THE GREEK CONNECTION

The connection between Greece and Australia dates back to the mid-19th century, when the first Greek settlers arrived during the gold rush. However, the most substantial waves of Greek migration occurred in the post-World War II era, driven by economic hardship, political instability, and opportunities for a better life. 

The Greek Civil War (1946-1949) and economic difficulties in Greece prompted many to seek opportunities abroad. Australia’s post-war immigration policies, which encouraged European migration to boost the labor force, provided an avenue for Greeks to settle in the country. By the 1970s, the Greek community in Australia had grown to over 160,000 people, making it one of the largest Greek diasporas in the world. 

Greek migrants played a pivotal role in Australia’s economic development, particularly in industries such as construction, manufacturing, and hospitality. Many Greeks established family-run businesses, including cafes, milk bars, and restaurants, which became cultural icons in Australian cities and towns. The entrepreneurial spirit of Greek migrants helped integrate them into Australian society while preserving their cultural heritage. 

Education and professional advancement also became priorities for the Greek-Australian community. Subsequent generations pursued careers in fields such as medicine, law, academia, and politics, contributing significantly to Australia’s multicultural fabric. 

Greek culture remains vibrant in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, which is often referred to as the “third-largest Greek city” after Athens and Thessaloniki. The city is home to one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece and serves as a cultural hub for the diaspora.

Festivals such as the Antipodes Festival and Greek Film Festival celebrate Greek traditions, language, and arts. Greek Orthodox churches, community centers, and language schools play a vital role in preserving cultural and religious practices. Traditional Greek music, dance, and cuisine, including dishes like moussaka, souvlaki, and baklava, have become integral to Australia’s culinary landscape. 

At my workplace, we have a dozen or more staff members with Greek backgrounds. I don’t mind saying that our business has exploited the Greek connection by having many of our business celebrations around traditional Greek cuisine. My work colleagues love cooking on charcoal and a normal work year for us includes at least one 25 kg gyros feast along with all of the delicious dips and snacks that come beforehand and sweet treats that follow. It’s usually an early morning start to set up the spit and get the charcoal burning at just the right temperature. The meat takes 3 to 4 hours to cook and then about the same length of time to consume around some low-impact activities such as lawn bowls. The ritual is never tiresome. 

Greek migration to Australia is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and cultural pride. The contributions of Greek-Australians have enriched Australia’s multicultural society, ensuring that Greek heritage remains a dynamic and cherished part of the nation’s identity.

AN UNEXPECTED INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCE – PART 4

Our family was invited to visit Shane and Nathan’s families in the Northern Territory.  I had been to the NT a few times previously and had been off road in the southern areas of the NT including an overland trip from Alice Springs to Birdsville in Queensland via the Simpson Desert. 

But those trips were as visitors with no connection to the area. These trips were quite different because of the hospitality shown by the families of the students we had hosted. 

After about a week on the road, we arrived in Tennant Creek and met with teachers at Barkly College, the local high school where Shane and Nathan had attended.

AN UNEXPECTED INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCE – PART 3

The first year of my unexpected indigenous experience concluded with a football premiership, two young aboriginal fellas who had spent the best part of the year in Melbourne and all involved having a much better understanding about the challenges of being an aboriginal person in Australia. 

I was delighted when Shane and Nathan told me that they wanted to come back next year and tackle year 11 and hopefully year 12. 

Not long after Shane and Nathan made their commitment to return to Melbourne, there were a number of enquiries from friends and family members in Tennant Creek which was Shane’s country and where Nathan attended school. The newly established Kajji Foundation was able to raise funds to supplement grants from the Federal government to support the fellas during their time in Melbourne. 

As I noted in part 2 of these blogs, CBC St Kilda was very generous in making places available in their VCAL program for five students. 

