The portrait: Kim Sans
The prodigal son returns home
Many Catalans decided to leave Australia to go back home for good. They missed their country and never got too attached to the new land. Others took to it like fish to water and and ended up calling Australia home. But most of them, sooner or later, visited their family and friends in Catalonia. They were received as heroes. Treated like kings. Did they feel at home? What did they take to Australia? What did they remember from their early lives?
Kim Sans left Spain on the 3rd of September 1903 on the Masegrius Maritimas and got to Australia two months later. He shared the trip with Frank Rubira, who came out in 1901 with Johnnie Sans. Kim worked at the Rubiras hotel to pay off his fare.
Young Kim Sans visited the Parers house in Box Hill quite often, where he met Josephine Clota and married her in 1919, a wedding that was covered by the local press.
Kim was known for his passion for outdoor living so he often went to visit the Lee family in Stratford, Gippsland. He was interested in bowling and shooting, to the point that he was on the Committees of the Blackburn Clay Target Club and the Australian Gun Club. But his biggest hobby was photography, a love he passed on to his granddaughter Annie. Kim was one of the instigators of Spanish gatherings as he loved to “get with his own”. He visited Spain three times, the first one being 61 years after his departure, and he recorded all of his visits in his travel diary and through photography.
Discover how Kim Sans felt on his return to Montgat! Click on the article on the right.
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