BRWs Rich 200 List Of Australia Is Full Of Immigrants

30 Aug 2013

The Rich 200 list of BRW is full of migrants who climbed to the top of Australian business.

A survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Nathan Werdiger, arrived in Australia in 1949 as a humanitarian migrant and subsequently founded the Juilliard Corporation. Now, the Juilliard Corporation is one of the largest landlords in the Melbourne CBD.

Immigration is an important matter, and doing it properly matters. For a large island with a small population like Australia, a considered immigration regime is as crucial a resource as capital, oil and trade.

Werdiger says that migrants bring a perspective that helps them spot gaps that established players often miss out. He went into business with Arnold Lederman, his pre-war migrant cousin weaving fabric in a rented shop-front in Melbourne’s Carlton after a number of jobs, the first of which was car washing.

They could not aspire to compete with the established textile industry that had been churning out military uniforms until recently, but had to find something different. They recognized the unmet demand for lighter and more colorful fabrics from post-war young people.

When textile industrialist and owner of Shepparton-based Cleckheaton, Fred James came to see them, their business took off. James had brought an entire factory and workers from Britain and had inherited machinery he did not know how to use.

In an attempt to find someone who could help him, James looked up the telephone directory and came across the two weavers. He consulted the weavers on how best to use his new machinery in the post-war market. Classweave Textiles became a supplier of fabrics for designers including Prue Acton and Norma Tullo with James’s backing and credit.

Werdiger proves that immigrants play a very important part in increasing a country’s economic growth. He inspires immigrants to prove their mettle in the country they chose to migrate to.

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