Rajan Gautam's Story

Settling in the Victorian regional city of Shepparton has given Rajan Gautam and his family the quality of life and opportunities they always imagined.

Why we chose Victoria

Originally from Punjab in northern India, Rajan and his wife, Kirti, were encouraged to move to Australia by Rajan’s uncle and aunt, Sandeep and Neena, and their children Abhi and Prachi, who have lived in Australia for eight years.

‘My uncle is an orthopedic surgeon and my aunt is a microbiologist. They talked about Australia all the time, and kept telling me to come over,’ said Rajan.

Rajan, who worked extensively in India as a food technologist, said one day he decided to see what opportunities existed in Australia for someone with his skills. ‘Kirti and I were looking for a better way of life and planning to have a family. My aunt and uncle kept telling us the standard of living here was very good.

How we got here

‘I did quite a bit of research online through the ‘Live in Victoria’ website to find out where the largest food companies in Australia are based, and discovered several companies in Victoria. I also looked at maps and visited company websites such as SPC Ardmona and Campbell Soups which are both based in Shepparton.’

Rajan applied for Victorian Government Sponsorship under the Skilled Independent Regional (SIR) Visa category, now the Skilled – Regional (887) visa, which requires applicants to live in a regional area for two years. After completing the lengthy application and finding out they were accepted, Rajan and Kirti decided to move to Australia as soon they could, in December 2005.

Due to his impressive qualifications and experience Rajan was offered interviews with three of Australia’s top food companies within a few weeks of arriving in Australia – Cargill Foods in Tamworth, Nestle in Echuca, and SPC Ardmona in Shepparton.

‘While still in India I also made contact with a regional migration coordinator in Shepparton who distributed my CV to companies once I arrived in Australia.’

Life in Shepparton

In late January 2006 Rajan accepted a position as Research and Development Purchasing Officer with SPC Ardmona in Shepparton, and started work immediately.

‘Initially we stayed in serviced apartments in the centre of town, run by people who are now our good friends, Jenny and Ian,’ said Rajan. ‘Most of the work of settling in was done by Kirti, with the help of Jenny, including finding a place to live and buying everything we needed.’

Rajan said he was very happy with Shepparton as a place to live and work. ‘It has enough supermarkets and shopping malls, is close enough to Melbourne, and is very compact and quiet. I like those types of cities, and Kirti and I really like the country lifestyle.’

‘People are also very helpful and easy going. We have made a lot of friends including my colleagues at work.’

Working in Shepparton

Rajan’s major role at SPC Ardmona is to consolidate the number of raw materials used across different manufacturing sites in the company’s product range, and search for ways to save SPC Ardmona money.

Manager of Supply Chain Purchasing at SPC Ardmona, Ron Nicholls, said, ‘He’s just done an amazing job. He’s very skilled and has already saved the company around $750,000 by finding savings, sourcing new suppliers and improving efficiencies.’

‘If you take the example of Rajan you have to say one hundred percent that it’s worth taking the chance to employ someone through the Skilled Migration Program. It’s just worked phenomenally for us and I would highly recommend the program to other companies.’

Senior Purchasing Officer at SPC Ardmona, Ken Baxter, agrees. ‘What I like about Rajan is that he gets out and does his own thing a lot of the time. His real strength is his resourcefulness. He’s really committed to his work.’

Ken said the only issue the company faced at the start was Rajan’s driving ability. ‘Coming from India he simply wasn’t used to driving faster than about 60 to 70 km per hour which meant he found speed limits of 110km on the open road very frightening. We encouraged him to book himself in for a few lessons and he’s fine now but I think its one thing that people coming to Australia should be warned about.’

Since settling in Shepparton, Rajan and Kirti have also celebrated the birth of their son, Paarth, who was born with severe jaundice but is now a perfectly healthy little boy.

Cause for celebration

Rajan is very grateful his son was born in Australia due to the specialist care Paarth needed for the first few days of his life. ‘It was quite stressful emotionally and financially but we had a lot of support and we got through it. My son is very well now.’

Rajan celebrated his son’s birth by taking Indian sweets to work. ‘One day we celebrated with Australian cakes and pastries and the other day we celebrated in a traditional Indian way. I brought in some Rasgulla, which is an Indian sweet made of milk protein drenched in sugar syrup. I also brought in some traditional flaky cake. Some people really liked them while others found them a little too sweet.’

Another recent cause for celebration is Kirti’s new job as a research and development chemist with Australia’s largest soap company, Pental Products, also based in Shepparton. She started work in January 2007.

‘We are very happy here,’ said Rajan. ‘Mostly what we wished for in India was to give ourselves and our future children the best opportunities to succeed, and have a good life. I definitely believe all those things are here in Australia – quality education, medical facilities, universities – everything is here and everything is within reach.’

Further information

• Living in Shepparton
• Working - check your eligibility for sponsorship and assessment information
• Services and resources available for settlement.