Sepp and his sister Gerti Baumann finally had the chance to see each other when Gerti's children sent her to Australia from Austria for her 70th birthday.

Now 69 and a resident of Lightning Ridge, Sepp moved to Australia when he was 20, and the siblings were sepparated for the next half-century.

"I came here because I was looking for adventure. I didn't know very much about Australia," he said.

The pair has a lot to talk about together, but they say their personalities haven't changed.

"When I last saw him he was a young teenager, and when I saw him 50 years later we were both oldies," she said.

Even after all these years, they had no trouble recognising each other at the airport.

"He looks like our father, he could be his twin," she said.

They aren't sure when they will meet next.

"I don't know when we'll see each other again. It won't be another 50 years, that's for sure." Sepp said.

Gerti, who has two children and five grandchildren, was surprised when she arrived in Australia.

"When my children said to me you have to go to Australia, I said oh, you're sending me to the desert? But I was very surprised," she said.

"People here are friendly. You come and everywhere is relaxed, never in a hurry."

She explained people were very fashion conscious in Austria, and she liked the freedom in Australia.

"In Melbourne the first thing I saw when I looked to the people was they didn't have good shoes, they wore thongs," she said.

Sepp moved to Lightning Ridge in 1965 with his brother who now lives in Victoria.

"We didn't want to stay here, we wanted to go around Australia, and we got stuck here. We liked the peace, working for yourself, the lifestyle," he said.

Gerti, now 70 with plans to live to 100, thinks Australia is beautiful and is very interested in Aboriginal history. She will be spending a week in Sydney before she leaves in early April.