Dream Australia

Tommy and Kirsty Fox (Eyre Peninsula Region), Listya Mustafida (UCL) / Ally and Pete Smith (Yeppoon)

Tommy and Kirsty Fox Story

Kirsty fell in love with Tommy in Fremantle, Western Australia. Kirsty was from a farming family in Eyre Peninsular in South Australia, and Tommy was a brash young lad from a dairy farming family in Ireland. Both were on working holidays around the world, following a bereavement for Kirsty, and for Tommy – on a break, following a young life spent working hard to maintain the family farm.

Their love for each other blossomed as did their love for adventure and work in Australia, the UK and eventually, back in Ireland. The crash of the Irish economy forced them to change their plans full circle: instead of settling in Ireland, they decided to make a go of it back in Eyre Peninsula. Here was a new beginning, shaped soon afterwards by catastrophic bushfires, but strengthened by their enduring love of the land.

Listya Mustafida Story

Listrya Mustafida grew up in a small village in Java, Indonesia. After completing a Bachelor of International Relations, she worked tireless for several non-government organisations to support local communities and to protect the environment and endangered animals. Listya was growing frustrated by government decisions that were adversely affecting local communities. This frustration sharpened her plans to spend time gaining more practical field experience and to complement this with a Masters degree from an overseas university.

With an AusAid scholarship, she specialised in resources and energy at the University College London in Adelaide. This lead to a research study on the impact of water salinity from the bi-product of coal seam gas extraction on crops. Now she was gaining the theoretical knowledge and intense practical experience to understand how powerful competing interests need to work together for benefit for all.

Ally and Pete Smith Story 

Ali’s mother’s dying advice to “pursue their dreams, as you only have one go at life”, resonated deeply with UK doctors, Ali and her husband, Pete, crystallising their dream to seek new opportunities and better life for their family.

They immigrated to Australia with their adult daughter, leaving their son, a university student back in the UK, and, found work in a medical practice in Yeppoon in Central Queensland. They soon discovered that conditions were not quite the same as portrayed in sitcoms such as “Neighbours”, and even though they could see that rural areas were desperately in need of local medical support, as many professionals had retreated to the bigger cities, they made a family promise to return to the UK if any member of the family were unhappy in living in Australia.

This happened; as did the UK July 7 bombings, perilously close to them, forcing them to re-evaluate their thinking and once again, they returned to Yeppoon, this time with the whole family.