JUST over a month ago Mount Beauty United Cricket Club’s Zimbabwean import Davison Mbindi was essentially stranded in Mount Beauty with no working rights and no way of getting home.

Now he is preparing to make the move to Falls Creek for the ski season thanks to the generosity of the local community.

Davison arrived in Mount Beauty to coach and play for the Power on October 10 last year and was due to return home on April 25 but the current coronavirus travel restrictions made that near impossible.

He travelled to Australia on a sports visa which allowed him to make money through cricket but stated he must not engage in any other paid activities, which left him unable to legally work while he waited for a flight home.

With the help of his host family in Mount Beauty, the father of three had been pleading with authorities to grant him working rights but sadly to no avail.

North East Media (publishers of Mt Hotham Falls Creek News) brought readers Davison’s story in the May 6 edition of the Myrtleford Times and shortly after the tables turned.

“I applied for working rights just after I had spoken to you last time and within 48 hours I was granted working rights,” he said last week.

“The help I got in the community is thanks to the piece in the paper; it really opened up options for me and now these opportunities have come my way.

“People offered vouchers to buy groceries and other things like that...it just helped so much.

“I’m really happy, I’m in a good place.”

Davison will spend the next three months working at Falls Creek’s Koki Lodge where he is looking forward to being out of his comfort zone.

“I would love to be home with my family but it is what it is,” he said.

“Back in Zimbabwe we don’t have any snow so Australian snow will be the first I see.

“I am excited to go up there but also nervous because I don’t know what to expect.

“I don’t know what the temperatures will be like or how I am going to mentally survive the three months but I am excited because it gives me the opportunity to do something new.”

The new experience will be one Davison can share with his family as well.

“Nobody actually thinks that when you come to Australia you will see snow,” he said.

“All we hear about is the extreme temperatures of 40 plus degrees so to get snow, to be honest I was a little bit surprised.

“I will send lots of pictures home; they already can’t believe the snow is so close to where I was living in Mount Beauty.”

As for testing out the slopes in his time off Davison said, after some careful consideration, it is on his to do list.

“I always thought skiing and snowboarding was too dangerous but I think I will probably give it a try on a less slopey slope,” he laughed.

“But I think it will be an experience that will complete my Australian experience so I have to do it.”

It is also hoped that, come September, Davison will have another cricket coaching gig in the area but whether he stays or goes will depend one very important thing.

“I need to be able to get my family across to Australia,” he said.

“It will be quite close to a year since I’ve seen them and I really need to see them and they need to see me.”

The logistics of travelling home for a visit between the ski season and the cricket season are proving to be complicated by coronavirus restrictions.

“If I fly home I might not be able to get back out here in time for the next cricket season,” Davison said.

“If I were to fly back to Zimbabwe I would go into quarantine for 14 days then I would see my family for maybe a week and then come back out here to quarantine for another 14 days so we are already talking a month of isolation without even seeing the family.

“If they (travel restrictions) do not change for the better, flying them out here is something I have to think about.”

Davison has also been writing a book about life in South Africa and Australia including his experiences as an international cricketer and being away from family during the year that has been 2020.

“It’s about the experiences I’ve had with the people around me in this time like the Pollock’s (Ruth and Don, Mount Beauty) and a few other friends I came across in my time in Mount Beauty,” he said.

“I have come into contact with wonderful people so I am writing a book and this has given me a lot more inspiration to go ahead and finish it.

“This year I have seen the bushfires in Australia, the coronavirus and now the Black Lives Matter movement.

“There is so much to write about and I think if I have these things on paper then I can inspire people in generations to come to be better.”

Most of all, Davison is most looking forward to making new friends at Falls Creek.

Head to Koki Lodge and say g’day!