###MY TIME AS AN AUSTRALIAN SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT – Finale

UNIVERSITY YEARS

I began my first-year university course in March 1958. University life was quite different from school life. Students had more freedom to conduct themselves. The course materials were composed by the lecturers based on the various textbooks and technical journals. The difficulty was to understand the lectures and jot down the contents at the same time. To have an in-depth understanding of the subjects, it was necessary to do further reading of the textbooks and technical journals referred to by the lecturers.

There was a strong demand for engineers at the time because of a large number of infrastructure and mining projects being undertaken in the country. Most of my classmates were on some kind of scholarships or bursaries awarded by government departments or private enterprises. Competition for places in the engineering courses was strong and the failure rate high. I had to maintain my pace of study to ensure all my course works were up-to-date.  In the beginning, I did join the university basketball club and played a few matches for the University B team. However, that involved traveling outside the university campus. It took up too much of my time and I had to give it up. My academic study was of paramount importance.

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After completing my first-year engineering course and during the summer vacation, I was nominated to attend the United Nations Youth Conference in the Blue Mountain in New South Wales.  The conference brought together some sixty young people of various callings and experiences from across Australia and the Asia Pacific. It dealt with a number of global issues and was guided by experts from the Australian universities. The participants partook in interactive workshops including role-playing and debates.                                                                                  

In the second-year course, the syllabus listed more engineering subjects than pure mathematics and sciences. The class hours were longer due to the scheduled laboratory assignments. After consulting with my case manager, I decided to move to live near to the university sharing a rented terrace house in Fitzroy with two other Asian students.

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After finishing my laboratory assignments, I would usually go for a swim and showered at the Beaurepair swimming pool and then walked to the student union cafeteria to have my dinner before walking home to my rented house. During the weekends, I would sometime go to the gym doing weight exercises or playing a game of basketball or other sports.

We had a kitchen in our rented house. My house mate craved for some cow stomach he used to enjoy eating back home. I said if he bought some from the local butcher shop, I would cook it with black peppers and spring onion. Thus, my house mate walked to the local butcher but returned quite frustrated as the shop had no cow stomach. But I definitely saw some well-cleaned cow stomach in a tray displayed behind the shop window when I walked past the butcher shop earlier this afternoon. Then it dawned on me that the stuff he craved for was called tripe and not cow stomach! He should have asked the butcher for three pounds of tripe. By the way, he should also ask for a bag of bones for cooking the soup. The bones were either beef or pork bones which still had a lot of meat on them, and usually given away for free for feeding the dogs! He could also buy a pound of chicken liver, which was called chicken fry. Avoid buying chicken meat which cost much more than pork, steak or lamb. Anyway, the local butcher usually sold only old chicken which was called boilers. He could also buy a bunch of leeks from the greengrocer next door, to cook with the liver.

Having noted that, he walked back to the butcher shop and returned with a bag of cow stomach and chicken liver as well as a bag of beef bone for the three hungry “dogs”. At that evening dinner, we had a cheap but delicious feed of tripe soup and leeks with chicken fry.

WORK EXPERIENCE

My second-year university course included a two-month work experience during the summer vacation with an approved engineering company. I was given a selection of three companies by Melbourne University employment agency. I chose Yarra Construction which offered work experience in steel and concrete construction as well as tunneling work. When I rang up the company, I was surprised at the person on the line, was the general manager of the company. I was even more surprised when the big boss offered me a lift on his way to work, from the city railway station to the work site in Brooklyn about five kilometers away. Regarding my works, part of my duties was to analyze and keep confidential records of the cost of works for the general manager.                                 

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I also reported to the works engineer who was in charge of the construction of the pumping station. My duty was to order ready-mix concrete from the suppliers. I liaised with the site foreman to ascertain the extent of concreting work scheduled for the coming days and specified the quality and quantity of ready-mix concrete required before placing the orders with the suppliers.

The tunneling had encountered a large volume of groundwater. I was asked by the tunnel engineer to set up a V-notch weir (a hydraulic device) to measure and keep records of the ground water flow rate. The data was used as a basis for a claim of extra cost by the company.               

For my works, I was paid a salary of about twenty-five pounds a fortnight. Besides, I was also receiving my scholarship living allowance of twenty pounds a fortnight. For the first time in my life, I was quite well-off.

The third-year course included a two-month work experience with Crown Lands and Survey. My work was mainly to assist the licensed surveyor in establishing permanent markers of boundaries of blocks of land. I was paid the minimum wage of twenty per fortnight.

BORNEO STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

During the third year, I was elected as the secretary of the Borneo Students Association. The Association provided a platform for students from Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei to meet socially and network with one another. I and a couple of committee members organized social gatherings, food fairs, and excursions visiting well-known sites.                                                                                 

GRADUATION

After completing the four-year course of study at the University of Melbourne, I was awarded the Degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) in 1961.  

HOMEWARD BOUND 

While waiting for news from Sarawak, I took a casual job as a factory hand in a linseed oil factory and was paid the minimum wage. However, the factory manager soon found out that I was a qualified engineer. When the factory chemist went on leave, I was reassigned to relieve him doing quality control work with a higher pay.                                                                                                           
On Friday after works, it was “happy hour” time at the local hotel offering beer at a discounted price. My factory manager invited me to have a drink with him at the hotel. A number of workers from our factory were also there. White-collar workers and blue-collar workers all mingled in the same room having a happy time. The scene well illustrated that Australia was an egalitarian society.

A reply eventually arrived in early February that my appointment to the Sarawak government service had been approved and I was to report to the Public Works Department to finalize the necessary service agreement and a date to commence work. I said farewell to my case manager who would arrange for my travel home to Kuching. After reporting to the Public Works Department to confirm my appointment, I flew to Brunei to spend one week with my parents and siblings, whom I had not seen for over two years. I commenced working in the Public Works Department as a Division Two engineer in late February 1962.

REFLECTIONS                                                                                     

To be awarded an Australian Colombo Plan Scholarship was a life-changing experience for me. It had broadened my vision and greatly enhanced my career prospect and self-confidence.  

Australians, in general, were friendly and forthright people. I would like to think that my presence in Australia had contributed to Australia’s closer understanding and engagement with Asia.

Compilation, photos, layout and written by Leong Chee Seng 龍志成         22 January 2019               

FOOTNOTE:

The author was among the first batch of students graduated from Kuala Belait Chung Hua Primary School after the 2nd world war. For the story before St. Thomas’s School time, see “Memories of our venture to China for further education”                    

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