ADELAIDE: The story of Charanamat Singh, the Indian taxi driver turned millionaire in Northern Australia, has all the trappings of a rags to riches Bollywood thriller.
However, the gritty farmer seems to be on "a roller coast ride", turning into a pauper overnight after the recent bush fires in Victoria destroyed his 150 acre farm, buildings and equipment worth about millions of dollars.
"Every thing was gutted in front our eyes in the last week of February 2009. Over 200 people died in the area due to fires that left no time for anyone to flee. Thanks to the almighty, all of us, my wife, children, brother and father managed to stay alive," Singh told visiting Indian journalists in Melbourne.
A devout Sikh, 55-year-old Singh hailing from Prathappour in Phillore district of Punjab, had left his native land disenchanted with the militancy in Punjab in 1986.
Initially, he started as a taxi driver in Melbourne, the home of the large Indian expatriate community and never looked back since.
Burning with an urge to become farmer, like his family members back in Phillore, Sing by dint of hard work made it big after he managed to save enough to own few taxies and later mobilised bank loans to buy large tracts of land, about 50 km from Melbourne where he grew broccoli and beans and produced bottled water from the water springs in his farm.