Almost six decades on, Barbra Cater, 71, doesn't remember much of her childhood at Bonegilla Migrant Camp and St John's Orphanage in Thurgoona.
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But she does remember the generosity of Carmel Packer, 79.
When she was in her early twenties, Mrs Packer, then Miss Cameron of Oaklands, opened her family home to two young orphans for the holidays.
Through that simple act, Mrs Packer opened up a whole new world for Barbra, and started a friendship that would hold firm through decades and distance.
"We loved it, to be away from the orphanage was fantastic," Mrs Cater said.
Mrs Cater was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany to a Polish mother, who was eventually sent to Bonegilla Migrant Camp.
When her mother remarried, Mrs Cater, then-three, was taken to St John's Orphanage.
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She was briefly reunited with her mother and abusive step father at the camp, but returned to St John's at age seven when her mother died.
Mrs Cater now lives in the United States, a world away from her harsh childhood.
"I don't remember much about growing up in Bonegilla, I've lost a lot of that memory and I think a lot of that is down to my step dad and being abused," she said.
"But it was home for a long, long time."
Instead, Mrs Cater remembers seeing a television for the first time with Mrs Packer.
Last week, Mrs Cater returned to Australia and Bonegilla, with her daughter Amy Vaughan and granddaughter Carlee Vaughan, so the pair could meet Mrs Packer, who they'd heard about all their lives, and see where Mrs Cater grew up.
"[We were told] Carmel would come and get them and it gave them hope and happiness," Mrs Vaughan said. "It made them feel like normal kids for a weekend."
Two years after meeting, Mrs Packer and Mrs Cater lost touch when Mrs Cater was taken to America by her step-father. But the pair found each other again, and decades on their bond remains intact.
"It broke my heart, we lost them for a while," Mrs Packer said. "I regarded them as being as my two children, when I had my own children I used to say to them, 'they are your sisters'.
"It's just lovely to see the way she grew up from not having much."