- Day One: Australian migrants tell their stories of arrival
- Adam Liaw recounts his childhood in Adelaide
- Silvia Colloca's journey of love
- Tell us your story: What was your first impression of Australia?
It’s 1956: hundreds of thousands are fleeing Hungary after Russian tanks crushed an uprising against communist occupation. Among them is an 11-year-old boy, saying goodbye to the backyard where he used to play football with his brothers until his mother called them in for dinner.
He’s about to board a US troop carrier that’s been newly-converted into a passenger plane for refugees on a one-way trip. He doesn’t know much about the place he’s going, but he knows it’s very far away. Decades on, most Australians would know his name. But for now, Les Murray is just one of many making the journey to an unknown land.
“We were a family of refugees – my two brothers and my two parents and myself,” he says.
“We ran for our lives, like refugees do.
“We needed people smugglers to help us cross the border, which they did.”
After six months in Austrian refugee camps, Les and his family boarded a plane to start a new life in Australia. They first landed in Darwin. Les was hit by a wall of heat as he stepped off the aircraft.
“Just as I was to walk into the terminal, at the door there was standing this tall, spindly guy with an Akubra hat, a white shirt with a tie, bermuda shorts and socks, and he was rolling a cigarette,” Les recalls.
“I’m looking up at this tall guy and he looks down at me and goes ‘howyagoin’?’.
“And I said to my father, ‘what kind of country did you bring us to?’.
Little did the boy know, his Aussie welcome was just beginning. After the fuel stop in Darwin he landed in Wagga Wagga, where a bus would take the group to a refugee camp.
"And my father leaned across to me in the bus and he said 'aren't these Australians wonderful, the way they’re welcoming us?'"
By coincidence, the party arrived on cracker night – a faded Australian ritual that was banned in most parts of the country in the mid-1980s.
Traditionally, cracker night would see the community gather to light bonfires and fireworks. When Les arrived in Wagga Wagga, the night was on fire.
“All these bonfires are going off and rockets in the sky, and fireworks and everything,” he says.
“And my father leaned across to me in the bus and he said ‘aren’t these Australians wonderful, the way they’re welcoming us?’.”
Australia certainly did welcome Les Murray in the years to come.
As an SBS football commentator and presenter, he covered eight World Cups, including the Socceroos’ many near misses before finally qualifying for Germany 2006.
Largely credited with making the World Game part of Australian culture, he earned the title of 'Mr Football'. And like so many football fans who wear the green and gold, Les feels a deep pride in his country.
“I've always been very grateful to have been received here and to live here,” he says.
“It's a wonderful country with wonderful people… a successful experiment in multiculturalism.
“Free and democratic… I'm very proud to be an Australian."
Were you born overseas? We’d like to hear about your first impression of Australia as a new migrant.
Whatever your background, tell us your story in words, pictures or tweets.
Contact us on sbsnews@sbs.com.au or via Twitter @SBSNews using the hashtag #Day1SBS
