REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS BY ANTONY LATHOURAS
Growing up as a first generation Australian of Asia Minor refugee parents (1924-1939)
Antony Lathouras as a boy with his mother Kyriakouli and grandmother Kalomana 1930
I was born in Bundaberg on 2nd March 1924, in a hall located above the Café Royal in Bourbong St. My father, Demetrios, his three brothers, John, Mark and Mick, my mother, Kyriacouli, and grandmother, Kalomana, lived there. Privacy for the two married couples, my parents and my Uncle John and his wife consisted of hanging blankets over clothes lines. Kalomana acted as midwife at my birth. After a period of time, Uncle John purchased a house at 34 Woongarra St and another house was purchased at 18 Woondooma St. Both houses were in walking distance to the central part of town.
I went to Prep School at St Josephs Catholic School and later attended the state school at South East Bundaberg, now known as South State School. The male members of the family could speak some English but my mother and my aunty Afrodite could not. Greek was the only language spoken in the household and so it was my first language. As my grandmother was very religious we attended the St Josephs Catholic Church on Sundays although we could not understand the English that was spoken. By the time I attended the South State School, I managed to speak some English.
My father manufactured ice-cream in a factory built behind our house in Woondooma St. We had stables to house the five horses and two ice-cream carts. In the mornings, I travelled to school with my father in the cart, and on the way, he sold ice-creams to the children for one penny each. I was delighted as I could have as many ice-creams as I liked for free! A lot of Micrasiates (folk from Asia Minor) and relatives came to work with the Lathouras Brothers in the cafes or to sell ice-cream. They owned two cafes/milk bars – the Elite Café and the Café Royal. Jack Drakos, Kalomana’s nephew who she brought to Australia, lived with us for many years. My brother, Costandinos (Con) was born at 18 Woondooma St in 1931. Kalomana was the midwife again. I remember it was early evening when my mother started to have labour pains. I was bundled off to bed, and at midnight, I was allowed to see my baby brother.
In summer, we would sit at the front of the house which was a Queenslander with an open veranda at the front and sides. Kalomana would entertain me by telling Greek stories (paramithia). At the back of the house there was a creek known as ‘Saltwater Creek’. There were mangroves and it was a breeding ground for sand flies and midges. We always had a bottle of methylated spirit on hand to rub on ourselves to keep the sandflies at bay. Of course there was no ‘aerogard’ in those days.
34 Woongarra St. Bundaberg
Our family moved to Brisbane in 1932. We lived with my Mother’s brother and his family (Nicholas Cholakos) at 39 Princhester St. West End, until my father purchased two houses on the one block at 8 and 10 Spring Street. We lived at number 8 which was the back house and we rented the front house to a family who had sons who helped me with my English. On arrival at West End, I was enrolled at the West End State School. Most of the Micrasiati children attended this school. I left school at grade 7 and started my first job as a cabinet maker apprentice. My first pay was 10 shillings per week.
As a child I remember that we did not have many toys, although my parents gave me a tricycle at some point. Later, when our parents were earning more money we received scooters for Christmas. My cousins and I also built trolley-carts as we managed to scrounge wheels and fruit boxes. We drove the trolleys with rope attached to the front axle. We had many thrills and spills and scraped knees. Unfortunately my Uncle Nicholas did not approve as it was considered too dangerous to ride on the streets. He would destroy the trolleys and hide the wheels but we always managed to find more wheels and build new trolleys and make wooden scooters. Some of the other Micrasiati boys like Jack and Nick Caris and Nick and George Girdis made kayaks and paddled them in the river. Nick Caris and Nick and George Girdis eventually developed their interest and graduated to sailing yachts. My friends and I also enjoyed reading comics, such as ‘the Phantom’, Laurel and Hardy and ‘Flash Gordon’, and listening to the serials on the radio, such as ‘the Lone Ranger’ and ‘Dad and Dave’.
We did experience racism at school, being called ‘Dagos’ and children would make fun of us for not speaking English properly. While we were walking in the street or travelling with our family on the trams, people would stare at us and some would call out “speak English”. Another thing that I found embarrassing was the style of lunch that we took to school. The Australian children had triangular thin sandwiches and we had a couple of thick slices of bread with some olives, cheese and boiled egg, sometimes with a tomato At school, I remember that I was close with a couple of Australia boys who were my best friends. As I was a skinny kid, anybody who picked on me had to deal with them as they were big boys. All in all, my school days at West End school were quite happy.
After school we would go to Greek School from 4pm to 6 pm at the old West End School of Arts. We had a good teacher, Mr Xanthopoulos who taught us how to read and write in Greek. Our main reader was “The Odyssey” the story of Odysseus and his travels. It was a very interesting story. I always enjoyed the class and could not wait to go to the next lesson to follow Odysseus’ travels.
Everyone used the public tram transport system because it was cheap. I remember the fare from West End to the Fortitude Valley was 2 pence (2 cents).
