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Margareta Aspan Interview

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Margareta Aspan Oral History

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Collection SummaryMargareta Aspan was born in Graz, Austria into a prosperous middle class family in 1927. Married in 1954, Margareta and her husband migrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in March 1956. The couple travelled to Sydney and they lived at Cronulla Migrant Hostel for two years before moving into a house with friends in Nicholson Parade. Later they lived in a unit in Cronulla Street opposite the cinema.SynopsisMargareta begins the interview by talking about her early life and the occupations in which she was employed as a young woman. Her first impression of Sydney was fantastic and Margareta worked in a number of different jobs including as a dining room attendant at the Hostel and later at the Hotel Cecil in Cronulla. There were sad times for Margareta, especially when her first baby was stillborn in Sutherland Hospital. She refused to return to the local hospital and had her son in Crown Street Hospital in 1961. Her marriage had broken up by this time and she was temporarily living at Kurnell. She returned to work at the hostel until it closed in February 1967, while an Australian woman looked after her son. Her parents wanted her to return to Austria but she didn't as she had settled in and had extremely good friends who looked after her. Margareta and her son travelled to Austria in 1974. As she was working for Qantas she got a discounted fare, while her son travelled free. Later members of the family visited her in Sydney. Margareta comments on the different food, clothes and lifestyle when she first came to Australia and how she slowly adjusted to the different Aussie ways.

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Margareta Aspan Interview

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Margareta Aspan Interview Log Sheet

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Oral History AudioMargareta Aspan InterviewDate of interview13th September 2012IntervieweeMargareta AspanDate of birth7th February 1927InterviewerPauline CurbySupporting materialMargareta Aspan Interview Log Sheet

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PlaceCronullaHotel CecilSubjectsAspan, MargaretaCollectionTelling it as it was