KEY NOTES
- Journey to Australia
- Moving forward and gaining skills
- Taking business opportunities
Mr Joe Joseph is also known as a successful businessman with interest in petrol stations. At one stage, Mr Joseph was operating eight service stations, four as a Caltex franchise and four others as independent. He was employing more than fifty people.
Mr Joe Joseph was born in Iraq. His father worked at IPC, , with headquarters in London.
Financially, the family was doing very well, it had houses and lands acquired throughout the years when Joe’s father was working at IPC.
In 1972, Joe’s father passed away. His death was very devastating to the whole family, especially his mother. She felt lonely by the loss of her husband.
Leaving Iraq
The family decided to migrate to Australia because most of his mother’s side family were living in Sydney and she wanted to be united with them.
Joe says, “my family was one of the lucky Assyrians ones who left Iraq during a time there were no wars and less restrictions on travelling.”
for one year and three months in Beirut, we were not sure if visa will be granted to us and when?
In 1974, Joe’s family sold most of their properties and travelled to Beirut-Lebanon, to apply for migration to Australia.
The family consisted of four brothers, two sisters and joe’s mother and grandmother. The eight of them travelled to Lebanon and applied to come to Australia through s.
Mr Joseph says that the family did not have difficulties finding a comfortable life during their stay in Beirut. They did not need to look for work because they had enough money to live modest, but comfortable life. Despite that, they did not want to spend all their money because they needed it to purchase the travelling tickets to Australia. Joe, his brother and eldest sister found some work for their daily expenses and family needs.
The most painful thing during his journey was, the uncertainty of the future. Mr Joseph says
‘for one year and three months in Beirut, we were not sure if visa will be granted to us? How much longer we must wait?’.
Arriving in Australia
In 1975, the family was granted the visa. Joe Joseph and his family arrived in Australia in that year. At the beginning, like any new migrant, he struggled to fit in a new country, different language, culture and people. He had to blend in and be part of the society.
On arrival, family members were separated, living at different houses of uncles and aunties. It took them a while until they managed to find a house to fit them all together.
Mr Josephs says many real estate agents could not find for us a large house with many bedrooms to accommodate us all. Most houses in the western suburbs were two-bedroom houses, not enough for a family of eight. Finally, we moved into a house suitable to our needs.
Joe says at the beginning, the most challenging thing was English language, although I had learned English at school in Iraq, but that was not enough for me to be able to communicate with the Australian public.
Joe in his prime youth Source: joe.jpg
Joe went to TAFE in Bankstown to learn English. After that he started working and communicating confidently.
Mr Joseph says that in Fairfield, where he was living then, majority of residents were Australians of British or Irish backgrounds, not like as it is now, with people from over seventy countries.
The English language in shops, banks and everywhere was the common street language. That helped him to pick up the language very well and further enhanced his employment opportunities. Mr Joseph says.
Joe recalls, “back then, there was a little discrimination towards new migrants which was obvious in a street level, but not in workplaces or in government policies”.
Moving forward
Joe was determined to get better in English and find better job opportunities in life. He knew the only way to achieve that is by further studies and training.
back then, there was a little discrimination towards new migrants. Discrimination was obvious on a street level but not in workplaces or in government policies
He started a course in electronic engineering at Granville TAFE. During the course, he found a job at TELECOM (Now TELESTRA) and he continued until he finished his training at TAFE in 1982.
That was the beginning of his career in a government organisation. During his work with Telecom, which then was a government company, he gained precious experience and knowledge.
He worked at Telecom for twelve years.
Although he had a secured job, Joe never stopped studding and improving his qualifications. He used to travel from work in North Sydney or Epping to Macarthur university in the Western Sydney to do a management course from 1990 to 1994 as part time.
The management course helped Joe to change the course of his career.
Business opportunity
In 1994, Joe resigned from Telstra and left the company after more than a decade.
Mr Joseph heard about an opportunity to have a franchise with Caltex. He decided to invest his money in the venture.
Mr Joseph says that he worked in some business projects during his community work with the Assyrian Association, he knew about business risks and management. He decided to go ahead with the Caltex franchise business after doing his studding of the venture and he took the risk, but he says "it was a calculated risk decision that I believed will never fail".
Mr Joseph says his interest in business goes back in mid seventies when he arrived in Australia. He looked at some members of the Assyrian community who came in mid-late 1960s and many of them bought chicken farms and were doing very well. He looked at them as role models and always wanted to be in business.
Mr Joseph says, “going in a franchise with Caltex, you know you are not alone, there is a big company behind you to support you to go forward and succeed”.
Mr Joseph saw there is a profit in this business, that triggered him to buy more Caltex service stations and also bought another four independent service stations.
During his twenty-five years in the business, at one stage, Joe owned four Caltex franchising businesses and four independently owned service stations, in metro areas and in country sites. Joe franchise has won many awards including second best franchise with Caltex and was presented with the award in Tokyo-japan Caltex conference in 2017.
Joe at the Caltex conference in Tokyo in 2017 Source: joe.jpg
going in a franchise with Caltex, you know you are not alone, there is a big company behind you to support you to go forward and succeed
Caltex decided to end the franchisee business and terminate the contract. Mr Joseph says I was compensated by a lucrative offer as per agreement with Caltex.
Currently Mr Joseph reduced his workload and owns only four independent service stations, but he has investments in other ventures.
Source: Fairfield City Champion
Listen to Joe Joseph talking about his Honey Business
Mr Joseph has a small business venture in Manuka honey making. He sells honey in bulk. He has a farm with Manuka trees and at one stage, he had hundred and twenty hives. Unfortunately, due to bushfires, many of his Manuka trees were destroyed. Now they are flowering again and he is looking forward to more honey production in next year. Also he produces Eucalyptus honey.
The measure of success
Joe harvesting honey Source: joe.jpg
Finally, Mr Joe Joseph says, Assyrian community in Australia and every where in the world, try to build and prosper, success is not only based on financial terms. Assyrians in Australia are loyal to this country and work hard with other communities to advance Australia.
He says during fifty-five years of presence in Australia, Assyrian community built clubs, churches, resource centres, Assyrian schools. Assyrian community have members in high government positions, university lecturers, barristers, professors and so on. These are success measures we should be proud of.
Front of Nineveh Club (now Eden Reception) Source: Nineveh.jpg
