Around the world and back to Mornington

When George and Noraidah Atkin met each other in the 1970s they never could have imagined the rollercoaster that life would take them on. 

Malaysian born, Noraidah was studying medicine and George, who was born in Newcastle, was on his first posting as an ambassador for the Australian Government in Kuala Lumpur. 

They married in 1977 in London, travelling to Brussels to make their marriage official for Australian purposes. 

George’s postings as an Australian ambassador took them straight to Algiers (Algeria) and every three years they packed up and moved to another posting.

Noraidah said there were many challenges of living in such different countries, running a household and organising the basics for their family. 

“Not all of us are sent to postings where there’s champagne, like Paris, London or New York - all our postings were hardship postings,” she said. 

The couple and their four children learned to always tell someone where they were going and how long they would be in case they didn’t return when expected.

They also lived with no electricity and no water at times.

“In Algiers we ordered food every three months from Denmark, so we only ate canned food, there was no fresh food,” she said.

The challenging postings of George’s career included as an ambassador in Saudi Arabia with accreditation to Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, and an ambassador in Kenya with accreditation to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

For Noraidah, the greatest challenge was raising their family in different countries, including being evacuated to London from Algiers for the birth of their first child in 1978, travelling from Indonesia to Singapore for the birth of their fourth child in 1984 and then having four children under the age of six.

But with the challenges came the opportunity for some great achievements. 

Noraidah said one of her best achievements was a lunch she hosted as the president of the ambassadors’ wives group in Kenya.

“I managed to get the wife of the Saudi ambassador, the wife of the Iranian ambassador, the wife of the Israeli ambassador, they all came and had lunch together.”

“I said to them, yes we come here because of our husbands but don’t forget in our circle we are women, we are wives and we are mothers, let’s leave the politics at the door and let’s talk about family.” 

George left the foreign service when Noraidah was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2007.

He said he was proud of becoming a senior ambassador during his career, but that the biggest achievement was their family.

The couple moved to The Mornington Retirement Village to be closer to their children, who have been a great support in dealing with Noraidah’s health, and to spend more time with their grandchildren. 

It was the community in the village that made the move a successful one, George said. 

“I’ve often thought it would be a much harder move just to come to Melbourne and settle somewhere in the suburbs because you tend to make your connections wherever you are through work - and we’re retired. Whereas here, you’re conscious of being part of a community and having a community around you.” 

In retirement George fills his time with looking after Noraidah and seeing the family.

He also walks every day and swims with Noraidah for exercise three times a week. 

Noraidah spends most of her time in the garden, and agrees the move to The Mornington is the best one (of many) that they have made.