I was intrigued by this book’s garish 1980s cover and its promise of “one American woman’s devastating experience of life down under”.
Front cover of ‘Kangaroo in my Kitchen’ by Ethel Sloan
After flipping to a random page where she’s traipsing around town seeking out “dimes” for a washing machine I thought it might be a Karen-esque sort of opinion piece from an entitled person who came to Australia expecting it to be exactly like America.
But what actually is is a little more insightful.
What reviews that there are online comment say “nasty, vicious diatribe against Australia and its people, particularly the women, by a privileged American woman who clearly did not wish to be there”.
It is all these things, but that doesn’t make it a bad book.
I read in a couple of hours in between other things.
It’s insightful because it’s not viewing Sydney or moving to Australia through rose-tinted glasses “not even a pinkish hue” as the blurb says.
And this less than rosy perspective is what makes it interesting. There are likely a lot of perspectives of people moving to Australia which are positive, in video or audio mediums those would be the ones that have been preserved.
But this more critical perspective probably only lives in the letter pages of magazines, letters to family and friends, and perhaps the occasional letter to the editor in a small newspaper.
Images (aside from the covers) are from Wikimedia Commons from 1970/1971, and one from 1969, to illustrate the environment she probably would have seen.
It’s 1970/71.
Ethel Sloan’s husband Bernard (Bernie to Ethel) has been offered a 2 year placement in Australia with his advertising company. They’re sending him out to Australia to “Americanize” the creative department in Sydney.
Ethel explains that Bernie’s been with the agency for 10 years and she thinks this 2 year move is a chance for him to try something new. Ethel isn’t a fan of new things.
Ethel by her own admission is happy with a boring life, a samey life, the same discussions, visiting the same places, same friends and parties etc. She’s got her group of friends around her.
She’s just had their house repainted and got the furnishing and layout just as she wanted it and the bathroom leak has been fixed. Plus they’ve just got new whitegoods!
It’s all just…nice.
And now Bernie is talking about going to Australia for 2 years?!
One of Ethel’s questions in the early chapter of the book was “what about tennis” to which her husband challenges “you think there’ll be a shortage of tennis in Australia?”
This is weirdly something which will crop up later in the book.
What’s interesting in the following couple of chapters in the lead up to the move is the lack of ‘information availability’ as I came to think of it as I read through this thin tome.
It’s something I noticed reading it from a 21st century perspective, and something I’ve not really noticed reading other history books which are usually published in the last 10 years or whatever looking back rather than a contemporary account.
Ethel doesn’t know what to expect, the information she has comes from the World Book Encyclopedia and her friends.
And the brochures about Australia which simply adds to her concerns / confusion they show surfing but also skiing, she takes many suitcases including her ski gear because she thinks she’ll be able to go from the beach to the slopes regularly (aside from one holiday away it doesn’t seem like she escapes Sydney much).
The weather in general seems to fill her with much angst, and no one including the company moving them to Australia seems to tell her what to expect.
She speaks to several people who give her conflicting information; it’s warm, it’s cold etc, leave your fur coat at home the Sydney weather is lovely, but you might need it, you’ll freeze at night.
This latter one does pan out to be true.
She introduces us to her friends who are fine, if unadventurous.
Waikiki, beach and high rise hotels; Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. August 1970. File:Hawaii, United States (28252953655).jpg. (2022, August 12). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:48, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: Urbain J. Kinet
But she also paints them as widely read / widely informed, especially compared to Australian women.
The actual travel to Australia Bernie turns it into an extended holiday, first they’re in Maui (rather than Honolulu) which Ethel likens to Georgia.
What contemporary photos I could find from a quick search for both these locations and that Ethel describes it as being mostly under construction (they also stayed in one of the older hotels) I can imagine Ethel’s disappointment.
On from there they go to Tahiti and New Zealand, in the latter she enjoys herself, seeing the natural wonders it has to offer, seeing the sheep that look like fluffy clouds. They go mountain climbing and a policeman on a motorcycle escorts them to the zoo after they get lost, and they enjoy sulphur baths and see a power plant that doesn’t use any oil.
I suspect if Ethel and Bernie had moved to New Zealand in the 1970s instead of Australia in the 1970s she might have written a more positive book than this one.
Upon arriving in Australia, or just as the plane is getting ready to land Ethel’s angst of appearances rises up
Upon hearing the local manager for the advertising agency would be meeting them at the airport she is understandably anxious, asking Bernie why he didn’t tell her?
