Greek Australians

Early Greek immigration

Greek immigration to Australia began in the early colonial period in the 19th century. The first known Greeks arrived in 1829.^[6] These Greeks were seven sailors, convicted of piracy by a British naval court, and were sentenced to transportation to New South Wales. Though eventually pardoned, two of those seven Greeks stayed and settled in the country. They settled on the Monaro Plains in Southern New South Wales. Their names were Andronicos and Jigger Bulgaris. Andronicos went back to Greece a single man but Jigger stayed and married a local woman from the Tinderry Ranges near Michelago and fathered many children. Jigger was buried at Nimmitabel Pioneer Cemetery Hellenic Club of Canberra laid a commemorative piece of marble over his resting place around 2000. The first known free Greek migrant to Australia was Katerina Georgia Plessos (1809–1907),^[7] who arrived in Sydney with her husband Major James Crummer in 1835. They married in 1827 on the island of Kalamos where Crummer, the island's commandant met the young refugee from the Greek independence wars. She is thought to be one of the last people to speak to Lord Byron. They lived in Sydney, Newcastle and Port Macquarie where she is buried. They had 11 children.^[8] The first wave of free Hellenic migrants commenced in the 1850s, and continued through the end of the 19th century, prompted in part by the recent discovery of gold in the country.^[9] A young Greek immigrant born in Athens, Greece named Georgios Tramountanas (1822 – 29 January 1911) and anglicised as George North in 1858, was the first settler of Greek origin in South Australia in 1842. The Greek community of South Australia regards North (Tramountanas) as their Pioneering Grandfather. In 1901, the year of federation, the Australian census recorded 878 native Greeks that were born there (In Greece), now living in Australia. Many of these Greeks were owners of or were employed in shops and restaurants. Some were also cane-cutters in Queensland.

20th century Greek Immigration to Australia

From the last decade of the 19th century until WWI the number of Greeks immigrating to Australia increased steadily and Hellenic communities were reasonably well established in Melbourne and Sydney at this time. The Greek language press had begun in Australia and in 1913, Australia had the first Greek weekly newspaper that was published in Melbourne. During WWI Greece remained neutral, eventually joining the side of the Allies. In 1916 the Australian government responded to this by placing a special prohibition on the entry of Greeks and Maltese people to Australia that was not lifted until 1920. There were a number of anti-Greek outbursts as a result of the neutrality stance by Greece, often instigated by Australian soldiers on leave. During these outbursts Greek shops or cafés were badly damaged or destroyed, with the worst rioting occurring in Kalgoorlie and Boulder.

During the 1920s, as a result of the Greco-Turkish War there was a significant amount of Greek migration to Darwin and across the Top End. Greeks often worked in the canefields in North Queensland and move to Darwin during the dry season to work in the pearling industry. One famous family of Greek Australians, the Paspaley family excelled in the Pearling industry and have stores across Australia with their main store being in Darwin.

During the interwar period, the number of Greeks migrating to Australia increased substantially. Some Greeks who settled in Australia were expelled from Asia Minor after the Greek military defeat and the mass genocide by Turkey in 1922 while other Greeks sought entry after the USA established restrictive immigration quotas in the early 1920s. From 1924 until 1936 a series of regulations operating in Australia severely restricted the number of Greeks permitted to immigrate to and settle in Australia.

Greece entered WWII with the Allies when she was invaded by German and Italian forces who remained in Greece until 1944. Many ANZACs went to the nation and tried to help the population to defeat the Axis enemy only to be saved themselves by the locals, building a relationship between Australians and Greeks that stands strong to this day. When troops withdrew a struggle broke out between pro and anti-communist factions which resulted in civil war between 1946 and 1949, ending with the defeat of the communists.

