Arriving in Australia around the New Year turned out to be beneficial for us. Everyone was in the holiday mood and that gave us sufficient time to settle in. We signed up for Social Security. I started to receive unemployment and family benefits as a single mother from the very first day. It was not much money, but it certainly helped us to make the ends meet.
The school year in Australia begins in February. My son spoke no English; so he was enrolled in a class where migrant children of all ages and nationalities studied together a little bit of different school subjects. The main goal was to prepare them for going to regular schools. After 6 months of attending the school for migrants my son was transferred to a local school.
My poor English was not enough to get a job. I enrolled in a 6-month English course at a university. All associated expenses were covered by the government. After completing the course, I still did not speak and barely understood Australians. My English teacher suggested continuing education. There was a professional course for IT specialists at another university that cost thousands of dollars, but if I met the requirements for the course and passed an interview the government again would pay for it. I applied and got the interview.
Two gentlemen questioned me about my experience as an application developer. They explained that they were looking for students with the right background – professionals who needed advanced training – and it seemed to them that I was not a good fit. They pointed out that I never worked with databases and I did not know one specific programming language that was a prerequisite for the course. I kept saying that I would learn all these things if accepted. My interviewers sounded skeptical about that, but they gave me a phone number to call in 2 weeks to check for the interview results. I was fuming when I left the room. Clearly, I failed. There was no point to call, and I threw the phone number into the trash.
Two weeks passed, and I got a call from a university secretary.
‘We did not hear from you. Do you want to study or not? If not, we will offer your space to another person,’ she said.
Of course, I wanted to study. The course was excellent. It consisted of 3 months of lectures and 3 months of work placement. Good references and local experience helped me to land my first job and this became the beginning of my successful career as an IT professional in Australia.
But let’s go back to the “Academic Gorbunov”, her crew and passengers.
One day, I met Mikhail at Victoria Market. In Russia, he was an auto mechanic. Once, on the ship, we talked about our future in Australia. Mikhail had no hopes to work in this capacity. I could not understand, why not. In my opinion auto mechanics should be in demand anywhere.
‘Who is going to teach me how to repair cars in Australia?’ he asked. I did not know who, but I thought it could be done.
Mikhail stood behind a market stall that sold suitcases and purses. Seeing me, he turned away and pretended that he did not recognize me.
Maria showed up at our Jewish Welfare apartment a few days after we arrived in Melbourne. Friends of her hosting family heard about us and helped to connect. She lived in the same area and became a frequent guest. Whenever she came, she always stayed for dinner. Traditional Russian hospitality required me to invite Maria to share our meals with us, and I did that without giving it a second thought.
Maria complained that her hosting family wanted her to contribute to daily expenses since she was staying with them.
‘Why should I?’ she asked me. ‘I do not eat much. A bowl of soup is all that I need. Is it a problem for them?’
I did not know what to say and kept quiet, but made a sandwich for Maria to take it home. If we went for a walk and had lunch at a café I paid for Maria’s meal too. I, at least, received SSA benefits and she had nothing.
After one month Maria’s hosting family showed her the door. They immigrated to Australia about a year before us. Their only source of income was pensions and they were not in the position to support another person whom they did not know. The resourceful Maria found someone in Sydney who agreed to accept her. This lady was a manager; she lived alone and was wealthy enough to take care of Maria.
Maria took a train to Sydney where she lived 2 months until she boarded another Russian freighter that was going back to Russia. When the freighter was in Melbourne my son and I naturally went to see Maria. She was in an excellent mood, showed us lots of photos and boasted that she bought a car in Sydney that she was now taking on board of that ship to Russia. I did not know if I should laugh or cry. So the “penniless” Maria paid thousands of dollars for a car while I pitied her!
The “Academic Gorbunov” called again into Melbourne with the same crew 9 months after our arrival. I was very happy to see them again and asked how the situation with the captain got resolved. They said that the captain remained locked in in his cabin for the rest of the trip. The Baltic Sea Shipping Company investigated the case and concluded that the crew actions were justified. The captain was dismissed.
The crew and I met one more time in about a year when I already had a job and a car. My friend and I took several of them to a national park outside of Melbourne and we spent a lovely day together.
In 1996 the “Academic Gorbunov” was sold to an Italian company Unione Sarna Invest Mar and got the name “Jolly Giallo”. After that, the ship changed the owner 3 more times until she was no longer seaworthy and ended up at a scrapyard in India in 2011.