As a teenager, Wahid Ezaty and his family trekked day and night for two weeks to escape war-torn Afghanistan. They travelled across deserts and over mountain ranges in search of a better life. In search of peace.

“My dad was a supreme court judge in Afghanistan, so we had the means and wherewithal to get out of there,” Wahid says. “We left with the clothes on our back. We had a pretty good lifestyle there, and we left it all behind – our house, land and all our belongings. But we were lucky that my father could use his privileged position he had to get us out.”

“We left with the clothes on our back. We had a pretty good lifestyle there, and we left it all behind – our house, land and all our belongings. But we were lucky that my father could use his privileged position he had to get us out.”

They briefly sought refuge in neighbouring Pakistan, before being accepted into Australia’s humanitarian refugee program. 

They arrived in Sydney on a cold night in 1992, with plenty of hope but only a few hundred dollars in their pockets. 

“When we arrived in Australia, we caught a taxi to meet our sponsor – and the cost of that trip wiped out about 10 percent of the money we had saved,” Wahid says.

“But we soon settled in – we were very lucky. Fortunately, I had studied English in Afghanistan, which was a huge help for the family.

“The reason I am so grateful for Australia is peace. And it is peace that leads to multiculturalism – or vice versa, depending on which way you look at it. If you look at the past 50 or 60 years, I don’t think there is another country in the world that has been as successful in being able to gel together the many cultures, religions, ethnicities and backgrounds into the one cohesive unit that we are.

“For me, no other single thing speaks to us being the lucky country more than the multicultural flavour we have. And it all comes from peace.”

Some 20 years after crossing the Afghanistan desert for a new life, Wahid crossed the Australian desert – this time and his wife and two children for a new job. Wahid had secured a job at Downer in 2014, and made the move from Sydney to Carnarvon, 900 kilometres north of Perth, to take up the role of Maintenance Manager on the Mid-West Gascoyne road maintenance contract. Two years later, he had an opportunity to return to Sydney, and in 2019 was involved in Downer’s successful bid for the contract to perform incident response and maintenance on the NorthConnex tunnel, leading the team for the next four years. In July this year, he was promoted to the role of Downer’s National Tunnels Manager.

“The role focuses on Downer’s strategic direction in the tunnels maintenance space, working with senior leadership to look at how we capture growth opportunities – there are a lot of opportunities there for Downer,” he says.

This October, Downer is sponsoring the Walk, Better Together – which is about raising awareness that Australia’s community, economy and culture was and is strengthened by migrants and refugees, and highlights the importance of cultural diversity and inclusion, with a clear message that we are better together. The Walk will see MRC Tasmania Chair, the Hon Peter Gutwein, walk 330 kilometres from his hometown of Launceston to Launceston Airport, flying to Sydney Airport and then walking on to Canberra between October 1-9.

For Wahid, it represents a special connection between his career and his life journey.

“I am a refugee kid, I am a beneficiary of Australia’s multicultural policies, so when I found out Downer was supporting The Walk, I was chuffed,” he says.

“One of things we do well as a business is celebrate multiculturalism. For example, we hold Harmony Day events across Australia every year. At this year’s Harmony Day event at our NorthConnex site, we had 35 people and I worked out we spoke 13 languages between us. That is just one site, a small team of 35. If you replicate that across hundreds of Downer sites, it is a great reflection of Australia and the communities we are part of. It is a microcosm of Australia. I am so glad that I work for a company that represents the communities we are part of, and does something meaningful rather than just a token gesture.”