Fae Patricia Wakley
My mother Fae Wakely was so beautiful as a young woman. Being my mother, it was not something I had ever thought about. It was only recently I got the chance to look through all her old photos and see her as any young man would have seen her in those days. It was very much a man’s world and to grow up as a woman then, was certainly challenging. To find your own independence, to do what you say you will do, and to be yourself. My mother seemed to do just that.
Figure 1301. Fae Patricia Wakely
Even today most young people grow up expecting to marry. My mother was no different but in her early years she dreamed of seeing the world and so worked hard at school and at home looking after the household for her father and brother. Her mother died from tuberculosis when Fae was only thirteen and had to spend a lot of her time nursing her mother through the illness. At the same time, she had to keep house and look after her father, Arthur, and brother John. They were both busy early every morning with the bakery, to make the days fresh bread for sale in their bakery. That meant that my mother had very little free time from a young age to enjoy her childhood.
Figure 1302. A young Fae Wakely
Figure 1303. Fae Wakley at her debutante ball
Figure 1304. Fae York & her best friends including Dellma White
Living in Lismore, Fae had a passion for travelling down to the beach with her friends.
Figure 1307. Fae in Lismore with friends
Figure 1308. Fae & Dell out at night
When she left school, my mother worked as a legal secretary in Lismore.
Figure 1309. Fae York legal secretary
At the spirited age of nineteen her and a girlfriend Dell White, also from Lismore, decided to put all their plans of marriage on hold and take the outlandish step to hitch hike around the world.
She once told me; she left a young man behind in Lismore when she went travelling. He was a baseballer and he was very handsome. She admitted she loved him, but to go travelling overseas at her age was more important and so she ran off to Europe with her best friend Dell and had the adventure of a lifetime.
Figure 1311. Fae’s boyfriend as a teenager
It was 1954, and for two young women to do that was unheard of. Especially from the small country town of Lismore. It was their will, and they found their way. Saved up the money for a ticket and some spending money and bought a fare on an ocean-going cruise ship headed for England.
From the start of this journey, Fae kept a daily diary of their adventure.
Figure 1312. Fae's diary, (page 1)
Fae and Del left Lismore on the 11th of January 1954 to travel to Brisbane to board the ship. Saying their goodbyes to family and friends they board the ship and head for Sydney on the 12th of January.
Map 1-1 02. Northern Rivers (google earth 2024)
Figure 1314. Cruise Ship “Esperance Bay” leaving for Europe.
Two days at sea, and they arrive in Sydney and spend two days. Living on the ship they were able to go ashore for sightseeing and to enjoy the many wonderful bars and restaurants. Fae was surprised at how big the Sydney Harbour Bridge was when she saw it for the first time.
Map 001. Australia (Google Earth, 2024)
Leaving Sydney on the 16th of January, the ship headed for Melbourne. Another two days in port and then onto their last destination in Perth, Western Australia, before heading off to Europe.
It was the beginning of their overseas adventure, crossing the Indian Ocean and into the Suez Canal. Sailing for nearly a month, they went to breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Played tennis and croquet on the deck of the ship and enjoyed the laid-back lifestyle of cruising. Writing letters, knitting, washing clothes, and washing their hair, all in great spirits, preparing for their years adventure.
Figure 1318. Fae Wakley on the deck of the cruise ship
They met many friends on the ship as they sailed, including the attention of some of the crew. One officer offering to bring the two young women tea and toast at five thirty every morning for the duration of the cruise.
They arrived at Aden, a port city in Yemen and were able to go ashore. Back on the ship the sailed for another three days past Port Suez and entered the canal on the 16th of February. The ship continued to sail through the Suez Canal and onto Malta in the Mediterranean arriving on the 20th of February. Departing Malta on the same day, they next sighted land off the coast of Spain on the 22nd. Then passing the Rock of Gibraltar on the 23rd and out into the Atlantic Ocean on the way to England. The ship docked in the port of Harwick south of London on the 27th of February, and the two young women caught a train to London and booked in to the West Central hotel. It was bitterly cold in London as it was just coming out of winter.
