Extract of Eulogy delivered at the Funeral Mass for
Dr Caetano Francisco da Piedade Quadros
by Dr Carmen Quadros (His Daughter)
(3rd February 2016 ~ Holy Family Catholic Church,
Kalamunda, Western Australia)
“ ………..Dad’s contract with the Kenyan Government
was to expire in June 1970. After having David on Christmas Day in 1969 our
parents decided that they wanted the opportunity for their children to have a
good education that did not involve them being separated from their families.
They met Professor Frank Schofield who, over a glass of beer on their veranda
one evening suggested emigration to Australia, a country they had not considered
due to the White Australia Policy. Doctors were in short supply here and with
their Irish qualifications, our mother also being a midwife, they were advised
there would be no problems with registration.
They arrived in Perth with a 10-month-old David, at
4.30am on 1 September 1970, met by Fr Petri and initially stayed in the
Catholic Migrant Hostel, in Alma Rd, North Perth. Dr Rowe, from the Health
Department of WA, advised Dad he had a job in the North West Medical Service, suggesting
he do a locum for a few weeks, prior to
settling in Derby where he was to work as a
District Medical Officer at the hospital. He was given a choice of Meekathara
or Wyndham. Looking at the map, he chose Wyndham, thinking it was close to the
coast!
Leaving Perth in winter, in a three-piece suit,
they finally arrived in Kununurra in blistering 38-degree heat and were told
they had to catch a bus the rest of the way. They travelled in a
non-airconditioned bus on an unsealed road with a small baby until they reached
Wyndham, exhausted, hot and hungry, only to find the doctor there had shot
through as soon as they arrived, without a handover, having been on-call for
three weeks! The house was dusty, the air-con broken and the temperature 40
degrees. Matron Judy Mullen came to the rescue and became Aunty Judy
thereafter. That night was a trial and a testament to their fortitude that they
did not catch the first plane back.
Onto Derby, my birthplace, filled with characters
such as Drs Rex Henderson and Dr Randy Spargo, Fr Lorenz, Aunty Jennifer and
Uncle John whose friendships have endured. The social life was legendary and our
parents learned much about being Australian. For instance, bring-a-plate did
not require you to bring out your finest china, nor should you be offended when
people bring a brown paper bag filled with beer when invited to your home! Each
Wednesday Dad flew on his beloved Royal Flying Doctors Service of Australia plane,
FDV from the Kimberley base in Derby. He fell in love with the landscape and
the people, and like me, the Kimberley was his country. ………….”
In the context of the topic of discussion herein,
an observation from Carmen’s delivery above here is the paragraph that caught
my attention:
“…… Dad’s contract with the Kenyan Government was to expire in June 1970. After having David on Christmas Day in 1969 our parents decided that they wanted the opportunity for their children to have a good education that did not involve them being separated from their families. They met Professor Frank Schofield who, over a glass of beer on their veranda one evening suggested emigration to Australia, a country they had not considered due to White Australia policy. Doctors were in short supply here and with their Irish qualifications, our mother also being a midwife, they were advised there would be no problems with registration.
Caetano’s contract was coming to an end. He and his
wife, with a recently born first child, had a life-changing decision to make as
to where to emigrate to. They were conscious that Australia exercised the White
Australia policy. With both their professional accreditations and work
experience in Ireland and Kenya, I feel they would have been easily accepted in
any of the western countries. However, with a
little persuasion from Professor Schofield, the
family opted for Australia.
Likewise, in Joseph Mascarenhas’ case, he and his wife Ethel (they too had a baby daughter), would have had that same important decision to make, as to where to migrate to. The fact that they applied to the Australian authorities twice, suggests to me that Australia was their preferred choice. As it turned out,both families land in Perth, Australia. On reflection, fifty years later, judging by how well both families have established themselves, it would seem they called out right.
The Quadros/Mascarenhas experience of deciding
which country to opt for, would have been the same for the hundreds of our
ex-students that did emigrate out of Mombasa during that period in our history.
Just as in the Quadros case, a prime criterion in that decision-making would have
been as Carmen states: Wanting the opportunity for their children to have a
good education that did not involve being separated from their family”. From my
perspective, a downside of emigration has been the fragmentation of families.
Whereas in Kenya, my grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles,
and cousins were all together in one country, that ‘togetherness’ was lost when
we had to emigrate to different countries now
holding assorted passports. In my case, I am here in the UK, with two brothers and an aunty in Toronto, my parents, a brother, grandparents and two aunties ended up in Goa, my wife Agnela’s family in the USA and three cousins still in Kenya. That dispersion pattern shows we had to go to whichever country accepted us then. My regret with that is that my two boys missed out on the love and comfort of growing up with their grandparents. I expect, the same will have applied to many others.
Kalgoorlie/Kambalda
Just as Caetano Quadros, Joseph Mascarenhas too would have had his fair share of trials in starting out work in Kalgoorlie, I am sure. When we met, Joseph gave me to understand, that to begin with, he and two other colleagues would commute by car from Perth to Kalgoorlie and back over weekends. Now that would have been quite demanding in itself. The distance between the 2 cities is 593km (368 miles) on the Great Eastern Highway (94) requiring approximately 6½ hours each way. As we will see later, Zaneta, in her maiden speech to the Australian Federal Parliament states she was born in Kalgoorlie and raised in Kambalda.
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