Ten New Australians

LAST night ten people from across the seas decided to take us up on our ‘boundless plains to share’ offer and became Australian citizens.

Ten New Citizens: Back: Leixin Sang, Brett Allan, Eoin Dennehy, Pearl Egan, Denis Griffin. Front: Vithiyananthan Kanakasingam, Jennifer Malone, Gurpreet Mann, Yuriy Redka and Kerry Stephens.

Gurpreet Mann was from India and came to Australia to visit Manpreet Kaur who was studying in Australia.

Manpreet had moved to Scone as part of her migrant conditions of living in a regional area and said she would not dream of moving back to the city.

“There are really good people here and once they get to know you they are really nice,” said Manpreet.

“We now feel like we are part of this community and there is no way we’d want to live in the city,” she said.

Gurpreet and Manpreet both come from country towns in India.

“We are both country people and we like to live in a quiet place,” said Gurpreet.

Yuriy Redka was original from the Ukraine and said he moved her for the weather and the watermelons.

“I did a vet degree in the Ukraine and I lived in Britain for a while, but they don’t have a summer,” he said.

“In the Ukraine there is a proper summer, but also a proper winter, I like that it is nice an warm here,” he said.

“And here you can grow the best watermelons,” laughed Yuriy Redka.

New Citizens include:

• Brett Allan – South Africa
• Eoin Dennehy – Ireland
• Pearl Egan – Ireland
• Vithiyananthan Kanakasingam – Sri Lanka
• Jennifer Malone – Ireland
• Gurpreet Mann – India
• Yuriy Redka – Ukraine
• Leixin Sang – China
• Denis Griffin – Ireland
• Kerry Stephens – United Kingdom