Ahsan Ullah's Story

When his wife fell pregnant with their first child, Bangladeshi chef Ahsan Ullah – who trained in Sydney – decided to return to Australia to seek a better quality of life for himself and his young family.

With the help of his older brothers, Ahsan first arrived in Australia in 1999 and completed a commercial cookery course at a technical and further education college before working in some of Sydney’s busiest restaurants and cafes.

‘I really liked Australia but at the time I was single and I dreamed of getting the chance to work as a chef in Bangladesh.’

Why we chose Victoria

After arriving home in 2003, Ahsan married arts graduate, Kamrun Nahar Begum, and got a job at the Sheraton Hotel in Bangladesh, where the general manager was an Australian and the head chef a New Zealander.

‘It was a good job but when I found out my wife was pregnant I started to think about the future, education, and a lot of things like that, and I realised the quality of life we could have in Australia was far better.’

Ahsan went online to see if there were any opportunities to migrate to Australia and found out about the Victorian Government’s Skilled Independent Regional Visa category, which is now the Skilled – Regional (887) visa. ‘I talked to my solicitor in Australia who said yes I could go for that one.’

‘It was a very hard decision – my wife and I spoke about it a lot – because both of our families were in Bangladesh but we knew it was a great opportunity.’

How we got here

After receiving word he was successful, the next step was to work out where to live. Under the terms of his visa, Ahsan could not live in an Australian capital city (except Adelaide) for two years after arriving in the country.

‘I had always wanted to come to Melbourne so I decided to look for a town in Victoria,’ recalled Ahsan. ‘Then I saw on the map that Ballarat was very close to Melbourne so I checked it out online. I liked the pictures and the old buildings. It looked like it had a rich history, which excited me.’

Ahsan, his wife and their 12 month-old son, Gazi, flew into Melbourne on 8 October 2005, and drove to Ballarat that day. Although a little disoriented they soon received support from the Ballarat Migration Project, which included arranging a reference letter so they could find somewhere to live, and Ahsan started applying for jobs.

Finding work

‘I believe in two things very strongly,’ said Ahsan. ‘One thing is that if you have confidence you can get a job – it doesn't matter where you are from. And the second thing is that if I have a chance to show my skills, anybody will give me a job.’

Ahsan visited Centrelink, the national unemployment service, on his second day in Ballarat. Within an hour of sending off applications he received a job interview at the Lake View Hotel overlooking Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree.

‘They asked me to make a potato salad and a fruit platter, and afterwards offered me the position of sous chef.’

Ahsan has now been with the hotel for more than 18 months. The restaurant is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner and seats up to 200 people at time, plus upstairs functions.

Head chef at the Lake View, Wayne Crooks, said Ahsan had great cooking skills and settled into the team very quickly. ‘Ahsan is very reliable and he’s fast. He’s also very good at consistency, and making sure things are the same every time. He’s come up with lots of ideas for function menus.’

What we love about Victoria

One of the best things about living in Ballarat according to Ahsan is the people. ‘People are very friendly and this is the most important thing.’

Ahsan said Kamrun was attending English classes at Ballarat University and quickly making new friends.

On his days off Ahsan and his family like to explore Ballarat’s historic streets, shops and parks. ‘We like going to the playground near the Botanical Gardens. It’s a very nice place and Gazi enjoys it there. We also like shopping. We especially like going to Footscray (in Melbourne’s western suburbs) because that’s where all the Asian groceries are.’

Another benefit of living in a regional town, according to Ahsan, is the lack of traffic jams. ‘I can be home within two minutes. It’s fantastic.’

Further information

• Living in Ballarat
• Working as a Chef - check your eligibility for sponsorship and assessment information
• Services and resources available for settlement.