Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Home This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Home Newsroom Paying tribute to Rockhampton’s oldest immigrants Almost one-third of Australia’s multicultural population was born overseas – from every country around the world International Migrants Day on Friday December 18 is an opportunity to acknowledge how immigrants bring culture and innovation to the countries they move to Amongst them are Bill and Rosmarie von Allmen and Richie Ziebicki, who now live at the Carinity Shalom aged care community in Rockhampton moved to Australia from Switzerland in the early-1950s – one year apart “Dad was supposed to go to South America to drive a water tanker but it fell through and because he had said ‘hooray’ to everybody he decided he was going to go overseas anyway,” their daughter Ann Oram explains Moving to rural Queensland 70 years ago was a culture shock for Bill and Rosmarie – and not just because they had to learn to use an outdoor ‘thunderbox’ toilet “It was a culture shock because in Switzerland they had running water “Europe had washing machines and we had copper and mum and dad had kerosine tins for their washing up they had one light bulb which they had to move around the house to get light in the next room “Mum and Dad thought it was a great adventure – and they loved Australia.” After brief stays in Maryborough and Bundaberg Bill moved to Rockhampton where he was later joined by Rosmarie A nursery innovator who co-founded popular Fitzroy Nurseries in Pink Lily Bill developed new varieties of the flowering shrub mussaenda He also pioneered a grafting technique for macadamia and introduced new types of tropical fruit to Queensland moving to Australia in the early 1960s was an opportunity to put the horrors of World War II behind him Richie was 12 when Germany invaded his homeland Poland He would spend most of his teenage years in forced labour camps “At the age of 15-and-a-half I was randomly selected for forced labour in Germany along with two other boys from my village,” Richie recalls “We were taken to a Russian prisoner of war camp in the north of Germany and started work at a coal business “My job was to unload 50kg bags and deliver by trailer mainly to army barracks where I had to stow the bags in the cellars “One of my jobs was to take the coal business owner’s wife and little girls to the bunker in the event of an air raid When the Allied planes kept coming and the bombs were falling we were scared but we wanted them to keep coming “Towards the end of the war… I saw the Polish Army coming Richie worked on the Snowy River hydroelectricity scheme Knowing when it’s time to step in to an older person’s life is hard organising respite care or choosing residential… It’s important to recognise the signs when an older person needs more support organising respite care or choosing a… Travis Mares has cooked meals for English royalty He believes he wouldn’t have developed the taste… Carinity acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Queensland and their connections to land We pay respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today