The Greek government, devastated by the destruction of infrastructure and the looting of their banks by the Germans, encouraged post-war migration as a way of solving poverty and unemployment problems, with the most favoured destination being West Germany although large numbers also went to Australia and Canada. Post WWII in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Greeks were among one of the main European races picked by the Australian government's "Populate or perish" immigration scheme and due to this, thousands of Greeks migrated to Australia with just one purpose and that was to gain a better life and future for themselves and their families. The main destinations where these "Hellenes" immigrated were to cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. During these decades, the Greeks started making an impact in the country like never before, they were not only still establishing their own restaurants, this time they were also establishing their own Hellenic Community Clubs and Greek-Australian Soccer clubs. Greeks along with Italians, Croatians, Maltese, Serbians, Jews, Hungarians, Czechs, etc. really marked a milestone on Australian sport in general by forming some of the greatest and most successful Association football clubs that Australian football has ever had and in the Greek communities case, the most successful Australian clubs with Greek heritage and culture are the inventions of South Melbourne Hellas (South Melbourne FC) founded in 1959, Alexander the Great (Heidelberg United FC) founded in 1958, Pan-Hellenic (Sydney Olympic FC) founded in 1957 and West Adelaide Hellas (West Adelaide SC) founded in 1962. All three clubs were founded by Greek immigrants that immigrated to those respective cities. Since then, the rest of the 20th century from 1970 to 1999, Greek immigration to Australia very much declined and Greek immigrants were very few and not many of them came to settle in Australia during the rest of the century. The main way the Greek population was increasing greatly during this time was through the birth of either full, half or part Australian-born Greek descendants who are children (2nd generation) and grandchildren (3rd generation) of the Greek immigrants who came in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. However, Hellenic/Greek immigration has increased in the last few years due to the severe economic crisis overseas.

After the changes in Greece from the mid 1970s, including the fall of the Papadopoulos regime in 1974 and the formal inclusion of Greece into the European Union, Greek immigration to Australia has slowed since the 1971 peak of 160,200 arrivals. Within Australia, the Greek immigrants have been "extremely well organised socially and politically", with approximately 600 Greek organisations in the country by 1973, and immigrants have strived to maintain their faith and cultural identity.^[10]

By comparison the Greek Cypriot community in Australia doubled following the Invasion of Cyprus by Turkey following a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1974. ^[11]

21st century Greek Immigration to Australia

Greek Australians during a parade for Australia Day in Melbourne (2014)

Since the year 2000, Greek immigration to Australia has slowed down. However, in the years 2000–2009, many Greek-Australians both native Greek and Australian-born, returned to Greece to discover their homeland and reconnect with their ancestral roots. Yet, as the economic crisis in Greece grew, the opportunities for temporary resident Greek Australians abroad were limited. For this reason many Greek Australians have shortened their planned long term stays in Greece and have returned home to Australia.

In the early 2010s there has been an increase of Greek immigration flows to Australia due to unemployment, among other issues, because of the economic crisis in Greece. This has led to the return of many Greek Australians which had gone to Greece before the crisis and also the arrival of newcomers from Greece, who have been received by the large Greek Australian community mainly in Melbourne.^[12]

Greeks by state or territory

The largest concentration of Greeks in Australia is in the state of Victoria, which is often regarded as the heartland of the Greek Australian community. The latest Census in 2016 recorded 93,740 Greece-born people in Australia, a fall of 6.2 per cent from the 2011 Census. The 2011 distribution by state and territory showed Victoria had the largest number of Greek-born people with 47,236 followed by New South Wales (29,479), South Australia (8,681), Queensland (3,304) and Western Australia (2,308).^[6][13]

With regards to the total number of people with Greek, Cypriot or Vlach ancestry, either exclusively or in combination with a non-Greek ethnic group, there are 422,234 Greeks according to the 2016 census. 316,351 (74.9%) recorded Greek, Cypriot or Vlach as their first ancestral response, and 105,883 (25.1%) as their second ancestry. Of the 422,234 people with Greek, Cypriot and Vlach ancestry, 42.9% live in Victoria, 33.6% live in New South Wales, 9.56% in South Australia, 7.46% in Queensland, 3.7% in Western Australia, 1.2% in the Australian Capital Territory, 1.01% in the Northern Territory, and 0.59% in Tasmania. Nearly two-thirds (32.8%) of these were born in Australia, and one-third overseas, mostly in Greece and Cyprus.^[14] The cities with the largest populations with Greek ancestry are Melbourne with 173,598, Sydney at 127,274, and Adelaide with 37,768 people of Greek descent.

Religion

According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2016, Australians with Greek ancestry are mainly Christian (90.4%), with smaller religious groups represented. 6.6% identified as spiritual, secular or irreligious, and 2.6% did not answer the census question on religion. There are also smaller numbers of people who stated Islam, Buddhism and Judaism as their religions.^[15] Of the Christians, 94.88% are Greek Orthodox, 2.5% are Catholic, 0.86% are Anglican and 0.55% are Jehovah's Witnesses. The largest religious body of Greek Orthodox Australians is the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, with its headquarters at the Cathedral of The Annunciation of Our Lady in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern.

