Londoner talks up region’s charms

Fate brought Mick Rosoman to Gembrook and Upper Pakenham and he hasn’t looked back. After only five years in Australia, and as a tour guide by trade, Mick is working hard to promote the area’s attractions as a member of Cardinia Tourism.
Mick – a Londoner – followed wife Alison to Australia after they married in 2001.
They were brought together by a string of coincidences. In 1984, Mick was working on the River Thames captaining a tour boat when a friend asked him to have a look at a 30foot canal boat that had a problem with its engine.
The owner of the boat turned out to be Alison. The pair became good friends but they lost contact when Alison migrated to Australia in 1985.
“We threw a party on the River Thames when I left,” Alison said.
“It was the night the IRA planted bombs in England. The whole town was at a standstill but the party went on.”
While Alison was settling into life in Australia, Mick kept running boat tours in London, quickly becoming one of the most soughtafter tour guides in the city.
In 1996 he started training to do walking tours in the city, which took him four years to complete.
The pair met again when Alison and her daughter Jessie, now 15, went on a holiday to England.
As a penance for not writing to her, as he had promised, Alison made him take her on a walking tour around London.
“The tour ended up taking five hours,” she said. “We just kept walking.”
Alison said she had made it very clear that she did not want to move back to the UK.
“I came to Australia and absolutely loved it,” Mick said.
Mick came downunder soon after obtaining a visa, and they were married in 2001, five years ago last Friday.
Alison lived in Upper Pakenham where she had a few horses and cattle. Mick helped out on the farm and later worked on boats in Melbourne doing the penguin tours out of Southbank.
“It involved night work which I didn’t want to do any more,” Mick said. “So I decided to do my own venture. The only thing I knew how to do was tour guiding.
“It took me a long time to learn the history. In between I worked for an auctioneering company.”
Mick started up the Ranges Tailor Made Tours Company just over a year ago.
He has since travelled to the UK to do promotions, joined Cardinia Tourism and has tried to get known locally.
The idea of the personalised tours is to allow people to have free range of their trip.
“I pick them up and get an idea of where they want to go,” Mick said. “If they ask can we stop, I say of course you can.”
While the Rosomans are keen to make the Cardinia area more widely known, the tours are not limited to the area.
A month ago, he and Alison opened their new store, Pandora’s Box Antiques and Collectables in Gembrook.
“It started off slowly but now people know we’re here it’s unbelievable,” Mick said.
While setting up the antique store was Mick’s idea, Alison has had a lifelong hobby of collecting antiques and used to sell antiques in market stalls.
“It’s an overgrown hobby,” she said. “I’ve been doing it since I was young and it’s never stopped.”
Alison worked as a vet nurse for many years, is a qualified saddler and started her own animal courier service in the 1980s, back when taxis would not carry pets.
She is also renowned for her handmade animal leather accessories such as collars, leads and dog muzzles.
The couple plan to live for many more years on their small family farm in Upper Pakenham with daughter Jessie.
Jessie attends Beaconhills College Village Campus and is very musical. Her main instruments are the alto saxophone and piano.
Their main mission now is getting Gembrook and the local area known and visited as much as Victoria’s other popular scenic destinations.
“It’s a nice little town. The people are friendly,” Mick said.