ALMOST TRUE BLUE: Jenny and Dave Hughes with children Rhiannon and Rhys.
Around the corner from Abbey Road and Liverpool’s most famous export, The Beatles, comes the Hughes family.
While not quite as famous as the Fab Four, Dave and Jenny Hughes have developed a fair following as stars of Wanted Down Under, a BBC program that promotes emigration to Australia.
A film crew will call in on Dave and Jenny Hughes on Friday to see how they’re battling the spiders, snakes and linguistic quirks of Maitland, their new home.
“We didn’t know what to make of ‘how ya going’ when we first arrived,” Mrs Hughes said. “We didn’t realise people were asking us how we were.”
The producers took the family to Darwin in 2008 but the family settled in the Hunter; Mr Hughes transferred out of England with a multinational diesel engine manufacturer.
They came with four suitcases and a shipping container filled with possessions, but it was far from an easy move.
“I lost my mother while we were planning the move and we lost another family member shortly before flying out,” Mrs Hughes said.
Maitland was selected for its balance between city and country living, as Mr Hughes commutes to work at a Muswellbrook mine.
“We have housing issues in the UK, a lot of homeless people, but the living expenses here are more expensive,” Mrs Hughes said.
Rhiannon, 15, and Rhys, 9, have adapted much faster, with the former “bothered little” by Maitland’s frostiest days.
“People say it takes about two years and we’re starting to feel settled now,” Mrs Hughes, a food processing consultant, said. “Rhys doesn’t have any problems asking people ‘how ya going’.”