He worked as a farmer apprentice until he was 17, after which he moved to Austria and eventually migrated to Australia on an assisted passage in 1950 at the age of 28, with his young wife Christine and their four-year-old son Raimond soon after the end of the Second World War.

After some attempts at farming, Romulus established a business supplying wrought iron furniture, popular at the time, by the way of using the skills he brought from his native country.

It portrays the never dwindling love of Romulus for his son Raimond, in spite of the challenges of being abandoned by his wife and the confusion caused by his mental illness.

The major literary themes displayed in relation to belonging are that of: The book was the recipient of the 1998 Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction.

[2][3][4] A film adaptation, Romulus, My Father, was released in 2007, directed by Richard Roxburgh[5] and starring Eric Bana, Franka Potente, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.