“WONDERFUL TIME”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 59, Issue 4249, 1 March 1950, Page 5

“WONDERFUL TIME”

HITCH-HIKING TRIP

WORKED IN CAIRNS

MISS M. WEADON IN AUSTRALIA

Two New Zeland school teachers, one Mary Weadon, the daughter of the Venerable Archdeacon and Mrs W. G. H. Weadon, of Paeroa, are, according to the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, having a wonderful time hitch-hiking through Australia preparatory to continuing their two years’ trip which will take them to England, Scotland and the Continent. They intend to leave Perth in June.

Their story as told by the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner*’ Advocate reads as follows:—

“The girls had a few days in Newcastle. They will hitch-hike back to Sydney to-day. “Joan is the daughter of a Matamata farmer in Auckland Province. Her sister, a nurse, has been in London since last April. Joan hopes to join her this year. ‘And Mary’s brother,’ Joan said, *who took W* M.Sc. degree in New Zealand last year, has been travelling Anstzafia for months now, doing any odd job he can find.’

“Joan and Mary arrived in Sydney during last year’s coal strike. They postponed sightseeing trips there and took a train for Queensland. They were in Brisbane, Innisfail and Townsville and reached Cairns which they found to be full of New Zealanders. Neither wants to teach in Australia. They had decided to take any job offering wherever they stayed and immediately accepted positions in a hotel and cafe in Cairns. ‘Oh, the mosquitoes,* said Joan. 4 And the heat,’ said Mary. ‘And our tired feet,’ they chorused. ‘We got lots of tips,’ said Mary, ‘especially when customers learned that we were strangers.’

“After spending three months in Cairns, they went to Toowoomba, where they worked for two months in a cake factory. In Queensland (hey did the grand tour visiting sugar farms and sugar mills, saw gold and copper mined near Rockhampton and spent a day on the first wheat farm they had seen. “Mary would like to stay longer in Toowoomba but with so much still to see they sent their four suitcases by train and set off to hitch-hike back to Sydney. ’lt took us four days to get to Newcastle,’ Mary said. ’We could have done it in less,’ said Joan. ’’Near Warwick, Queensland, an aged rattling truck driven by an 85-year-old farmer who told them he was the oldest J.P! in Australia, gave them the bumpiest if the most interesting three-mile drive they experienced. ’After that,’ said Joan, ’we drove for hundreds of miles in luxury. Drivers even pulled up without being asked so I could take photographs. Altogether, we’ve found Australians wonderfully friendly’.” The Lord Mayor of Newcastle (Aid. Quinlan) arranged for them to visit many heavy industries. The girls are keen to see Australian aborigines in Central and Western Australia, but intend flying to Tasmania before continuing their hitchhike through South Australia to the West. “We’re broke most of the time,” they agreed, laughingly, “but our passage money to England is safe in a New Zealand bank and we’re having a wonderful time.”