Pakistan, April 3 -- Ever since leaving his home village in Syangja, Purna Gurung has been crossing bridges when he comes to them. And here he is at age 55, supervising the pile-driving for a new bridge in Tasmania, 10,000km away from home.

Gurung has built bridges in Africa, worked on tunnels in Hong Kong, and moved up the ranks in teams building complex infrastructure projects across the world. All that experience is standing him in good stead in Australia, where he came 15 years ago.

Purna Gurung has brought other Nepali engineers to join him in the bridge project here. He got his former co-worker Mansuba Gurung to come from New Zealand, and other Nepali engineers from the Australian mainland.

Tasmania Hobart, the capital city of T...