On November 6, 2017, Dina Tadros walked up the gangway of a plane in Cairo full of tears and fears. She was leaving an old world behind to fly into the unknown.
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On January 26, 2023, she stood on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin with the prime minister of Australia as one of his newest fellow citizens.
"It was very emotional," she said under the Australia Day sun.
She and her husband Mina are both pharmacists with skills useful to Australia. They decided to leave Egypt, and opted quite consciously for Australia because of its opportunities and because it seemed like an attractive place.
"We were looking for a better future for our kid," she said.
But when she left Egypt, she had been very emotional. "I was a bit scared. We were in tears going somewhere we had never been before. We were leaving our family and friends."
Any regrets now? "Never! Never!" she said without a breath.
And the son, 10-year-old Jonathan? When he grows up, he said he wanted to be a pharmacist, too. The couple's other son, two-year-old Jayden, was born here so he is already an Australian citizen.
Safi and Yaman Halawani also made a conscious decision to migrate to Australia - it wasn't simply a matter of ending up here and then staying.
They came originally from Lebanon and Syria but had worked in Abu Dhabi in the Gulf, he as a mechanical engineer and she as a teacher. They had moved around and wanted to find a place they could call home.
"I decided on Australia," he said. "It's a beautiful country with nice weather." (Compared with the Gulf, a Canberra summer is cool).
They have settled in, but not without a struggle. "For the first job, it's difficult," he said, "but once you find the opportunity, you keep going up."
Their son Omar, 12, wants to be a pilot.
Allison Igbokwe from Nigeria said he found "love; kindness; freedom; opportunity" in Australia. He came because his wife Felicia was studying in university in Sydney. Their 11-year-old son Mung said: "I was thinking of being a doctor, but now a biologist."
At the ceremony in Canberra, the new citizens brought a range of skills: There was an environmental research scientist, arts administrator, cleaner, beauty therapist, pharmacist, accountant, and astronomer.
The Prime Minister welcomed people from Nigeria, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Iran, Egypt, Malaysia and the United States.
"You bring us the world," Anthony Albanese said. "And you bring us your drive, your passion, your talent and aspiration.
At the end, Mr Albanese was stopped by nine-year-old Magnus Miller who asked him to sign the program for the day.
Mr Albanese wrote: "To Magnus. Study hard. Play hard. Anthony Albanese. PM31."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
