The Australian Women's Register

2 hours (approx.) Catherina van der Linden was born in 1912 and grew up in Nigmegen, Holland where her father was a tailor. She describes her schooling and then her long courtship and marriage in 1940 soon after the outbreak of war. Their first child was born in 1943. Mrs van der Linden briefly describes the stressful experiences of the war years and its aftermath during which her husband, who had been a Company Secretary, was unemployed and their other three children were born. She then explains how she reluctantly agreed to emigrate in 1955 after her father’s death. They travelled in the luxurious ‘Johan Van Oltenbernavalt’ and were shocked by the accommodation at both Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre in Victoria and Woodside in the Adelaide Hills. Their longest stay was at the Glenelg hostel from whence Mrs van der Linden returned to Holland in 1958 with the children, vowing never to return. However she decided to reunite the family 18 months later and describes the children’s education and her determination to work outside the home in clerical and nurses’ aide positions.