Matthias Wockenfuss and his wife Annemarie relish every moment of their new life in Victoria.
“We just love living here, and combining the professional career with a beautiful lifestyle,” said Matthias, a mechanical engineer.
“Why we chose Australia is because we love the outdoors, we love surfing, we love the nature…that made us choose this area and Victoria,” he said.
The couple live near the beach in Torquay – about a 20-minute drive from the regional city of Geelong and just over a one-hour drive from Melbourne – and are in the water riding waves whenever they get the chance. “We just recently bought a house and that made us finally feel at home, like we’ve reached a destination where we want to stay,” said Matthias.
Born travellers, they knew they wanted to live outside their native Germany at some point in their lives.
They first came to Australia on temporary visas, and applied for state sponsorship later. “We found all the information online,” said Matthias. “You can basically help yourself, you just need to read it all.”
They said they are living their Australian dream and the welcoming locals have helped them settle in.
“I didn’t find it challenging to adapt…because there are beautiful people down here,” said Annemarie.
“Sometimes we sit here and we think, wow, it’s so amazing that it all fell into place.”