It was an idyllic childhood in many ways, growing up in Myanmar - also known as Burma - in the 1960s.
But from a young age, Nalini Joshi sensed her family was a little bit different.
Conscripted into the army, her father was posted to the far-flung Shan States, in the country's west.
He was prevented from practicing fully in his chosen profession - medicine.
And he yearned for a place that would give his children a good education, and a fair go.
"He told me that I used to top most of my classes in primary school but I never got the top prizes at the end of the year. So he knew that there was something going wrong and he wanted to make sure that his family was in place that would be better for their future."
The family decided to migrate to Australia, arriving here In 1971.
"I remember landing in this building that seemed so sophisticated, so clean, so beautuly built and the people working in there were all white, tall, handome men, porters pushing baggage around, were white men and that was something that was quite, almost, shocking because in Burma tall white men were the bosses."
The family settled into the suburbs of Sydney and Nalini excelled at school.
She had an insatiable desire to read, working her way through the library shelves.
That lead her to science fiction and, in turn, astro-physics.
"I remember telling my careers counsellor that I wanted to be an astronaut and she said 'oh how have to be realistic dear' and when I went to uni and I discovered i could do astronomy through maths I did more mathematics and really became a mathematician as a result."
From then on her path was set - mathematics was the centre of her universe.
"Maths is the underlying framework that allows us to describe everything that we observe in the universe whether its ouside us or inside us. It's the only logical language that allows to to compare, analyse and check evidence."
After several academic positions in Australia she went on to become the first ever female head of maths and science at Sydney University's School of Mathematics and Statistics.
She also became a passionalte advocate for gender equality in science.
"We're losing 50 per cent of the talent group that we have naturally available to us, if we say that women shouldn't be anawering these questions. That's just a no-brainer."
The maths professor hopes that her journey will inspire others.
"I'm usually the only one with a different skin colour to the rest, by being there and showing you can go forward, to be driven by a passion, to go ahead and do the things that will benefit society, so I hope that I've been a role model."
But despite some gender imbalance, she says Australia is still the lucky country.
"There is a fair go for everyone I believe, in many, many circumstances. yes."