Map 002. SS 'Esperance Bay'' sailing to the UK (Google Earth, 2024)
Meeting up with friends from the ship, they all went out to a bar to celebrate their arrival. This was the beginning of their tour. First thing was to explore London from Piccadilly Circus to Kensington, and Paddington staying at various hotels and dining out at restaurants. Went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Attended a church service at Westminster Abbey and went sightseeing many other famous places. They girls joined the YHA, Youth Hostels association ready to start travelling through England. They went to the movies, one of these being “The lost treasure of the Amazon”.
Another time they saw “Too young to die” and even some Donald Duck cartoons. Going to movies, bars, shows and eating plenty of traditional English food was what they did every day. Fish and chips, chicken soup, crispy potatoes, garden peas, bread, chicken gravy and seasoning followed up with a raspberry sundae with whipped cream all on the daily menu. Fae even took the opportunity to get some dental work done while she was in London. They watched television which was all new to them coming from Australia. There was also church every Sunday, and they visited some magnificent cathedrals for services in London and every where they travelled over the next year.
On the 22nd of March, Fae got a job t at the Cumberland Hotel to earn some extra money working in the kitchen. Over the next two weeks Fae worked almost every day and in between went to the dentist. She had a day off on the 1st of April, April fool’s day and for the first time in days was able to relax and catch up on some letter writing.
On the 7th of April, the girls started hitch hiking out into the countryside. Stopping the first night at a farmhouse, and then moved from Hostel to hostel. Over the course of two months, they started the travelling by going to Southampton, Maidstone, Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Gourdhurst, Patchum, and Brighton.
Map 003. United Kingdom (Google Earth, 2024)
Continuing to hitch hike from place to place, catching rides with cars, trucks and the occasional bus, they went on to visit Portsmouth, Newport, Surry, and Whitemill.
Then onto Godshill, Bournemouth, Bridport, and Torquay, Brix ham, Paighton, and Plymouth.
Then to Penzance, Mousehole, Lands End, and Bideford.
Venturing inland from the sea they visited Cheddar Gorge, Worcester, Shakespeare’s Church, Droitwich, and back to the seaside at Portland and then onto Stratford in London.
After a few more days in London, they prepared to travel though Europe.
Map 000. Europe (Google Earth, 2024)
On the 23rd of May 1954, Fae and Del booked passage via Oostende, Belgium, to De Bosch, Holland. With Den Bosch as their base, they travelled throughout Holland to Keukenhof, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen, Weert, Roermond, and Kerkrade.
Map 004. Holland, Netherlands (Google Earth, 2024)
On the 11th of June, the girls left Holland and hitch hiked throughout Germany starting at Aachen. Then onto Holm, Bornholm, Koblenz, Mainz, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, and München. People from all over the world, would stop and pick them up on the side of the road. They both had back packs and lived from day to day checking in to one youth hostel after another.
Map 005. Germany (Google Earth, 2024)
Leaving Germany, they travelled through Austria to Innsbruck and Landeck on the way to Switzerland. On the 17th of June, arriving in St Moritz. Then hiking through the Julier Pass onto Zurich, Luzern, Bern, Geneva and finally to Brig-Glis on the 22nd of June.
Leaving Switzerland on the 23rd of June, their next destination was Italy. Gravel Lona Toce, Milan, Brescia, then onto Venice.
Map 007. Italy (Google Earth, 2024)
Spending a few days in Venice, Fae and Dell met several men including some sailors. It was a magical city of romance and history and for Fae, it was extra special that she found a certain local man attractive. He had taken a keen interest in getting to know her, but she was a long way from home, and there was much more of Europe she wanted to see.
Figure 1387. Dell with her sailor friends in Venice
Figure 1388. Fae with her mystery man and some others in Venice
Dell and Fae left Venice on the 30th of June and continued through Italy to Bologna, Florence and then Rome.
From there they hitch hiked to Naples, Sorrento, across to the Isle of Capri, Pisa, and Viareggio.
It was now time to hitch hike through France first stopping at Finale Ligure, then Imperia and on to Monte Carlo. They met with some friends and were taken on a long road trip through the French Riviera and then on 13th July 1954, travelled back to Geneva in Switzerland.
