Madara & Rohan Jayasuriya
Rohan and myself are completing 10 yrs of married life by this Dec. (Rohan is a product of St. Sebastian's College Moratuwa and is an Agriculture graduate from Peradeniya Uni. He holds a MPhil from the same Uni.)
We Migrated to Australia in 1994 Feb. Rohan completed his PhD in Resource
Economics at La Trobe Uni in 1998 and we moved to Orange soon afterwards. He is
working at the NSW Agriculture as a Resource Economist.
I did my Graduate Diploma in Computer Science at the same uni (La Trobe)
in 1995/96. I am a full time mother.
I have never been to Sri Lanka after migrating as I have my whole family
(my two elder brothers with their families and my parents) living just 250-km
away from me, in Parramatta, Sydney. Actually until quite recently my parents
lived with us helping us to bring up our kids. And my kids simply adore their
"Achcha" and "Seeya". And 4 of Rohan's siblings live in Melbourne. We both love
reading, music and of course travelling.
We have three kids. One girl and two very naughty sons.
Our daughter Michelle Rythma is 81/2 yrs old (28.03.93). She was born in Sri
Lanka and migrated as a 10-month-old baby. She is in Grade 3 at St Josephs
Private Catholic School. She is a voracious reader (too much I guess, as she
already wears glasses) and plays the piano (lucky she got the rhythm!) I would
like her to play netball but the time and the energy are the constrains (for me,
not for her). So at the moment she is involved with only swimming.
Our elder son Nigel Vajra (meaning diamond) was born in Melbourne on
03.05.98. He will be going to Pre-school next year and school proper in 2003.
What a relief!
Our youngest and the cheekiest, Darren Akhil is an Orange local, born at the
Orange Base Hospital on 22.09.99.
Orange is a beautiful country town which has population about 38,000. It's
known as Australia's Colour City. And it is easy to see why with its four
distinct seasons, providing a kaleidoscope of colours. Nestled beneath Mount
Canobolas, Orange has highly productive soil allowing it to produce a range of
top quality produce.
Orange was named after Prince William of Orange, later to become King of
Holland and has always been known for its beauty. And it is known that this is
the town they originally selected to be the Capital of Australia, but later had
to give up due to lack of good water source.
Orange is surrounded by quite smaller villages, but their importance,
culturally and economically is huge. Blayney has one of the largest gold mines
in Australia, Cadia Mines. Canowindra is the Australia's Balloon Capital. 360
million-year-old fish fossils were recently discovered near the town. North of
Orange lies Ophir, the site of the first payable gold discovery. East of Orange
and only minutes from the city is Lucknow which is the site of Australia's
richest goldfield. Most of the gold for Gold Medals for Sydney Olympics came
from still active gold mine close to our place.
There are public, private
schools and one Grammar school. There is a big TAFE college and a faculty of
Sydney University, NSW Agriculture Head Office as well as an Agriculture
Research Institute. There are two big hospitals. And of course enough shopping
places. Community is very friendly and closely connected than in cities. They
like to know about us, migrants. Still I feel they are quite open and genuine.
Pictures
Kids during last Easter
My Convocation at La Trobe Uni
Rohan's Convocation at La Trobe Uni
Michelle and Nigel at our backyard in 1999
Nigel's First Xmas at our place
