'It's the worst year ever - and it might yet get worse' - Hartlepool ex-pat in Australia who lived through the war gives his take on grim times

Joe Richmond, 83, was raised in Hartlepool and went to Dyke House School.

He remembers facing air raids in Anderson shelters during the Second World War.

But he told the Hartlepool Mail today: “The past year has been the worst I can remember.

“We had droughts that lasted over a year, sending our farmers broke, then massive bush fires that burned for weeks, with a fire front that was 1,800 miles long. Then we had floods and now out of the blue, we have the coronavirus epidemic.

“We are told the worst is over. I hope it is, and if so we have got off very, very lucky.”

But Joe added: “This may only be the start.”

He explained: “We depend on trade with Asia. If Asia goes into a slump, so does about 90% of Australia’s export markets.

“Oz is a very big place. I live in Perth in Western Australia. I worked for 12 years in a diamond mine with 12 hour day/night shifts, and it used to take me five hours to fly from Perth to the mine in Kununurra.

“We were very, very well paid, got better meals than we did at home, and on your time off we could visit most of Asia, and occasionally even go back to see the family in Mother England. But things are changing now, and not for the better.”

Joe said the pandemic had caused serious problems for some Australian airlines and the jobs of 16,000 staff were at risk.

“In Britain you have cars, trains and airlines, but in Oz the distances are horrific.

“Perth to Sydney is 2,485 miles. Darwin to Adelaide is 1,550 miles. We have a train from Darwin to Adelaide and it takes this train 3 days to do the journey, Perth to Sydney by train takes three days.”

“Most Aussies call Australia ‘The Lucky Country’ and not without good reason, we have sunshine 12 months of the year, If you dig a hole anywhere in Australia, you will generally come up with iron ore, coal, bauxite, gold, or diamonds.”

Its crops are plentiful and exported to the rest of the world but the coronavirus has put most of life on hold.

“This has closed all our schools, most of our shops, stopped all sporting activities, lots of beaches, cost thousands of jobs. We cannot go out in any more than pairs, and the over 70s are told not to go out at all. And this may only be the start.”

Yet Joe admitted: “I think about 70 Australians have died from this virus, New Zealand even less, so compared to the U.S. China, and most of Europe, we have proven yet again why we Aussies call Australia ‘The Lucky Country’.”

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