Travelling Home

During the 1940s almost all Concordia students were boarders, with their family homes in other states and country South Australia. As a result, the long-awaited trip home at the end of term was often very drawn-out and far from straightforward.
These excerpts from two memoirs not only give an idea of what was involved, but also provide some insights into transport in the mid-20^th century.

‘Permits had to be obtained to travel during the war. To leave the hostel on a Thursday night – catch the tram in Duthy St to the city with luggage, walk to Adelaide Railway Station, board the boat train to Port Dock (Port Adelaide) and present tickets and permits to the officer on M.V. Minnippa which sailed at 7 pm for Port Lincoln – arriving Friday around 8am. The next step was to catch the 10.30am railcar at the Port Lincoln Railway Station, arriving at Minnipa at 6pm – then change to the steam train which would pick up or drop off carriages along the line and arrive at Ceduna between 8.30 and 9.30 Saturday morning.’
Val Kretschmer (Payne) Class of 1943.

‘In the early years we were in ‘dog-boxes’ in the trains: separate compartments, where passengers sat facing each other. The cases and other luggage were placed in the brass-mesh luggage rack above one's head. Obviously it was important to make sure they were firmly in place. We had more than one jerky start and blamed a novice driver. These were days of coal-powered engines, and it was a brave head which stuck out of the window in view of the flying cinders and smoke. We tried to get some sleep. There were foot-warmers on the floor, about two feet long and a foot wide and a couple of inches high. They acted like metal water-bottles.’ David Paech, Class of 1945.

By the early 1950s some students were travelling by plane. The photo shows girl boarders
at the Port Lincoln aerodrome in 1953.