“He had the gall to ask me what difference it made. What difference? My hair was a disaster, my clothes looked as if they have been squeezed into suitcases, the boys looked like urchins, we all looked like refugees, and he wanted to know what difference it made.”
This does come off as a bit dramatic, but I think her anxieties are real, and she’s just moved across the globe and her husband has been less than honest with her. His boss meeting them at the airport is not exactly the way Ethel would want the first meeting to happen.
Tom Middleton, the manager of the Sydney agency meets them at the airport.
Upon seeing the Australian men, women and their children waiting for Ethel and Bernie (and their two kids) at the airport terminal Ethel observes they all look like they’re from the 1950s.
Which is an interesting observation, there’s often accounts of people saying in the past and even recent past that Australia feels like it’s 10 years behind the rest of the world. And in the 1970s coming from the US to Sydney it probably felt like a bit of a time jump in difference.
Expressway, Woolomolloo (1970). File:70-755 Woolomolloo, Sydney 1970 (51217728742).jpg. (2023, June 3). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:38, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: wilford peloquin
The drive from Sydney Airport through the suburbs and into the CBD itself is less inspiring for Ethel she comments “not a kangaroo or gumtree in sight”.
She’s transported in a limousine with the Janice the wife of Tom and her kids (Paul and Steven). Bernie’s off with Tom Middleton.
Crossing the harbour bridge Ethel mentions that a bridge in Melbourne (the West Gate) collapsed recently.
They’re then taken to some apartments after exiting at Kirribilli.
First thing her oldest remarks on is how cold it is. Which is weird as everyone’s in flowery dresses at the airport.
And Ethel remarks on the blue skies and sunshine as she’s driven out to their first house.
Janice has helpfully filled the kitchen with the basics in the fridge; milk, butter, orange cordial, sweet cream, eggs and lamb chops (which were stamped with 39 cents a pound). The cupboards held instant coffee, loose tea, bread, Weet-Bix and Vegemite - which Ethel describes as “a mouth burning vegetable extract which Australians smeared on their bread”.
Janice also brings out a quart of Scotch which they get stuck into waiting for the men to arrive.
As they go to bed on their first night in Sydney they both change into their nightclothes remarking how freezing it is.
It seems they arrived in October 1970 or possibly 1971, (based on the references to the West Gate collapse) being a thing of conversation I'm considering it October 1970.
Looking at the Bureau of Meteorology’s monthly climate statistics for that era in Sydney the maximum mean temperature for October 1970 was 23.6ºC and the minimum mean was 13.6ºC. So while it was cool it wasn't freezing, even drilling down to a day-by-day data level it was only ever just below 10ºC. Perhaps it was just unexpectedly cooler than Ethel had been expecting?
I know Australian houses especially of that era didn’t have the greatest of insulation, but it’s still an odd observation. Unless (as Ethel seemed to lament often) she was expecting heating/cooling in the house to keep it at an even temperature.
Manly, Sydney (1970). File:70-757 Manly, Sydney 1970 (51218653178).jpg. (2023, June 3). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:40, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: wilford peloquin
Ethel gets a Mini Minor to drive around in, apparently that’s as much as they think women can handle, and she starts looking at real estate adverts.
She also gets her kids enrolled in school and faces the public school system where her kids get the cane, it doesn’t go well.
Apparently her kids in the US went to a school with a TV studio and pottery kiln.
While at the first school she sends her kids to, they’re expected to go across the road to the milk bar for lunch and they’re given free “curdled milk” twice a day.
That night Ethel goes home and cries about all the Australian kids who go to school to learn and instead are “were treated as animals to be tamed”.
Again I wonder if this is hyperbole or genuine concern / culture shock for Ethel. It’s certainly insightful regardless.
She remarks “We had moved not only to another continent, but another century.”
Then she tries the private schools:
Knox is booked out till 1984
Barker has forty-five children to a classroom
Pittwater drilled boys daily and sent them on survival weekends
"Progressive Wahroonga taught the boys sewing and the teachers wore saris"
"Masada was the nearest thing to an American school"
Eventually some Australians recommend the “avant-garde” Sydenham.
From there the book is about her settling in, if that is how to describe it into her life in Australia.
Eventually after looking around Ethel finds a house, it’s a battle-axe block in Vaulcluse.
81a Kurrakirri Avenue, Vaucluse to be exact.
