By: Ambassador Ian Wille, former Australian Foreign Service officer
My childhood and boyhood in Sri Lanka - then Ceylon - were little short of idyllic. I was part of a small and close-knit family that was fully engaged with all parts of the Ceylonese community. My early education, first at S. Thomas’ Preparatory School in Kollupitiya and then at Royal College, could only be described as comprehensive and first class.
I had a second “mother” in my Sinhalese nanny who was with us from the time I was three weeks old until we left. She bathed, dressed, and fed my sister and me, taught us Sinhalese, and took us for our daily morning outings in a pram. When we outgrew these needs, she became the family cook, and an excellent one at that. We were all devastated when we had to leave her.
Memories of growing up in then Ceylon are almost exclusively happy and nostalgic ones: the annual and much anticipated Dutch Burgher Union Christmas fete every December; holidays at rest houses by the sea at Ambalangoda, Weligama, Tangalle and Kalkudah; visits to Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Gal Oya; regular visits to my maternal grandmother’s homein Nuwara Eliya; and visits to my grandfather’s coconut estate in Kuliyapitiya. These were indeed halcyonic, joyous and secure times. Thoughts of ever leaving were non-existent.
As a result, he decision to migrate as a family in 1957 was one taken with sorrow and reluctance. A number of members of our Dutch Burgher community had made similar moves, including following introduction of the ‘Sinhala Only Act’. Other members of the family had already migrated to Melbourne, hence choosing to move to Australia was a natural response. Australia seemed the land of milk and honey and so it proved to be. The transition was seamless, as it turned out to be for most members of the Dutch Burgher community given their knowledge of English, recognised adaptability, capacity for hard work, and last but not least, a love of sport, especially cricket.
For my part, after having done well at university and graduating in Arts and Law, I was selected as part of a group of 18 from among several thousand applicants for the diplomatic intake of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1968. I had a fortunate and challenging career in the Department, with overseas postings in Wellington, Phnom Penh, Dhaka, Belgrade, Apia and New Delhi. My career culminated in an appointment as High Commissioner in the Caribbean, based in Kingston, Jamaica, with accreditations to eleven other Commonwealth Caribbean countries and reporting responsibilities for thirteen other countries in the region.
My career at the department was extremely enjoyable and rewarding, and brought drama and challenges on the way. Cambodia was at war with the Viet Cong throughout my time in Phnom Penh and the city was regularly under military attack; I was in Dhaka at the time of the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975; and in Belgrade for the death and funeral of Marshal Tito. I formally retired from the Department in 1998, but since 2001 I have been working in the department with an incredible team of consultants.
The family never regretted the decision to move, but maintained an undiminished love of and interest in all things Sri Lankan and continued to make regular visits there. Throughout my overseas career as a representative of Australia, my foundations in Sri Lanka were never far from my mind.
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