Map 008. France (Google Earth, 2024)
It was in Geneva, that Fae had missed her new friend in Italy and decided to leave Dell and travel back to Venice. She arrived in Lido Vence, San Marco, to a warm welcome from Tony, who she had met in Venice a few weeks earlier. He was very happy that she came back to see him, and he invited her to meet his parents, which she did. They loved her and looked after her hoping that their son would convince her to stay, or at least come back some day. Fae would always remember the time they shared together. She spent a week with Tony and his parents and finally had to say goodbye and return to Naples to meet back up with Dell.
Figure 1404. Lido Venice, Italy (printerest.es)
Figure 1405. Fae and Tony, Lido Venice, Italy
When she met up with Del, and they set their sights on Paris. Hitch hiking from Naples they stayed at Bordighera, Cannes, Macon, Challans and then finally to Paris to visit the louvre, the Eiffel tower and all the sights.
After Paris, Fae and Dell took a train from Port de la Chapelle to the outskirts of the city and hitch hiked to Brussels in Belgium. Then onto Louvain and back through Aachen in Germany to Eindhoven in Holland.
Map 009. Belgium (Google Earth, 2024)
Spending the better part of two weeks in Eindhoven catching up with friends there they had met during the trip. They eventually booked passage on a ferry back to London and spent the last full day in Den Bosch. The next day it was the 22nd August and hey boarded the ship and went to London via Dover.
It was time to visit the bank, think about working to make some money and continue hitch hiking through England and Scottland.
For the next month from 26th of August, they visited Uxbridge, Redditch, Droitwich Spa, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Birmingham, Derby, Matlock, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Chapeltown, Barnsley, Wakefield, Leeds, Ripley, Berwick-upon-Tweed, and Edinburgh.
They stayed in Edinburgh for two days and went on to visit Glasgow, Hamilton, Abington, Douglas Moors, Crawford, Ambleside, Lancaster, Lytham St Annes, Blackpool, and Manchester.
They continued hitch hiking from town to town staying in hostels along the way and visited Elmbridge, Droitwich Spa, Blenheim Palace, Aldgate, Bromley North, returning to Green Park, Piccadilly Circus and Westminster in London on the 24th of September.
Dell and Fae both looked for work when they settled back in London. Fae got a job at the Regent Palace Hotel working in the dining room. They had arranged earlier to book passage on the SS “Tamaroa” leaving on the 5th of February 1955, however, were able to transfer their ticket to ship leaving earlier.
They continued to work through the next two months and spent a lot of time experiencing London on their days off. Going to Paddington, Lancaster Centre, Knights Bridge shopping, Sloane Square, Piccadilly, while all time working in Westminster at the Regent Palace Hotel.
The day finally came when they left London taking the train to Southampton to catch the ship home. They boarded the SS “Matoroa” on the 27th of November and made for the Americas across the Atlantic Ocean. In the first few days they struck a hurricane which tossed the ship around so many people got injured. Cuts and bruises mostly and even one man suffering a broken arm. Most of the passengers got seasick. After a few days the weather settled down to some beautiful sailing days and they eventually arrived in Caracas in Venezuela on the east side of the Panama Canal in South America. Went on from there to Curacao and then through the canal to the Pacific Ocean on the 14th of December.
Map 011. Panama Canal (Google Earth, 2024)
The ship headed for New Zealand across the Pacific and everyone on board spent Christmas day on the ocean and had a huge celebration. On the 30th of December, the ship received an SOS distress call from a Pakistan ship and altered course to pick up an ill sailor with appendicitis. The passengers again celebrated New Years Eve on the ship and continued to New Zealand. The girls arrived in Auckland on 8th of January 1955. For the next month they both had to work to earn enough money to pay for passage back to Australia. Fae got a job at The Station Hotel in Auckland and worked as a waitress.
Map 012. New Zealand (Google Earth, 2024)
They arrived back in Sydney on the 11th of February 1955. Dell’s mother Mrs White drove to Sydney to meet them and bring them home to Lismore.
