three years later, fearing the stalinisation of europe, the capeks fled from prague to australia. they arrived in melbourne aboard the cyreniaii on 5 april 1949. the years following their arrival were lean. for the first five years, the family lived in a converted garage. irene worked as a cleaner and waitress, and fred worked as a gardener and conveyor belt operator. their fortunes changed when fred, a mechanical engineer by trade, obtained work at a local engineering company. employed to clean the company's european machinery, fred took the liberty of designing machinery for the company in his free time, and eventually impressed his employers with a design for commercially harvesting sea-wood. he was given a job as an engineer, and his wages increased commensurably. in 1953, this allowed irene, who had just given birth to the couple's second child, annabelle, to quit her cleaning and waitressing jobs, and focus on her community endeavours.