This book is a collection of stories by immigrants after WW2 and contains wildly inaccurate statements and claims by some of the participants. Please read this book with caution, some of the stories give a distorted view of Australia before World War 2 and after. The promotion of these books as fact is rather self serving as they are companion to the TV series of the same name, which we have seen.
I bought this for my octogenarian, and very well read, Mother who is a 2nd and 3rd Generation Australian of mostly poor mining families from Wales, England, Ireland. She was born and lived in a mining town and in Sydney in her youth. She is a living source to the inaccuracies of some of the statements made.
The story she liked and thought worthy of merit was the story of the Japanese Lady. One or two others she also thought worth reading. The majority however wounded her sensitivity.
Read it for what it is, a collection of "family stories" researched for TV to fit a particular view point of post war migration, not an accurate portrayal of our country.
There are many excellent factual books and works of fiction available in Australia that gives a more accurate picture of Australia. There are also many Australian family tree sites on the web that provide fascinating insight to Australian life from a more personal perspective that are better researched. ( )