But the greatest generosity was again shown by the families and supporters of the St Kilda City Junior Football Club. All of the five students that joined us in years two of the program and onwards were hosted by Melbourne-based families who opened their homes to the young men from the Northern Territory. The experience of living within a typical Melbourne family (if there is such a thing) was the most important part of the experience for the aboriginal fellas. They were able to see firsthand a different way of family life. I don’t say that life in Melbourne is better or worse than life in a remote aboriginal community. But it is certainly different and I think being able to experience the difference broadened the horizons of our aboriginal students considerably. 

I know that my family horizons were also broadened. And I’m forever grateful for this experience. 

My family hosted Nathan’s mother and sister and then Nathan’s father in separate trips to Melbourne. Two very special moments with Nathan’s father, Jimmy, remain with me. 

The first was a trip to Lake Mountain in the snow season. There had been good falls of snow. Jimmy was completely taken aback by the temperature as he stepped out of the warm car. But as he acclimatised, his mind was focused on the natural world around him. He pointed out animal tracks on the snow, certain trees growing in a way directed by the environment, and different types of bird life. I was astounded by how quickly he adapted to the country around him. 

The second special moment was a trip to see Essendon play at the Docklands Stadium. Jimmy had been a Bombers supporter all his life but he had never seen them play live. We stood on the middle level at the Docklands Stadium looking back over Southern Cross Station. Jimmy marvelled at the number of people crossing the bridge to the ground. “I have never seen so many people in life”, he commented. From good seats on the front row, it felt like you were hovering over the ground. Jimmy shed a tear as the Bombers ran out onto the ground. “Best day of my life “, he said. 

Go to the next instalment to read about our trip to Northern Territory.

GIRT BY SEA

In the Australian national anthem “Advance Australia Fair,” the phrase “girt by sea” refers to Australia’s geographical location as an island nation surrounded by water. The line emphasizes Australia’s unique position as a continent and an island, highlighting its natural beauty and maritime identity. This phrase evokes a sense of pride in the country’s landscape and environment.

I’m lucky enough to have spent a lot of my life in, on or beside the sea. Much of my early childhood was spent at Sorrento on the southern tip of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. I still regard this area as my spiritual home. On one side of the peninsula is the relatively sheltered waters of Port Phillip whilst the other side forms the northern edge of Bass Strait which has a well earned reputation as a notorious waterway. 

How lucky we are as Australians to have these wild and beautiful places – still relatively close to major hubs of civilisation.

The sand dune areas with their hardy vegetation conditioned to relatively low rainfall and high winds provide an accessible wilderness close to home. There is no better place to shake off the burdens of modern city life. The harshness of the environment and the many different conditions that come with it creates an immediate connection for the visitor to the natural world. 

Whether I am on, in or by the sea, I lose my sense of confidence. I always feel small – insignificant – a minute part of the natural world. The security that comes with being a part of modern civilisation is removed which provides the opportunity to see us humans as being just a part of a greater universe. I’ve had a couple of close calls when I have been surfing and sailing so I have a heightened sense of respect for the power of the sea. Feeling humble in the presence of nature is an important element for human happiness.

My favourite animal is the dolphin. Since 2015, I have been lucky enough to be the custodian of a Tasmanian crayfishing vessel built in 1958 which has been restored to provide a vessel for ocean voyages. It’s always a special time on board when a pod of dolphins join us to play in the bow wave. As they dart back and forward, they roll and make eye contact with the human spectators looking at them over the bow. I always get the sense that they are saying “hello friend, come and play in our beautiful sea”.

Dolphins on the port bow
Refuge Cove - Victoria
Bathurst Channel – Tasmania

AN UNEXPECTED INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCE – PART 2

Having had an introductory couple of weeks in Melbourne, our young indigenous visitors decided that they would stay in Melbourne for the rest of the year, play footy with the St Kilda City Junior Football Club under 16 team and attend a local school. There are not nay words in that statement but putting it all into practice was a significant but rewarding task.

The first issue was accommodating the young fellas. During the initial part of their stay, they were camped in the rumpus room at our place. This was okay for the short term but was not workable for an extended stay. Oscar, our eldest son was 15 at the time and in year 10 and our youngest son was about 3. There were no spare bedrooms. Rolling out mattresses each evening was becoming tedious as well as a lack of space for storage of clothing for the oncoming Melbourne winter. 

