracow attended. Cardinal Wojtyła was especially invited to bless the as yet unfinished Marian Sanctuary and he emphasized that he was not only blessing the building but the thousands of people who were part of the Church. In the same week Cardinal Wojtyła visited many Polish communities including the church of the Sacred Heart in St Albans. After an evening mass in the original church, he encouraged Polish people to persist in the faith of their fathers and uphold the beautiful tradition of homage to the saints such as Saint Wojciech, Saint Stanisław Kostka (patron of the young) and others. At the end the hymn of ‘Boże coś Polskę’ (God, Poland’s protector) was sung so loudly that the walls shook and the church had to be rebuilt in the next five years. The local parish priest invited Cardinal Wojtyła to the YCW hall for a special meeting with his countrymen where children from the Polish School handed him a beautiful bouquet of red and white flowers. Father Marian Laban was teaching at the Polish School during this time. Cardinal Wojtyła encouraged some Polish singing and when people were too shy to begin, he started by humming a popular song from the hills ‘Góralu czy ci nie żal’ (Man from the hills, aren’t you sad to leave?) and then, for the children, ‘Wlazł kotek na płotek’ (A cat climbed a fence). Photos of this event were sent to Cracow. In October 1978, when Cardinal Wojtyła was elected Pope, the joy in Melbourne was immeasurable, especially in St Albans. There were many thanksgiving masses said, always with very good attendance.
After I retired, I enrolled in a correspondence course in the Polish language, literature and history of Poland at the Macquarie University in Sydney. Every week a large yellow envelope would arrive for me containing audio cassettes and written material. In turn, I had to return my written assignments and work on an audio cassette. At the end of the year we had to sit for exams and then waited weeks for the results.
I had kept contact with friends, or rather students, from the matriculation year of 1939 and in 1979 I suggested a 50-year Jubilee reunion. This came to being on 24th and 25th June 1989, at the King John III Sobieski Secondary School in Wejherowo. An orchestra greeted us and Bishop Andrzej Śliwiński celebrated a mass in the school chapel. I have many pleasant memories of my stay in Poland and also of the part I played in the copy of the picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa(2) travelling in the diocese of Chełmińsk.
The most memorable event recently was the visit in Australia by the Pope, John Paul II. A special meeting with the Polish people was arranged for the evening of November 28th 1986, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is the largest sports stadium in Victoria, and was used in the 1956 Olympic Games. Tens of thousands of Poles greeted the Pope who made a speech and gave us a blessing from a specially built ark.
(1) anniversary of Poland’s first Constitution, proclaimed by General Assembly and the King on 3rd May 1791
(2) the most venerated catholic relic in Poland
