Bhutan to Blacktown

Om Dhungel’s journey of the heart and soul, from the fields of southern Bhutan to the streets of Blacktown, Sydney, is a journey from which we can all learn, regardless of our origins.” —Michael Hutt, Professor of Nepali and Himalayan Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

“Om’s optimism and tenacity helped him travel the harrowing path of a stateless person to build a new life for himself and his community. By telling his inspirational story and shedding light on the resettlement experience of Bhutanese refugees in Australia, Om brings the issue of refugees and the conditions for their successful integration in their new countries to a wider audience.”” - Bhim Subba, author of Himalayan waters and former Director General of the Department of Power in the Government of Bhutan

Om Dhungel arrived in Australia as a student in 1998 before being granted a refugee visa in light of the Bhutanese Government’s persecution of the ethnic Nepalese of southern Bhutan. As inaugural president of the Association of Bhutanese in Australia, Om played a critical role in the settlement of 5000 Bhutanese refugees in Australia. Before coming to Australia he was a senior civil servant in Bhutan’s Department of Telecommunications, then, while a refugee in Nepal, general secretary of the Human Rights Organisation of Bhutan and co-editor of The Bhutan Review. In Australia he worked for ten years as a business analyst at Telstra, and today sits on the NSW Ministry of Health Advisory Committee, the NSW Police Multicultural Advisory Council, the Blacktown Multicultural Advisory Committee. He runs Om Dhungel Consulting.

James Button is a former journalist and Europe correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is the author of Speechless: A year in my father’s business and Comeback: The fall and rise of Geelong, and has won three Walkley awards and a Melbourne Press Club Quill for feature writing. He is a freelance writer and editor.

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