Mr Carpenter, originally from Wales, his wife Joanne Greenfield from England and their two children Owen, 11, and Ellen, 9, both born in Kenya, are loving the change and will become Australian citizens on Wednesday.

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove will preside over the ceremony, being held on Australian Citizenship Day at Albert Hall, the same venue for the first citizenship ceremony held in Australia 65 years ago.

Mr Carpenter says one of the best advertisements for this country is the Australians he met overseas.

"I've travelled around the world and whenever you meet Australians, they are always the life and soul of the party, drinking beer and trying to steal your girlfriend," he said.

"The goalposts moved for Joanne and I when we started a family and suddenly the priority in your life becomes your children … and Australia offers a very bright future for your children.

"We were looking for a stable, mature democracy, a safe country in which to bring our children up, somewhere that offered good opportunities in terms of education, health, lifestyle, standard of living, all those things

"The truth of the matter is Australia offers an awful lot on all of those scores."

Mr Carpenter began his career as a newspaper photographer on Fleet Street but retrained as a TV cameraman and travelled the world, doing mostly freelance work for organisations including the BBC and Al Jazeera.

Although arrested, Mr Carpenter was never charged or convicted during what he calls two decades of adventure.

The family came to Canberra when Ms Greenfield was offered a job with AusAID. She now works with ACT Health and he is a lecturer at the University of Canberra.

"Once we arrived in Canberra, we realised it is a great city to bring up children," Mr Carpenter said.

"I spent 10 years living in London so I'm familiar with big cities, they're fantastic places at a certain time of your life but I wouldn't want to live necessarily in a big city like London or Sydney now.

"However Canberra offers a huge amount if you've got a young family, we think it's a great place.

"There is a huge level of community activities your kids can do here - our kids are very heavily involved in the scouting movement, my daughter does theatre and little athletics and my son plays rugby.

"Also, Canberra is not far from some of the best beaches in the world and it's only three hours to get back from Sydney, so it's not the other side of the world.

"I drove back from Olympic Park in Sydney after watching a big rugby match and I'm convinced I got home quicker than it used to take me to drive across London from Wembley Stadium to get home after a big match."

As well as Zimbabwe, Mr Carpenter worked in Kenya and Somalia.

"I had a fantastic adventure for the best part of 20 years, I travelled the world and never had to buy a plane ticket but I missed an awful lot of birthdays and Christmases," he said.

"When we lived in Africa, I used to keep a bag packed – the telephone would ring and I wouldn't know if I was going away for three days or three weeks."

Around 5000 people will become Australian citizens in ceremonies around the country on Wednesday, including 72 people in the ACT.

Since the introduction of the Australian Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 just over 65 years ago, the nation has welcomed more than four and half million new citizens from 200 countries.