The generosity of the parents of the playing group at St Kilda City Junior Football Club was overwhelming. A message went round asking if any of the families would be prepared to host one of the young fellas for the remainder of the year. A number of families committed to doing so and a workable solution arose where there was a main host family and a couple of supporting host families who provided secondary accommodation when the main host family was unable to do so – or just for a change of situation for all concerned.

The funds to support the fellas and the host families came initially from the St Kilda City Junior Football Club Families and supporters. 

But this couldn’t continue for any length of time and so I decided to formalise the arrangements by establishing a charitable trust called the Kajji Foundation. With the structure of the Foundation in place, I was able to secure some funding from the federal government. But we still relied heavily on donations from families and friends which were now tax deductible.

The support from local schools could not have been bettered. I made contact with the headmaster of St Michael’s Grammar School where my son Oscar was a student. It took perhaps 10 or 15 minutes for me to explain the circumstances (pretty much as I have set out in these blogs) and for the headmaster to make a commitment to provide schooling free of charge to both Shane and Nathan. St Michael’s Grammar went above and beyond by appointing a teaching assistant to give the fellas a hand with some areas of their education where they needed some help to come up to the standard of their local schoolmates. The fellas were celebrated within the school and I think there was a genuine exchange of cultures. The natural sporting ability of the young fellas assisted their entry into school culture with Nathan winning the sprint races at the inter-school athletics carnival in bare feet on the famous Olympic Park track.

One of the art teachers at St Michael’s took particular interest in the young fellas who had no inclination towards painting at all. She had spent quite a bit of time with indigenous groups studying and learning their artistic techniques and used this knowledge in teaching her art classes. It took quite a bit of effort to engage the young fellas but the effort was worthwhile. By the end of the year she had extracted a first painting from each of Shane and Nathan which were gifted to me and remain on display at our home. See the photos accompanying this blog.

Following the first year at St Michael’s Grammar School, Shane and Nathan and subsequent students attended CBC St Kilda. The generosity of CBC St Kilda and the Catholic Education Office was equal to that provided by St Michael’s. CBC provided the more practical VCAL courses which were a more suitable academic and practical program for the available employment opportunities when the fellas returned to their homes in the Northern Territory. Skills and qualifications in carpentry and electrical work are always welcome in the NT.

All in all it was a formative experience for both the young fellas and the families involved. Looking after an indigenous young man from a remote community has its challenges but our family was far richer for the experience.

I almost forgot about the footy. It was a cracker of a year and one of the most memorable seasons of junior sport that I’ve been involved with. The young fellas brought a bit of magic to the team and to the South Metro under 16 competition in general. They play the AFL game in the expected indigenous style –  joyous, attacking, exciting and very watchable. There were far bigger than usual crowds at most of the games.  The St Kilda City under 16 team were the dominant team all year and won the premiership convincingly. 

Standby for the next instalment.

THE ITALIAN CONNECTION

The Australia Long Weekend should celebrate everything that’s good about our diverse nation. 

Pellegrini’s Bar has been full of Australians looking for an authentic Italian connection for seven decades. This Melbourne icon was a marker for Australia’s change from an outpost of the British Empire to the multicultural country that we now love. The Pellegrini brothers who arrived as part of the wave of southern European migrants during the 1950s and 60s started the cafe in 1954 and introduced Mediterranean cuisine and coffee culture to Melbourne. 

The kitchen table is exactly that – a large communal table where you are in the thick of the preparation of traditional Italian fare. The minestrone never misses the mark. 

I have an intimate connection with Pellegrini’s. Following my birth in 1959, I was taken directly from the hospital in East Melbourne and spent the next three or four hours in a basket whilst my parents and their friends toasted my arrival to the world. In the late 1970s, I became acquainted with Sisto Malaspina when I introduced him to the sport of windsurfing at my windsurfer hire and tuition business in Sorrento. 