Australia Square, Sydney (1970). File:70-783 Australia Square Sydney 1970 (51219510295).jpg. (2023, June 3). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:43, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: wilford peloquin
It doesn’t exist. Googling it was the first thing I did when I saw it written in the form of a letter addressed to Ethel. The road doesn’t even exist disappointingly.
But there’s enough detail about the house, the area and the people around that it definitely existed somewhere in Vaucluse.
Ethel goes on a hunt for tennis courts, finding them all booked out, but does eventually find somewhere to play.
The most interesting thing is that in these games the women going are going to mostly socialise, the tennis is just a framing for them to do so.
At the break they bring out the tea, scones, jam and cakes etc.
Meanwhile Ethel sits to the side with her yogurt, fruit and vegetables.
This is one of the interesting insights in the book from a contemporary reader looking back. It was very modern of Ethel, being 39-40. She was fit, eating healthily (she even laments later when she hurts her back and starts on the valium) that she was putting on weight.
When she speaks to her neighbour (Kath) who sits by the pool tanning and smoking, Kath muses of herself that she needs to go on a diet for the coming season of socialising with her husband.
Ethel corrects her and says she can’t just diet she needs to exercise, something Kath seems surprised by the even concept of.
Again it’s this little insight into Ethel, that kinda reveals a lot.
Kings Cross, Sydney (1970). File:70-631 Kings Cross, Sydney 1970 (51218652878).jpg. (2023, June 3). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:45, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: wilford peloquin
She’s focused on her health, and when she injures herself even the doctors remark on how good she looks for 40, that she wasn’t one the “wrinkles” as Ethel describes the women of similar age to her that have been in the sun.
She didn’t have any cancers “burned off” as those of the other wives of the company men have.
Ethel laments the lack of a PTA (Parents and Teachers Association) as that was where she did a lot of socialising and work. Instead she has to work in the tuckshop along with the other well off ladies who arrive in Mercedes, Volvos and Jaguars.
One of the people (or rather one of the kids her child meets) invites him to a birthday, their father’s name is Sir Whitlam Malcomb, which is definitely a made up name. Ethel describes him as newspaper, magazine and television tycoon.
I’m wondering if this was Kerry Packer?
There’s not that many newspaper, magazine and television tycoons who’d be around in 1970s Sydney.
Their house on Kurrakirri Avenue gets burgled at least four times, and while they do install an alarm it doesn’t really deter people.
By the end of her two years also her Mini gets stolen.
If this is true, and it’d be weird for her to add in this to colour up her story, I can appreciate the trauma she feels of this frequently happening.
They go on a holiday to Alice Springs, there Ethel observes it looks like California because it was built for the American missile base. She sees her first “real” (ie American) supermarket.
There’s air conditioning here and there.
During this trip Ethel does wonder some questions regarding "Aboriginal peoples", whom she and her children wanted to see. They’re told if they want to see them in their “natural state” they would need to go to Arnhem Land.
Uluru, 1969. (Couldn’t find any 1970 images)
File:69-1263 Ayers Rock, Australia 1969 (51215930168).jpg. (2023, June 2). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 05:56, June 9, 2023 from link. Author: wilford peloquin
They visit a cattle station in Ross River, they have an adventure to get to Uluru (or Ayres Rock / the Rock as Ethel describes it).
Out of everything in this book chapter 20 detailing her trip is possibly the most detailed. It’s got the most observations packed in, and if I’m honest I skimmed it before re-reading it while preparing to write this up.
In the end Ethel doesn’t feel a lot for Australia, when asked when she returns to the US was she glad they had done it?
The answer was yes, because it made her more of a patriot, made her appreciate all the advancements and everything that USA had.
It’s…an interesting observation and I can sort of see why this book annoyed a lot of people who read it.
Back cover of ‘Kangaroo in my Kitchen’ by Ethel Sloan
I do kinda feel for Ethel, I think people who read this book ignored the trauma and anxiety she felt moving to Australia without a lot of assistance. Assistance the company had promised her and her husband which didn’t materialise. And all without much of a safety net.
Information availability is this concept I keep thinking of when musing on this book.
That she didn’t have a lot of easy available information to access to salve some of these concerns she had. Just an out of date World Book Encyclopedia (from probably 1968 with maybe a year in review update for 1969) along with a mix of local newspapers and various people’s opinions.
Which I guess was what was available then.
I think it’s a great insight into one person’s experience.
I don’t know why it was published or how she got it published, but it’s been preserved as having been published.
It’s a decent enough read, some insightful observations and you can read it in a short afternoon.
