As of late 2025, the number of New Zealanders living in Australia was estimated to be around 700,000 - a huge number for such a small country, reflecting the close relationship between our two countries. In Tasmania, it's estimated there are about 5000 New Zealanders living here, making them one of the top 5 migrant groups.

It's assumed often that New Zealanders are very similar to us and don't have many challenges to settle in here, but the true picture is more complex.

One thing that distinguishes New Zealand from Australia is the influence of Maori culture, something which until fairly recently was repressed. Olive grew up in a small farming community near Gisborne, a small city on the east side of the North Island. Her mother and grandmother were strong influences during her younger years and gave her a connection with Maori culture and her grandmother, in particular, practised traditional Maori healing.

Losing her mother and grandmother at the age of 16 was a deeply traumatic event for Olive and for a while she fell into some unhealthy coping mechanisms. Most of her family also migrated to Melbourne and, pregnant with her first child, she joined them to be near family support.

It was around ten years ago that Olive met a Tasmanian man, who she later married, and was part of the reason that brought her to Tasmania. The other was a slightly more spiritual reason, which you will her about in the podcast.

You will also hear how during the COVID pandemic and the lockdown in Melbourne lead to Olive reconnecting with the Maori language and culture through online communities, something she now also shares within her local community in Tasmania.

El Salvador is a small Central American nation that has suffered from a multitude of hardships over many decades, include civil wars, a brutal military dictatorship, crippling poverty and violent crime. This has led to a large exodus of the population escaping, through both legal and illegal channels, to countries like the USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia. In fact Australia is home to the third-largest population of Salvadoreans outside the country itself.

Roque came with his family to settle in northern Tasmania in the early 90s as a result of the civil war that lasted from 1981 to 1992. Australia accepted some 10,000 Salvadoreans during this time as a part of its Humanitarian Resettlement program, and Tasmania received several hundred of those.

Roque chose Australia over USA or other countries because he wanted to be as far away from El Salvador and its problems as he could, but with no English when he came, settling in near the small city of Devonport was quite a challenge at the beginning.

However, as Roque says, he met some angels in Tasmania, almost by chance, who helped him with work and even build a house, and ultimately let him put down roots in Latrobe.

Cuba is a country that really stands out amongst Latin American nations because of the revolution in 1959. Since then they have lived under the rule of a Communist dictatorship and for most of that time also under severe sanctions from the United States, both of which have create severe hardship for the people of Cuba, both in material terms and also in terms of the lack of civic freedoms. This has resulted in large numbers of Cubans leaving the country over the years to seek a better life in countries such as the USA, Canada, Spain or other parts of Latin America. Not a lot come to Australia, because it is very difficult both practically and financially.

Alfredo is perhaps then a bit of a pioneer, who arrived in Hobart in July 2025 from Ecuador, where he spent 12 years previously. His first goal was to improve his English, but his main goal is to find a safe place for his family to settle. Like many migrating from South America, safety and security were major considerations.

But despite the hardships that drove him away from Cuba, Alfredo remembers his childhood fondly, as he grew up in a place that was safe and security and where there was a strong sense of community around and people helped each other out. It was only later in life that he started to question the ideology that he had drummed into him religiously from a young age, as the reality that he experienced no longer seemed to match the government line.

Alfredo is also a writer, having self-published books on dentistry, he's also written books for children and is working on a fantasy novel as well. On top of this, he has started teaching kickboxing in Hobart as well, and that reflects a theme that kept coming up in our interview that Alfredo values service to others.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the larger nations of what is often known in the West Indies. It's known for its tropical beaches, its coral reefs, its steel drums and the Caribbean's biggest carnival celebration. In Australia, it is also associated with world-class cricketers like Brian Lara.

Rodney grew up in a couple of small close-knit communities on the north coast of Trinidad and has great memories of his childhood there.

Life took a darker turn for him later in life though, and family circumstances meant that he was better off going to live with his mother in New York at the age of 15. His experiences in Trinidad and seeing the growing influence of the illegal drug trade, influenced Rodney's decision to study a degree in Criminal Justice in New York.

However, it was during his degree that he made an online gamer friend from Tasmania, and cutting a long story short, he came to Tasmania to live in 2018. After the stress and tension of life in New York, Tasmania felt like a return to home and the more close-knit of community he had grown up with in Trinidad.

It can be easy to forget that English is not the only indigenous language of Britain, and indeed Welsh, still spoken by around 600,000, has its roots far deeper in the history of ancient Britain. Wales is a land of mythical folk tales, rolling hills, magnificent choral singing traditions, passion for rugby and so much more. Though perhaps clichees, although these contribute to a distinctive Welsh identity, which can still be seen in faraway places like Tasmania, which has long received Welsh migrants ( and convicts).

