I grew up in Tullamarine.

My father Ilko ‘Snowy’ Romaniw was born in Ukraine, forced into labour camps during the war, met my mother, Maria, who was German, and settled in Australia in 1949 and had me here. They arrived with little English and a small wooden suitcase but had determination and good values.

Snowy and Maria were very community-minded. Snowy helped build a successful, integrated Ukrainian community and church, and worked for 45 years with the PMG putting in many of the telephone lines you use to this very day.

Snowy also became an integral part of the Tullamarine community where we lived. It was thanks to the locals, and two especially: Leo Dineen (he couldn’t say Dineen – it was Leo Din) and Syd Hedger (he was Hedgy) took Snowy under their wing and invited him to be part of the community to help build a better place.

On Friday evenings, tired after a hard day using a compressor and digging, Snowy – as the Tullamarine Progress Association representative – walked house-to-house in the triangle estate collecting two shillings (20c) from everyone.

He told them: “You must give, we are building the Tullamarine Community Centre.” It stands today, a proud monument to the efforts and drive of people most now can’t remember.

Google the Hedger and Dineen names and you’ll see they have reserves, halls and playgrounds named after them and rightfully so.

We met Leo Din through my school, St Christopher’s. There were Roman Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics and Syd, from memory, was Church of England, but beliefs inspired conversation about the difference that made the difference.

“And there are Ukrainian Orthodox as well?” they’d ask. They all wanted to know why we celebrated Christmas and Easter according to the Julian calendar.

My mother made sure they took part in the special meals and celebrations. Come to think of it, most of the street celebrated with us.

“Boy you Ukis know how to celebrate!” was a regular comment. It was inclusive. Religion was another point of understanding each other – it didn’t hinder anything in the main match plan because the focus was enhancing the Tullamarine community and that was a common goal, using differences to drive towards a better outcome.

Looking back, it was almost a United Nations in our area. But what a feeling of support and love and understanding.

Today, as a result of that understanding, acceptance and commitment to local community – and helped along the way by the tireless efforts of Snowy and the many like him – the Tullamarine Football Club and sports clubs, scouts, youth, seniors, community groups and others have a harmonious home, around which their community thrives.

In the spirit of the above we want a strong, vibrant and united Australia, a place we are proud of because it’s ours and we are responsible for it. That will happen only if our way of life incorporates commitment, giving, doing, understanding and accepting each other, being civic minded, volunteering, understanding that we all have a responsibility and that the future lies in our hands.

Leo, Syd, Snowy and an army of like-minded locals showed us the way and we salute them.

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This story originally appeared in the Herald Sun on January 22, 2013