Richard Feidler

It was hard because I didn't even want to go to Manchester.

It was like I'm 17, I've got to start again, I've got to find a job.

I didn't know anyone.

So I got a job as a waitress and that's when I met my first boyfriend who was a registered drug addict.

And really, the story became the same.

I just was changing the name.

If you see, I was just starting to repeat a pattern of being in a relationship that was abusive with absolutely no awareness that that's what was going on.

Yeah.

I understand now it was very much a propaganda tool because I didn't know about the White Australia Policy.

I'd never lived here.

Oh, yeah.

And the immigration scheme was post-war.

So you could choose to go to Canada, I think even South Africa, Commonwealth countries, Australia, and I think maybe even New Zealand.

And I love geography.

And I just was enamored with Australia when I learned about it at school.

And I'd read all Neville Shute's books, especially one about Alice Springs.

And I just fantasized that I'd be a Gillaroo.

And so there I was.

I was depressed.

I'd been thrown out of home for possessing drugs.