Outside a double-brick house in suburban Melbourne, George Said sits with his wife and daughter reminiscing.
This year will mark 60 years since the Said family left Egypt as refugees during the Suez Canal Crisis.
Growing up, Mr Said says he remembers befriending Egyptians in his neighbourhood. He spoke Greek at home and learnt English at school.
But he never truly felt like he belonged.
"In Egypt we were pariahs, we were Christians - not wanted," he says.
"We were continually harassed to leave the country."
When the Said family was put under house arrest as British subjects, they fled to London with five Egyptian pounds in their pockets.
But rather than being welcomed with open arms, Mr Said says they were confronted by freezing temperatures and colder attitudes.
"They called me 'Gypo,' even though the Egyptians expelled me," he says.
"I didn’t have any money and being from Egypt, they didn’t recognise my qualifications."
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Ten-pound poms
George Said had dreamt of moving to Australia for some time, so when he heard of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme, he decided to make that dream come true.
But the Saids' journey to refuge came up against another hurdle: the White Australia Policy.
Mr Said spent the next two years in London researching his family's history in order to prove his Greek ancestry.
"With a name like 'Said,' and coming from Egypt, it was obvious they're going to question me," he says.
On April 29 1962, the Saids arrived in Port Melbourne on board the SS Orion.
Swaying to and fro, one hand firmly holding a post and the other gripping his camera, Mr Said filmed the moment his ship docked in Port Melbourne.
Watch the Saids' home video:
People were spilling over historic Station Pier - brothers and sisters, and long-lost relatives waiting to welcome their loved ones.
The crowd was in the thousands, but as chance would have it, Mr Said found the familiar faces he sought.
In the silent, black-and-white footage, Mr Said zoomed in on the crowd. Waving back were his brother, brother-in-law and their children.
A place to call home
In Mr Said’s Seaholme home in Melbourne’s south-west, there’s a wall covered in framed pieces of paper. On closer inspection, you can see each one represents a different achievement.
In 2014 he was the Australia Day Citizen of the Year in his local council. He also received a Churchill Fellowship, which he used to study multiculturalism abroad.
Back at home he used his five languages to assist new migrants, and tackled racism in the workplace.
Mr Said’s life was eventually the inspiration for a book by his daughter Helen, documenting the family’s history.
Ms Said says the book was a journey of discovery, and what she found often mirrored her own experience as a migrant, being born in London and arriving in Australia at just four years old.
"I could sort of see the connection between what they experienced and what we experience as migrants today," Ms Said says.
"You know that we're still sort of establishing ourselves in many ways, and finding our identity."
But she says identifying as an Australian hasn’t come easy.
Growing up, her unique family history was often the source of playground taunts. Only now does she really identify with the Australia she sees around her.
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"I belong to the multicultural Australia, I don't belong to that Australia I found out about when I was growing up," she says.
"Because I was told many, many times to go back to where I came from."
For her father, Australia became something he'd always wanted - a home.
"I did not belong in Egypt. I did not belong in England. But I do belong to Australia," he says.
This story was produced as part of the SBS series, First Day, airing on SBS World News throughout January.
