Governor a model of refugee made good

Victoria's 28th Governor came to Australia as a 10-year-old boy fleeing war-torn Lithuania after the advancing Red Army killed his father.

Alex Chernov

ALEX Chernov's story is anything but ordinary. Victoria's 28th Governor came to Australia as a 10-year-old boy fleeing war-torn Lithuania after the advancing Red Army killed his father.

Not able to speak English, he remembered being struck by the strange sight of men eating food from newspapers -- fish and chips -- and he had a tendency to skip school. He went on to have a career as a lawyer, barrister, Supreme Court judge, Court of Appeal judge and then deputy chancellor and chancellor at the University of Melbourne.

But when Mr Chernov was announced by Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday as the state's new Governor, he was reluctant to speak about his extraordinary life journey.

"I don't want to dwell too much on my past," he told reporters, as his wife, Elizabeth Hopkins, their three children and six grandchildren looked on. "But I was fortunate to have been brought up in a home where there was great emphasis on ethics, spiritual and ethical development and, importantly, broad education and hard work. Those lessons have stood me in good stead. I followed them pretty much all my life."

Mr Chernov, born in 1938 to Russian parents, was described by Mr Baillieu as a great success story of multiculturalism. His grandfather, murdered by the Bolsheviks, was a minister in Russia's short-lived provisional government established after the 1917 February revolution.

"Alex Chernov brings to the role of governor a wonderful, wonderful story. A story of humble beginnings, a lifetime of hard work, great success and community service at the highest level."

Mr Chernov, who replaces David de Kretser on April 8 after a five-year term, said he was honoured to take the role and had "big shoes to fill".

"I must say the offer came to me like a bolt out of the blue. The last thing I ever thought I would ever do was be a governor of this state," he said yesterday.

"It never really occurred to me and the situation when it was first mentioned to me had a degree of unreality about it. It took me a while to compose myself."

Mr Chernov, who is a Queens Counsel and received an Order of Australia, also jokingly defended his decision to skip classes when he was at Melbourne High, saying it was for good reasons.

"I used to go to the State Library and work there, which I thoroughly enjoyed."

When asked if he was a republican, he made it clear he would not be drawn into any debate. "The matter is of public debate and I don't plan to be involved in it as it has no relevance at all."