Greek language

In 2016, the Greek language was spoken at home by 237,588 Australian residents, a 5.8% decrease from the 2011 census data. Greek is the seventh most commonly spoken language in Australia after English, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Italian.^[16] The remainder of the ethnic Greek population in Australia mainly use English as their first language.

Media

The Greek language press had begun in Australia in 1913 when the first Greek weekly newspaper was published in Melbourne.

In South Australia, the local Greek community published a short-lived newspaper called Okeanis, around 1914 before it moved to Sydney.^[17] In 1935 and 1936 a second newspaper, Pharos, was published, and a number of short-lived titles were issued in the late 1960s, with the longest of these being Tachydromos (founded in September 1968).^[17] Since 1994, a publication called Paroikiako Vema ("Parallel Steps") and printed in Renmark, has served the Greek community in rural South Australia.^[18]

Academic

• Nikos Athanasou – Professor of Musculoskeletal Pathology at Oxford University and Greek-Australian novelist
• Adrian David Cheok – Professor of Pervasive Computing at City University London & Director of the Mixed Reality Lab
• Nicholas Doumanis – Assoc. Professor of History, at the University of New South Wales
• Nikolas Kompridis – Professorial Fellow at the University of Western Sydney in the School of Humanities & Communication Arts
• Maria Skyllas-Kazacos - Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales, chemical engineer best known for her pioneering work of the vanadium redox battery
• John Tasioulas – Yeoh Professor of Politics, Philosophy & Law at King's College London and first Greek-Australian Rhodes Scholar

Art and design

• Michael Zavros – artist/painter
• Polixeni Papapetrou – artist
• Stelios Arkadiou (Stelarc) – artist
• Con Chrisoulis – comic book creator
• Paul Pholeros – architect
• Nonda Katsalidis – architect
• Marc Newson – industrial designer
• Tony Rafty – caricaturist

Business

• Theo Morris – property magnate
• Mark Bouris – managing director of Wizard
• George Calombaris – chef, judge, MasterChef Australia
• Con Constantine – former chairman, Newcastle United Jets
• Andrew Demetriou – chief executive, Australian Football League

Andrew Demetriou, chief executive Australian Football League

• Andrew N. Liveris – CEO of Dow Chemical Company

Andrew N. Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical Company

• Kostas Makris – the richest Greek in Australia (in the top 30 of the richest residents in Australia)
• Nick Pappas – chairman, South Sydney Rabbitohs
• Nicholas Paspaley Senior and Paspaley family (Paspalis) – Paspaley dominate the pearling industry; large property holdings in Darwin CBD and properties in Sydney
• George Peponis – chairman, Canterbury Bulldogs
• Geoff Polites – chief executive officer of Australian Jaguar Land RoverFPV President / Tickford managing director
• Nick Politis – car retailer and chairman of the Sydney Roosters rugby league club
• James Samios – Hon. MBE Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay, Sydney

Fashion

• Christopher Chronis – fashion designer
• Napoleon Perdis – make-up artist
• Alex Perry – fashion designer

Film, theatre, and television

• Peter Andrikidis – director, Underbelly
• Alex Blias – actor
• Tony Nikolakopoulos – actor and director
• Elena Carapetis – actress
• Gia Carides – actress
• Zoe Carides – actress
• Wayne Coles-Janess – director and producer
• Chantal Contouri – actress
• Mary Coustas – comedian
• Alex Dimitriades – actor
• Rebekah Elmaloglou – actress, Home and Away and Neighbours
• Sebastian Elmaloglou – actor, Home and Away, brother of Rebekah
• Damien Fotiou – actor
• Nick Giannopoulos – actor and director
• Diana Glenn – actress
• George Houvardas – actor, Packed to the Rafters
• Hugh Jackman – Actor^[19]

Hugh Jackman, actor

• George Kapiniaris – actor and comedian
• Peter Kelamis – comedian
• Costas Kilias - actor
• Ana Kokkinos – director
• Nico Lathouris – actor
• Costas Mandylor – actor
• Louis Mandylor – actor
• Lex Marinos – actor, director, writer and broadcaster
• Harry Michaels – actor (TV series: Number 96) producer (Exercise Video: Aerobics Oz Style), Sports TV Director
• Bill Miller – director and producer
• George Miller – Academy Award-winning director and producer, Babe, Happy Feet, Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller, director of Babe (1995), Happy Feet (2006), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

