WHEN Brian Lavery, 83, and his wife Pauline, 84, were married on January 16, 1954, they never imagined they would one day call themselves Australian. “I had no idea we would ever be here. Both of us are South Africans, and we thought we’d be in South Africa for the rest of our lives, we had no intentions of leaving,” Mr Lavery says from his Blackburn home on the couple’s 58th wedding anniversary.
But life doesn’t always work out the way you plan it to. ‘‘Our two children emigrated here with their families in the 1990s so moving here was a decision we had to make,’’ he says.
On Australia Day the couple will join 41 other Whitehorse residents in becoming new Australian citizens. They’ll also be the oldest of the group.
At a separate ceremony nearby, 90 Manningham residents will also become citizens. Our new Australians come from all corners of the globe: Iran, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, Peru, Chile, Denmark and Indonesia, to name just a handful. Their differences are many, but they all share the desire to become Australian citizens. “We’re going to be here for the rest of our lives,’’ Brian says.
Brian and Pauline moved three years ago and, like many, endured a few hiccups in their quest to become Australian citizens. Brian – an electrical engineer – is one of about 150 people in the world who know how to build equestrian jumps, but the Australian government didn’t recognise his skill as one the country needed.
The next option was to apply for a couple visa, but with 60,000 couples on the waiting list and only 2000 accepted each year, the couple couldn’t wait until they were in their nineties. ‘‘We were told it could take eight years and we didn’t want to wait that long.’’
So fuelled by the desire to live close to their two adult children and their families, the couple paid for a five-year visa.
“In the end we paid $25,000 each to stay in Australia for five years. During this time we could apply for citizenship and we did,” he says. It’s been money well spent. ‘‘All of our family have become Australians so we’ve integrated ourselves into the Australian life and we want to accept everything they do here. We love it here.”
According to Brian and Pauline, this way of life is very relaxed. “You are free and easy to travel about with no problems at all. I say that as long as you behave yourself, you’ll be fine in Australia,” he laughs. “Our first thoughts were that Australians are very friendly, especially the youngsters, they’re very, very kind and helpful. Even in the supermarkets, the youngsters will be very easy to talk to and friendly, it’s very nice for us,” he says.
Finding the food they love isn’t a problem either, as South African foods are available at a speciality store at Donvale. “We really are lucky. We can get everything here, we can get two bottles of South African wine for $12.”
But well-priced wine, family and friendliness aside, there are some things new citizens may never understand, like Australian Rules Football. “But we like rugby. Now that Melbourne has the Melbourne Rebels we have become big supporters, but we haven’t supported the AFL. I just don’t know anything about it, it confuses me.”
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