Ten Pound Poms, 2023

TEN POUND POMS is an unusual and confronting series on Stan for me.

Nothing so extreme happened in my life but I needed to retreat from the first episode as a ten-pound Pom. Every Australian in it is a beer swilling dim-wit ocker led by a bully clown. It purports to be a true story, and I have no reason to question that. It is also clearly made for an audience that has a narrow view of Australia and Australians. There’s no doubt such people have existed and still do but the show suggests they are all there is.

A little character light and shade might have made this well-made effort a much better story. There’s a curious thing happening as I watch it. Arriving in this country in 1956, aboard THE NEW AUSTRALIAN, I was often called a little Pommy, bastard and mocked for my accent and way of speaking as well as my lack of interest in Aussie rules (and not just the sporting kind) But I had to live with the often brutal and narrow methods of a Catholic upbringing. The sheer consolation was the barefoot freedom of bushland that surrounded my hometown of Medina in Western Australia. We built ‘cubbies’ and rode our push bikes to the beach and had far more freedom than a life in England would’ve given. I didn’t meet a First Nations person until I was in my late teens and a cadet reporter but contempt for any ‘outsider’ was often obvious and widespread. We were in The Lucky Country but it wasn’t The Friendly Country. I’m sure the experiences of growing up here fed my interest in social inclusion. The show feeds memories and dramatic tension is essential to a production like this.

It also gives a taste of how easily we absorb prejudice as kids and assume it’s way outside personal experience.

It’s a timely reminder that YES is the only way to start shaking off a history of fear, oppression and hatred of anyone who doesn’t look and behave like the old idea of being Australian.