Huw is one of the more recent arrivals from Wales having come to settle in 2021. His partner had arrived in early 2020 to take up a position at the University of Tasmania. Due to a succession of misfortunes and tribulations, such as a global pandemic, Huw couldn't make it until much later.

Huw grew up in a very rural area of north-west Wales and was brought up in a Welsh-speaking household, and indeed, English wasn't introduced into his schooling until he was 7 years of age. As we discuss in this episode, language, especially having more than one, can have a big impact on shaping how one sees the world and Welsh is no exception.

Growing up on a farm where everyone had to pitch in, meant Huw developed a strong sense of community, something which he has found resonance with in Tasmania also.

In December, I started a collaboration with Hobart photographer Andrew Wilson and with the help of a grant from the City of Hobart, to photograph portraits of as many of the participants of 177 Nations of Tasmania as we could.

We started in December by doing a couple of trial photo sessions with five of our participants, and in this video they recount a bit of their experience of the photo shoot.

We will be doing further photo shoots at the Henry Jones Art Hotel from February 3 to March 7 and displaying the photos on the walls of the Packing Room Gallery.

Ingrid hails from the tiny island nation of Saint Lucia, a lush Caribbean island known for its volcanic peaks, vibrant Creole culture, and status as the only country named after a woman. With a population of around 180,000, Saint Lucia blends African, French, and British influences, and though its official language is English, many speak Saint Lucian Creole.

Ingrid trained as a physician in Cuba on a Saint Lucian government scholarship, worked in pediatrics, and later took on various public health roles across the Caribbean. She made a big move  to study  Master’s degree in Adelaide, where she met herpartner—but it was the appeal of small-city life that drew her to Hobart for her Ph.D.

Now based at the Menzies Institute, she’s deep into healtheconomics research and has found a second home in Tasmania—one that, surprisingly, shares much with her island roots.

Lobelia’s story begins in the Solomon Islands, a Pacific nation comprising over a thousand islands scattered southeast of New Guinea.

Growing up in a small, remote village on one of the six main islands, she experienced a simple and traditional village lifestyle, with no technology and few of the modern convenience we take for granted now.

At the end of her high school, life in the Solomons took a dramatic turn when the country was gripped by significant ethnic conflict and social unrest. This period of instability was so severe that it required intervention from theinternational community, including Australian police forces, to help restore peace and order. For three years Lobelia stayed at home with her family in their village, not quite sure where her life was going to go.

Once stability was re-established, Lobelia’s decided join the local police force. She later advanced her career by working in the Maritime Division, where she got to see life on some of the remote islands. She also had the opportunity for further training at Australian Maritime College in Launceston, and it was here she first met Craig, who would become her future husband.

After marrying Craig, Lobelia made the big move to Launceston, Tasmania in 2017. Like many migrants to the region, she faced the challenge of starting over professionally and just building a social circle. She decided to do a course in Horticulture at Tafe Tasmania, and now runs her own gardening business.

Laos, a Southeast Asian country of about 7 million people,is known for its Buddhist traditions and vibrant food culture. Outhay grew up in the capital, Vientiane, helping her family run a 24-hour convenience store where everyone pitched in. Memories of both the abundance and scarcity of food shaped her childhood.

After studying English at university, Outhay worked in government administration, where she met Roger, a Tasmanian geologist working in Laos. Romance developed gradually, and laws in Laos had significant penalties for Lao women having relationships with foreign men, meaning they had to bite the bullet and they got married in 2005.

In 2006, Outhay moved to a farm in Wilmot, north-west Tasmania. She connected with the local community through playgroups with her children and became known for her spring rolls. Later, she retrained by studying cooking at TAFE, worked at a café, and completed a chef’s apprenticeship—earning Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year in 2016.

Yemen is a country that gets little attention despite being at the centre of one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world, as declared by the UNHCR in 2025.

There is not space enough here to describe all the events that have led to such a crisis, including civil war, an overthrow of the government and in 2015 a Saudi-led mass bombing of the country, but the results have seen a catastrophic collapse in living standards, large-scale hunger and instability.

In other words, not the kind of environment parents would want their children to grow up in.

This was the view of Khaled's parents in 2015, as missiles rained down in their neighbourhood, destroying many buildings around them, and this was the first step to Khaled coming to Tasmania.

Coming to Hobart to study a Business and Finance degree, Khaled could scarcely have come to a more contrasting environment. A place that was peaceful and quiet, even a bit too quiet, and it took Khaled a while also to adjust to western culture. Despite this, he has truly made a lot of his opportunity to develop his skills, creative pursuits and character. This included completing a novel during the pandemic while he was struggling to find work after graduating.

Of course, it goes without saying, that the situation in Yemen is still very unstable, and in this episode, Khaled speaks of the fears for family still living back home.