Doctor Venilal Ghelani has never forgotten the encouraging welcome he received when he arrived in Australia in 1972 after he and his wife and their two young children were kicked out of Uganda by dictator Idi Amin.
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Along with others of Indian or Asian ethnicity, they were given a one way airfare and allowed to take just 50 British pounds after all their assets were seized.
But the driver who picked Dr Ghelani up at Sydney Airport raised his spirits when he said, "Welcome to Australia - you'll be right mate".
Recalling those words 50 years later, Dr Ghelani said he did "not understand the lingo", but knew it was encouragement, and he had replied, 'Fine, thankyou".
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Dr Ghelani, went on to practice as a GP in Australia for 48 years, the last 25 years in Engadine and Jannali in the Sutherland Shire region of NSW, and he and his wife Manju now live in retirement at Sutherland.
The greeting he received at Sydney Airport, when he arrived to scout out Australia and apply for medical registration before being joined by his family, proved prophetic.
"Call it luck, fortune, God's grace, whatever, at every point along the way I have had help," he said.
"Whenever I had a problem, someone would come forward and help me."
"I have a big reason to be grateful.
"I found no colour prejudice, no disrespect from any Australian, only help when I have needed it."
The couple's children, Surin and Shameen, who were six and three when they arrived in Australia, have both made successful careers and given their parents four grandchildren.
The family spent their first year in Australia in a migrant hostel at Coogee.
"Gough Whitlam came into power in 1972 and, fortunately for us, he opened migrant hostels to non-whites," Dr Ghelani said.
"Previously they were only for whites."
Dr Ghelani and his wife were born in Uganda and, up to the age of 17, he was educated there before going to India to study medicine.
After graduating, he returned to Uganda and practiced for about five years in the small town where he was born.
"We were expelled from Uganda on the whim of Idi Amin and lost everything - our house, furniture, and property," he said.
"He wanted all the Indians and Asians out, and we were given 90 days to leave."
Dr Ghelani said a good friend who was studying at the University of Sydney wrote and said, "Before you settle anywhere, come to Australia".
Dr Ghelani took his advice, but after paying $23 for medical registration, was left with just $2 to build a new life for his family.