I was hit by a boar and thumped by a kangaroo, says £10 Pom Ron

MEET the Coventry pensioner who just can’t sit still.

Ron Finnerty set sail from Coventry to Australia as part of the £10 Pom movement, where you could get a direct ticket to the land down under for just a tenner.

The scheme was devised by the British and Australian Government to repopulate Australia, and Britons saw it as a way of escaping post war shortages and living a similar way of life, but in the sun.

So what was it like being part of that fleet of £10 Poms?

Born in post war Coventry, Ron Finnerty always had itchy feet.

He started working in the city’s factories, but at age 27 found himself yearning for adventure and an escape.

Life was a repeated routine, and he knew that the £10 Pom scheme would allow him to embark on an adventure as well as earn a living.

Ron was determined to explore, camp and trek his way through Australia, and catching up with him some 60 years after his initial journey, it is clear he accomplished that and more.

After bidding his parents and five siblings farewell at the Southampton ports in the summer of 1965, 27-yearold Ron embarked on his first ever voyage across the seas.

He said: “It was a six and a half week trip, and at one point I didn’t see land for three weeks. I was in the depths of the ship on the cheapest ticket, and I got as sick as a dog!”

We leaf through photographs in Ron’s warm and inviting living room, which not too dissimilar to a museum, holds artifacts, mementos and trinkets from his time abroad.

Those who migrated as part of the scheme had to stay in Australia for two years, and this meant Ron managed to see much of the country by wild camping his way around - which led to some exciting encounters.

Ron paints a cinematic picture of the time he spent there. He worked as a conductor on the trams in Melbourne, a postman, and as a labourer on the dam building projects in Tasmania.

There were heavy bush fires at the time, which even made it into headlines in the local papers back in Coventry.

Because of this, Ron knew his parents would be worrying and had to send a telegram back to Coventry which simply read : “I’m ok concerning fire.”

That was just the start of the excitement for the intrepid Coventrian, who then took to wild camping the length of Australia.

He lived on the remainder of his wages and existed solely on things he caught in the bush, which led to some hairy moments.

Ron said: “One day I had laid my sleeping down in the bush and fell asleep. I was hit with a thump, and three to four kangaroos hopped past me at about 30 miles an hour on their way down to the watering hole.

“I ended up half way up a tree with the force.”

And Ron had many more encounters with exotic animals while he was camping.

“I was just falling asleep as I was hit by a wild boar who chucked me in the air like a piece of paper, I was bruised for weeks,” he said.

Another incident saw Ron having to stay still for his life: “I was woken up by an itch on my chest, I went to feel what it was and it was approximately a five to six foot snake slithering across my chest.

“From then on I took precautionary methods such as shaking the sleeping bag before I went to bed so hopefully it wouldn’t happen again.”

Living off the land was a liberating experience for Ron, and he went in and out of labouring jobs to accommodate his love

of adventure. Ron eventually moved back to Coventry in his retirement, but always kept Australia in his life and made a visit every single year.

He returned from his most recent visit in 2019, which was a four month backpacking trip around Oz.

And now in his retirement does Ron travel in luxury? “Oh no, I usually stay in caravans, hostels and pubs. That way I meet the right people and it’s also cheap. People are amazed when I tell them my age.”

Although he would rather not disclose the specifics of his age (best to leave some things to mystery he said), when asked how he still manages all of this travelling Ron said he simply stays as active as possible.

He said that having a heart attack hasn’t stopped him, and he goes to his local gym, walks from his house into Coventry city centre on most days and has plans to do a zipwire in Snowdonia.

From the stories that Ron tells, the £10 Pom scheme afforded him an opportunity like no other. He could live off the land, and was liberated from the the everyday grind of life.

Does Coventry still feel like home to him? “Absolutely” he said. “But I’m going to start saving again for my next trip very soon.”