My First Year in Australia

Jewish comedian Peter Meisel arrived in Australia in the 1970's on a two year teaching contract. He never expected to still be here decades later.

Grace Arach grew up in the northern part of Uganda. When her parents separated, Grace's father took custody and she was subjected to harsh treatment by her new step mum. In 1995 Grace's dad was killed by Joseph Kony's rebel group. A year later she was kidnapped by the group and forced to become a child soldier. This is the story of Grace's journey to find safety and purpose in Australia.

Mack Okine was born in Ghana and raised on cocoa farm. As a young man he studied chemical engineering, but on a whim applied for a dentistry scholarship to Australia. Expecting a city that looked like those he'd seen in the movies, Mack was instead greeted by Townsville in the seventies.

When Julia Mawande moved from Italy to Australia as a child she spoke absolutely no English. She was greeted by a very close-knit extended Australian Italian family, but couldn’t speak to anyone her own age. It made school incredibly challenging. Julia felt like a child of two worlds, belonging to neither.

Tala Amhaz witnessed and experienced some horrifying things growing up in Lebanon during the Civil War. She then went on to great professional success in Dubai, but was still feeling unfulfilled. She has eventually found peace, freedom and equality in regional Australia.

Helen Malarekere is from Papua New Guinea. She was raised by her close-knit extended family. When she moved to Australia with just her mother and sister, she had to find new ways of relating to family, and to a whole new culture.

Ali Bahnasawy was born in Egypt and spent his childhood in Dubai. His passion to work in media led him to America and Germany, but it was Australia that has ultimately become home. Ali now works with SBS News as a senior journalist and TV presenter.

Anne-Emilie Perol went from an easy life in France to living out of a van in outback Australia, working with her hands for the first time in her life. This is the story of how she fell in love with Australia.

Ali Sina Yousofi spent his childhood in a part of Afghanistan where terror attacks were commonplace. He carried the emotional scars across borders, and struggled to relate to the children at his new school in Australia. Ultimately though Ali was able to find connection with other immigrant kids who shared similar experiences.

Suraj Kolarkar moved from India to Australia with his parents at 11 years old. He sat down with them to ask about their migration journey for the first time, to try and learn everything he could about those first days adjusting to life in Australia.