• Ada Nicodemou – actress, Home and Away
• Phaedra Nicolaidis – actress
• Socratis Otto actor, best known for his roles in television series Young Lions as Justin Carmody and Wentworth as Maxine Conway
• Alex Papps – actor and Play School host
• Thaao Penghlis – actor (has played Tony DiMera and André DiMera on American soap opera Days of Our Lives)
• Alex Proyas – director, I, Robot, Dark City, The Crow, Knowing

Alex Proyas, director of The Crow (1994) and I, Robot (2004)

• Gina Riley – actress, Kath & Kim, comedienne, entertainer and singer
• George Spartels – actor
• Nadia Tass – director
• John Tatoulis – director and producer
• Maria Theodorakis – actress
• Alkinos Tsilimidos – director
• Antonis Tsonis - writer and director
• Olympia Valance – model and actress, Neighbours
• Zoe Ventoura – actress
• Helen Zerefos – actress and cabaret singer

Journalism

• Georgia Cassimatis – journalist, Australian Cosmopolitan magazine
• George Donikian – news presenter, Ten Network
• Peter Frilingos (dec.) – sports journalist with the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, and broadcaster and commentator with the Continuous Call Team
• Helen Kapalos – journalist, reporter Sunday Night, Seven Network
• Mary Kostakidis – journalist, SBS
• John Mangos – news presenter and journalist, Sky News Australia, Foxtel
• George Megalogenis – author and The Australian newspaper columnist
• Harry Nicolaides – novelist – incarcerated in Thailand on charges of lese majeste (the crime of insulting the Thai monarchy) in his novel Verisimilitude
• Peter Peters – sports broadcaster and commentator (also Manly Sea-Eagles general manager)

Justice

• Chris Kourakis – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Nicholas Pappas – former Chief Magistrate of Victoria
• Emilios Kyrou – Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Music

• Peter Andre – singer, entertainer
• Alex Carapetis – drummer
• Hector Cosmas - violinist, multi-instrumentalist / ref https://www.smh.com.au/national/violinist-became-great-of-greek-blues-20120327-1vwv8.html
• Kaz James – singer and DJ
• Chris Joannou – musician (Silverchair)
• James Kannis – singer (Australian Idol)
• Chris Karan – jazz drummer (Dudley Moore Trio) and studio percussionist (Bob Marley & the Wailers)^[20]
• Vasilliki Karagiorgos (Vassy) – singer and songwriter
• John Lemmone – flute player and composer
• Orianthi Panagaris – guitarist/musician
• Orpheus Arfaras - artist/classical guitarist
• Sally Polihronas – singer (Bardot)
• Nick Skitz – deejay-producer
• Costas Tsicaderis – singer-songwriter
• George Xanthos - pedal steel-guitarist (The Hawking Brothers)^[21][22]
• Con Confos - guitarist/musician

Politics

• Nick Bolkus – federal politician
• Michael Costa – former Finance Minister, New South Wales
• Steve Dimopoulos – politician, Victoria
• Jim Fouras – politician, Queensland
• Steve Georganas – federal politician
• Petro Georgiou – federal politician
• John Hatzistergos – Attorney General, New South Wales
• Peter Katsambanis – former politician, Victoria
• Steve Kons – Deputy Premier, Tasmania
• Nick Kotsiras – Minister, Victoria
• Tom Koutsantonis – Minister for Trade, South Australia
• Michael McCormack - current Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
• Ken Michael – politician
• Jenny Mikakos – politician, Victoria
• Sophie Mirabella – federal politician
• John Pandazopoulos – politician, Victoria
• Nick Staikos – politician, Victoria
• Andrew Theophanous – federal politician, Victoria (born Cyprus)
• Theo Theophanous – politician, Victoria (born Cyprus)
• Arthur Sinodinos – former Chief of Staff, PM John Howard
• Maria Vamvakinou – federal politician
• Kon Vatskalis – politician, Northern Territory
• Nick Xenophon – politician, South Australia

Religion

• His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos Harkianakis – head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia

Science and technology

• Professor Manuel Aroney – organic chemistry
• Gerasimos Danilatos-physicist, inventor of environmental scanning electron microscope
• George North (Tramountanas) – pastoralist, sheep farmer and first Greek to settle in South Australia in 1842^[23]
• Christos Pantelis – psychiatrist
• George Paxinos – Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales

Sport