As a 19 year old selling baseball merchandise in Taiwan, Ting-Yu Liao never would have guessed how the next 11 years of her life would pan out.
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Let alone how much they would be centred around a small city in regional NSW, more than 7000 kilometres away.
Ms Liao is one of 29 Griffith residents who will officially become citizens at this year's Australia Day ceremony.
"I'm very excited ... I just want to stay here forever."
Ms Liao first arrived in Australia on a working holiday visa in late 2009, a teenager on her own, crossing seas to chase job prospects and a new lifestyle.
"I don't know why I'm so crazy," she laughed, remembering that first year.
After touching down in Brisbane, she tagged along with backpackers making their way to Tasmania, but Ms Liao never made it to the island state.
"When I first arrived in Griffith, I said that I want to stay here, because actually I feel nice here," she said.
Ms Liao fell in love with "the quiet city", its people, and even the weather, so she made the MIA her home, picking up farmwork jobs across the region.
A decade later, Ms Liao has well and truly become a local, raising her two children in the town and even managing to etch herself into the Griffith landscape, after her former father-in-law named Tings Asian Market on Yambil Street after her.
She now works at APG Workforce.
Becoming an Australian citizen is the final step to securing her place here, and she said she is excited for the moment when she can officially call herself an Aussie.
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Thankfully for Ms Liao, life in Australia has proved enjoyable, after the country didn't exactly make a great first impression.
"When I came to Australia I said 'oh I want to see all the kangaroos'," she recalled.
"Then as we drove from Brisbane to Griffith, every single one I saw was dead."
"So after that, I decided 'okay I will just go to the zoo to see the animals'."
Ting-Yu Liao will receive her citizenship at the official Australia Day ceremony, which will be held at Griffith Regional Theatre, starting at 10am on January 26.