I am often asked why I fell in love with the country I call home. Australia. Well I thought it was time to reflect and ask myself the same question. Below I have for the first time ever written an account of how Australia became home. I hope you enjoy reading it. I first wanted to come to Australia after having a strangely weird experience that I can't explain.
My experiences of Australia prior to 1990 were limited. All I knew about Australia until about the age of seven was that it has loads of deserts and kangaroos and that there was a beer called Castlemaine xxxx which was advertised on television in the UK. I also watched Rolf Harris on television in England.
However, my first memorable encounter with an Australian was at the age of seven when my school got a teacher called Mr Knuckle who surprise surprise he was from Australia. I then went to a school at eight and many of my teachers were Aussies. For a few years from 1987 to about 1990 I was addicted to Neighbours. In that time I probably missed no more than twelve episodes. I watch how bad it is now and I can't work out how I could have ever been addicted to a soap opera.
Any way my life revolved very much around that show. If we went on holiday in England I always insisted we arrived at our destination in time for Neighbours. One day we were playing football at school in London's Hyde Park and who should be out jogging well Neighbours actor Craig Maclachlan who played the character of Henry. I was a shy boy and he was speaking to our teacher who was a Kiwi. I left the goal as goalie to say hello. Nobody had a pen for an autograph but we shook hands and he stayed to watch the rest of our game. I was amazed as a person who I knew through the screen I got to meet in person. Fantasy became a form of reality. However Neighbours could have been set any where and I never thought about Australia and Australia held no interest to me.
At the age of 12 I was watching an interview with Kate Ritchie who was a young star of the new Australian tv soap Home and Away which was being promoted in the UK. Any way I didn't think anything of it but I went into the garden to play with my football. Now this next thing will sound like a whack job. But you know you hear about people who have a calling or experience something that they can't explain but nevertheless has an effect that changes their lives and impacts on them in a massive way? Almost a road to Damascus experience. Well it happened to me. I was out playing with my football and suddenly I froze and heard what I would call and inner voice which just said something like "you must go to Australia".
In that split second my one huge ambition was to visit and live in Australia.I never remember my dreams but around that time I had a remarkable dream that I remember in great detail. I was standing by the Sydney Opera House watching a huge cruise liner leave the shore flying a Union Jack. In front of me and the Sydney Opera House was an orchestra and singer performing a slow and stirring and beautiful version of Waltzing Matilda. It felt so real and when I finally did visit Australia many year's later the Harbour looked exactly as it had in the dream standing there.It was home and though I'd never been there I knew it was where my heart and mind was.
I read books on Australia and watched every documentary I could on the country and even did school projects on it. I played Waltzing Matilda on the piano and knew both verses of Advance Australia Fair. It was my life. At school I was known as the Australia obsessive. I used to phone up and eventually appear on the phone from London on late night talk shows hosted by Brian Carlton on 2GB and 2UE in Sydney and Trevor Himstedt on Radio 3UZ in Melbourne. This went on for a while.
I used to listen to Radio Australia when I could pick up its weak and fuzzy signal on my short wave radio and listen to live Australian radio knowing that the person speaking to me was in a room at that moment many thousands of miles away. For me it was ana amazing experience and I would stay glued to the radio what ever programme it was. It was the closest I could get to being there and I used to imagine that just outside the radio studios there was the daily life of people in Melbourne going about their business. My great aunt from Sydney would visit England every two years and to me she was a Goddess from the chosen land. I lapped everything up that she told me and time with her was for me a priviledge and the more time I spent with her the happier I was.
I would go to Australia House in London just to read the Australian newspapers even though they were several days old. Any way I finally got to Sydney at the age of 18. Even before I cleared customs I knew I had come home. Hey I am home now. Those two and a half weeks were among the happiest in my life. Australia was no longer just a dream but that reality was better than any dream. I felt I had lived there my whole life. When the time came to fly back to England I was very sad.
In 1997 while at uni I got involved in a trial radio station in London as a news reader for ex pats Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans called TNT 87.7 fm. It was not until 2000 that I returned to Australia. I must have visited Australia about 12 times between 2000 and 2006. I wish I had applied for residency but I didn't. I ended up buying an appartment in London which kind of tied me down. With each trip to Australia my passion for the country grew and grew.
It still fascinates and in some way amuses me that while so many Aussies enthuse about the wonders of foreign countries and travelling abroad so few of them appreciate or realise the beauty on their own door step. It often takes a trip abroad to realise what they have at home. For me this country has an energy and it gives me such a buzz every time. It repairs my batteries and gives me life, energy and passion.
In 2006 I finally got myself a working holiday permit which I extended for two years. I have lived in Sydney and Griffith and travelled round Australia and see the great land that is Australia. This land gives me some sort of energy force that I have never experienced any where else. I have worked in some wonderful locations as an extra for television.
Sydney alone has some absolutely beautiful beaches and suburbs that so many backpackers and even Sydneysiders miss when they stay in central Sydney. I have also been fortunate enough to work in Australian radio. Australia or the sun burnt country as it is some times known is stunning and has so much to offer. The more I am here the more I learn and discover.
From its scenery, to it wildlife, to its cities and its people I love this country. My interest is in a 457 visa which would allow me to set up a business with an Australian director and then sponsor myself to live out here. I will never forget England and will always be grateful for what it gave me. But for now I still call Australia home :) x
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