Amazon Australia’s regional maintenance and engineering (RME) manager happily admits that when they first arrived in Sydney, after moving from Poland a year ago – Bart, his wife Agata and their two young daughters were initially “freaked out” by the sheer number of creepy crawlies in Australia.
“We live very close to the bush, and I have met some kangaroos, Huntsmen spiders and a couple of red belly black snakes - and now I know snakes are a little bit more frightening than spiders,” laughs the brave bushwalker.
It is just one of many things he and Agata, and their two daughters, nine-year-old Ala, and six-year-old Natalia have had to adjust to since arriving in Sydney from their hometown of Szczecin in the north-west of Poland on Father’s Day last year.
“It was a tough decision to move 15,000 kms from the place where we live – to pack everything in seven suitcases and move so far away,” Bart says, adding that it turned out to be the best move he could make as a father, as his family has fallen in love with Australia.
And he couldn’t be more proud of how his two daughters have adjusted - with Ala and Natalia learning how to speak English (with an Aussie accent) in just three months, and embracing their new bush and beach lifestyle with enthusiasm.
Bart, who like most new dads was frightened and excited in equal parts when he became a dad, gets great joy out of seeing Ala and Natalia happy with lots of new friends in their adopted homeland.
I love being a father. You get the opportunity to watch them grow and develop. When we came here my daughters were not able to say more than three or four words in English. And now they won’t speak to me in Polish!”
This year the family will celebrate Father’s Day in their new home on Sydney’s northern beaches with a chocolate cake baked by Natalia, a bushwalk and a cheeky glass of Barossa Valley shiraz to mark the one-year anniversary of their big move.
