Community News

It’s a long way from the war-torn Afghanistan to Lara, especially via refugee settlements in Pakistan, and for Ali Bandari’s family it’s been a journey of difficulty tempered by hope, hard work and giving back.

The successful million-dollar family bidder in this year’s Good Friday Appeal Charity Home Auction at Villawood Properties’ Coridale community in Lara, 25-year-old Ali has a wise head on youthful shoulders – and not just for a canny property buy.

He appreciates implicitly the value of the Royal Children’s Hospital, the type of facility no-one in his earlier life had any hope of utilising.

“There was no way we had access to a proper hospital living as refugee,” he says. “We only had small medical stuff so I really appreciate what they raise for the Royal Children’s Hospital. It’s great for the community.”

Ali breached his budget for the Henley Electra 35 auction home by $60K, spurred on by the fact the proceeds were all going to The Children’s.

Ali was born in Pakistan to Afghani parents who escaped their shattered home country several years earlier. He was schooled there but lived and grew up as a refugee. He migrated in Australia in 2015, to join his father who arrived earlier to seek out a better future for his family.

“Dad moved to Australia in 2008 and sponsored us but it took us another seven years to get here,” he says. “We’d been through a lot of ups and downs, hardship, back in Pakistan.

“I left when I was 17. I had friends and family there but I had to leave. Even living as a refugee you couldn’t move more than 15km because it was dangerous. My brother was held up at gunpoint.

“Moving here, I had limited English, maybe 10 per cent. I did Year 12 at Western Heights.

“I had to pick up everything. My first year was schooling, working double shifts in hospitality at a café in Geelong West, then in a supermarket in Corio for a year while studying a real estate course part-time.

“I was interested in real estate from the start but I didn’t have the English so I worked very hard on my English. I’ve been working in real estate for six years now.”

Ali’s real estate insight – he works with Hayden Geelong – might have been at play when he pipped 10 other registered bidders to secure the GFA auction home in a contest that saw 18 bids before his final $1,010,000 call.

“But I knew it was going to a great cause so the extra $60K doesn’t matter at all to be honest,” he said.

That’s a real winner for you.