Officially calling Australia home

Solveig Einarsdottir first arrived in Narrabri in January 1989 from her home country of Iceland, and not even the blazing summer heat could extinguish the affection she felt for her Aussie partner and his beautiful and natural surroundings.

“I came from minus 10 degrees to close to 40 degrees,” said Ms Einarsdottir.

“The nature was fascinating: the birdlife, the native plants, the goannas and frogs.

“The people were very friendly – it was easy, but I did always wish my English was better,” she recalled.

Ms Einarsdottir met Dr Lindsay O’Brien in Greece in 1988.

At the time, Dr O’Brien was the director of the University of Sydney Plant Breeding Institute, Narrabri.

“I visited and found out I liked Australia and this man enough to stay, and we got married in 1989.

“I moved here in 1990 and I loved it because there were so many international students, and they brought their families with them too.

“They came from all over, from Pakistan and China, it was fascinating to meet them.

“I think it’s fabulous that people come from all over the world to the Narrabri region for research, for cotton, for agriculture.

“We used to have nights where people would come over and they’d bring a dish of their origin – it was fun.”

Ms Einarsdottir is a high school teacher and in Iceland she taught languages and literature.

However, when she moved to Australia she was more than happy to try her hand at some farm work and get to know the locals who would soon become her friends.

“I took some casual work during harvest,” she said.

“I did find it strange when there was a barbecue, all the men would sit on one side and all the women would sit on the other side.

“I made a mistake and I sat with the boys,” she recalled.

It’s a big decision to move to the other side of the world, but Ms Einarsdottir has embraced life in Australia with Dr O’Brien even though there are, of course – people, places, and parts of Iceland’s culture that she misses.

“There is a nice pool in Narrabri, but I miss the swimming pools there “I have been heartbroken the last two years and missing my family.”

Hopefully with borders reopening, Ms Einarsdottir will make a trip back to Iceland soon and her family will be able to visit the Narrabri region again too.

Ms Einarsdottir has shared her experiences about life in Australia with Icelandic newspapers and has given talks on radio, lectures in schools and even at an Icelandic nursing home.

Although despite happily living here for more than 30 years, Ms Einarsdottir only just made the decision to officially call Australia home too.

“Iceland has only recently allowed its citizens to have double citizenship,” she said.

This year, Ms Einarsdottir was naturalised as an Australian citizen on Wednesday, January 26.

“I felt very happy,” she said.

“I really love Australia: I love the native plants and I love gardening.

“We have a big garden, the three years of drought was scary, but now it’s wonderful – everything grows.

“We live on Murrumbilla Lane, Narrabri and we run some cattle – they’ve never looked as good as they do now,” said Ms Einarsdottir.