Imagine life in Australia without the Italian connection. No pizza, pasta and coffee – no dolce vita – unthinkable.

AN UNEXPECTED INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCE – PART 1

Life in Melbourne doesn’t often include personal contact with our indigenous people. 

This all changed for me in 2008, when our family life took an unexpected direction as we hosted a number of young aboriginal fellas from the Northern Territory at our home. 

I had been involved with St Kilda City Junior Football Club for four or so years as a coach, team manager, sponsor and supporter. 

In 2007, our under 15 team had a pretty poor season. The coach of the team was studying to be a teacher and had a few friends teaching in the Northern Territory. A sketchy plan was made to recruit some young indigenous players from the Northern Territory to come to Melbourne to bolster the clubs playing group for the under 16 season in 2008. 

My thinking was that the plan was never going to go anywhere until I received a telephone call on the Tuesday or Wednesday before Easter in 2008 advising me that two young fellas from Tennant Creek were going to arrive the next day. I headed out to the airport to pick them up. 

Shane and Nathan had both just turned 16 and this was their first trip out of the Northern Territory. We learned that Shane was Walpiri from the Tennant Creek area and Nathan was Garrawa from Borroloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Nathan boarded in Tennant Creek. Both attended the Tennant Creek High School. Their eyes were as wide as saucers as we drove down the Tullamarine Freeway during peak hour. Their first impressions of Melbourne were “have a look at all the taxis!”.  My impression was that would be easier to visit Melbourne from Shanghai than Tennant Creek. 

On arriving home, the footy came out for a kick in the street with my eldest son Oscar who was a part of the junior football team. The language of AFL was common to all parties and the ice was broken. 

The first dinner together was the beginning of a joyous learning experience for everyone – but in particular our family. 

We thought a barbecue would be a safe option for the newcomers and a couple of different salads were prepared. We are a bit unsure as to what our guests would like. So there was one simple salad and another with lashings of sun-dried tomatoes, goat’s cheese and other Mediterranean delights. The young fellas weren’t so keen on salad at all but, on prompting, got seriously stuck into the one with all the trimmings. The tsatsiki and taramousalata dips were also a huge hit. Shane developed a serious attraction to the taramosalata and it became mandatory to have Shane’s “pink cream” in the fridge thereafter. 

During the Easter break, fellas joined us for some time on the Mornington Peninsula and attended their first training sessions with the team. They received their team kit and, after a couple of weeks, they confirmed that they wanted to stay for the remainder of the year. 

But what about parental permission, school and all the other practicalities? 

Stand by for further instalments.

THE GENESIS OF THE AUSTRALIA LONG WEEKEND

Quite a few Australians have come to conclude the Australia Day public holiday should be moved to create a permanent long weekend. I had the idea over the summer of 2021-22. But it sat in my head with no action. The complaints and protests about the date of Australia Day in 2023 and 2024 motivated me to try and do something to solve the problem. 

Several alternatives were considered and I contacted hundreds of individuals and organisations for their views. In July 2024, I became aware that Phil Jenkyn, Elizabeth Elliot and Geoff Cousins had reached the same conclusion as me and, between us, the final form of the proposal was cast as follows. 

The Australia Long Weekend will be created by shifting the existing public holiday on 26 January – which would retain the name Australia Day – to the second last Monday in January.

This means that we would always have a three day break occurring between 18-24 January each year providing an extended period for friends and family to come together during the summer holiday season. 

We need the three days of the Australia Long Weekend to celebrate all that is good about our diverse nation, while also providing an opportunity for reflection on the past and future, and for respect to be shown to our First Nations People, our institutions and our multicultural society. 

If you support the notion of an Australia Long Weekend, I would greatly appreciate it if you expressed this by signing the Australia Long Weekend petition which is now ready to receive signatures. Please click on https://www.change.org/australialongweekend and add your signature to the petition. 

I want all Australian citizens to be able to celebrate this great nation however they choose and at a time that is acceptable to all. The proposed Australia Long Weekend in January offers an opportunity for unity and would be a powerful force for good.