Figure 1447. Sydney Harbour (printerest.com)
Fae kept a detailed diary of her travels throughout 1954 and sent many letters back home. One letter per week on average to her father, and he sent letters to addresses ahead of her journey for her to collect and read along the way. The girls spent most of their journey hitch hiking from country to country staying in hostels as a member of the Youth Hostels Association and worked along the way to pay for their trip. An amazing journey by two very courageous twenty-year-old women from Lismore, Northern New South Wales. Australia.
My mother always insists that we must travel as much as we can as it develops your sense of worth and imagination of how other people live.
Returning to life in Australia, it was time to settle down and plan for the future. Dell met a man and got married. Fae was Dell’s bridesmaid of honour.
Figure 1487. Fae is bride’s maid at Dell’s wedding.
I guess it is something about love that is so mysterious. At the time we were chatting, I said mum: “You can fall in love with someone, you can for ever love someone, but at the end of the day, when it comes to sharing your life, you need to be in love with that person.”
She then said: “I know, it was so different when I came home. All I thought of was to go back over there. And I did meet this young man when I was in Italy. He was very interested in me.”
I wonder what she would have done if she had her time again. Fortunately for me, we’ll never know. I’ll love you for ever mum.
She then met my dad, Bill York. He was out of action and hobbling around on crutches when they first met. Probably the only way they would have ever met. It was at this time Bill had taken a very keen interest in metal casting and together with their father, both he and his brother Bob York built a second shed as a casting foundry beside the main work shed. A worker at the shipyard played a prank on my father and poured molten bronze into his shoe. My father then put his boot back on with of course, with the obvious painful result. Off to hospital in Lismore and three months out of action on crutches. The funny thing is, that without that injury, my mother would probably have never met dad if it were not in his time of need.
When my father recovered it was time to meet the family. Bill invited Fae to the homestead at Swan Bay
Figure 1488. The day my mother visited Swan Bay to see Bill and meet the York family
My mother was a free spirit. She had confidence and skills. She was a safe driver but had rather a heavy foot. She tells a story of the time she was driving dad’s car way over the speed limit from Woodburn back to the shipyard. She had a moment of reflection and lost control and launched the vehicle off the road, over an embankment, through the air and landed in the middle of the Richmond River. A sight one can only imagine. The car was a right off. It was dragged out of the river and trailered back up to the shipyard.
Figure 1495. My dad’s car wreck after mum drove into the river
It was not long before Bill proposed to Fae and soon after they got married.
Figure 1489. Fae & Bill’s Engagement
Figure 1490. Fae & Bill’s Wedding announcement
Figure 1491. Alex Weir, Geoff Sly, Bill and Fae York, Delma White and Jackie Jarrett
Figure 1492. Robert & Majorie York, Fae and Bill York and Arthur Wakely
Figure 1493. Mr and Mrs Bill and Fae York
Figure 1494. Fae York & her father, Arthur Wakely
Settling in to their new life together, my father found out his wife could type sixty to eighty words per minute. She did after all work as a secretary for a solicitor in Lismore. He soon had her working for the shipyard as his secretary typing letters and paying the accounts and wages. Of course, being his wife, he did not have to pay her. This provided my father with a considerable advantage and freedom to manage the business. He could travel to Sydney anytime he needed, and out on site to projects. He could even travel overseas if necessary to secure work. It worked a dream for him, and it all worked well for the success of the business. It was not long however, before my mother fell pregnant. She was to have three children over the next six years, each two years apart. My sister Keryn was born first in 1957. Followed by Peter in 1959 and then me in 1961.
This meant she had to give up working in the office and to spend her time looking after us. It was at this time my father hired Sadie Palmer. Sadie was a very devoted and loyal employee and would be the company secretary and office clerk for the next twenty-five years.
My grandfather died in 1958 and my uncle Bob inherited and ran the dairy farm. My father inherited ten acres in the west corner of the farm which included the workshop. It was not long before Bob developed a keen interest in construction work and eventually gave up the farm to join with my father to team up in business as York Brothers and start building boats together.