THE FAMILIES
Most of the families living in West End in the 1930s were the Micrasiates:
• Mrs Ariadne Freeleagus who originated from Smyrna, and Mr Christie Freeleagus, the Hon.Greek Consul, lived at 134 Dornoch Terrace with their children, Alex, Irene and Evie;
• The Dragona family with children Spiro and Zoe lived at 133 Vulture St, opposite the Brisbane State High School;
• John Hazadonakis (known as Jack Smith) with wife Olga, lived at 92 Vulture St. Olga was Australian and spoke very good Greek. She helped a lot of families by acting as an interpreter. They had two children, Anthony and Zoe. Anthony was the first of the Micrasiates’ children to study and attend university. He graduated as a doctor;
• Dimitrios Hazadonakis lived with John and Olga until he married Angela and moved to 293 Montague Rd. They had Patra (Pat), Anthony and Dora;
• Anthony and Stella Nicolaidis lived in a small cottage at the back of Jack Smith’s house. Later they moved with children George, Angela and Nick to 2 Vulture St which is now the Cyprus House;
• Con and Marianthi Maliaroudakis (Miller) and children Alice, Angela, Tony, Jack and Clara, lived above a shop on the corner of Thomas and Vulture Streets. Mr Miller roasted coffee beans and made Turkish coffee at the shop. Later, he built a house at 5 Vulture St;
• Nick Mathoudakis with his children, Fanny, George and Sylvia lived two doors from the Miller family at 9 Vulture St;
• Jim and Katina Lathouras lived at 287 Montague Rd with their children Hercules and Nick;
• Con and Eugenia Caris lived at 30 Bank St with children Chryssa, Jack, Nick and Chris and with other relatives including Despina Roumana (later Drakos). They later moved to 133 Hardgrave Road;
• At 13 Bank St lived Con and Kiariaki Hadzadonakis (Species) with children John, Helen, twin girls Mary and Chris and George;
• At 12 Upper Melbourne St, now known as Mollison St, lived the Steve Girdis family with children Mary, Nick and George;
• Anthony and Patra Hadzadonakis with daughters Koula and Zoe lived at 42 Turin St. Zoe married Jim Spinos and lived at 23 Hardgrave Rd with children Mary, Stratos, Tony and Chris;
• Next door at 21 Hardgrave Rd, lived Angelo and Kyriacouli Lathouras with children Tony and Cathy;
• At 39 Princhester St lived Nicholas and Malama Cholakos with children Costa and Mary. They later built a house at 289 Boundary St;
• At 42 Princhester St lived Nicholas and Olga Loutaris with daughter Sophie who later married Jim Castan. Jim and Sophie had Athena, Con, Olga and Paul. The young family lived with Nicholas and Olga;
• At 62 Thomas St lived George and Kyriacouli Girdis with children Mary, Nick, Angela, Ernie and Helen;
• Next door at 64 Thomas St, lived Jim and Angeliki Gallis with children Mary, Tony and George;
• At 66 Thomas St lived Jim and Ourania Bachadouris (Douris). Ourania was my aunty. Their children were Chris, Tony and Mick;
• We lived at 8 Spring St. My father Demitrios (Jim) my mother Kyriacouli, Kalomana and brother Con;
• Nick Keros’ (Kirikaki) family with children Lita, Ester and George lived at 30 Spring St;
• At 214 Boundary St, Mark and Ourania Girdis lived with children Evriklia (Mary), Maree and Nick;
• The Katrakis family lived in Westbourne St with children Mena, Mary, Harry and Grace;
• The Pandelas family lived at 20 Appel St with children Mary, George and Angelo;
• Anthony Cavaliotis and family lived in Montague Road with children Esther, Pauline and Connie They were later blessed with Marcia Amilia, Nick, Con and Arthur;
• The Lambros family lived in Bond St with son John and they later moved to 43 Turin St;
• John and Fortini Nicholaidis lived at 238 Montague Road with children Eleftheria, Katie and Nick. John was a baker and had a bakery next door at number 240. The bakery still exists today;
• My Uncle John and Carolyn Cholakos lived at 39 Hove St with children Connie, Chris, Alex, Edna and Lenny. Aunty Carrie died when the children were young and Kalomana lived with the family until Uncle John remarried and had another daughter, Despina;
• Mick Paul and his family lived at 117 Vulture St. The children were George and Tony.
Nicholas Garalis with his wife Margi (Lathouras) and daughter Rose lived at 14 Merivale Street. In the same house lived Demitrie Mantsavellakis with his wife Eftihia (Lathouras) and their son Fonda. The Lathouras Family often stayed there when visiting from Bundaberg. Nicholas and Margi were Tony Douris’ and my Godparents. Nicholas managed the first Kafenio on the corner of George and Queen Street prior to the building of the Greek Church. Their daughter Rose died in 1928 and was buried at the Toowong Cemetery. Her grave later became the resting place of my Aunty Ourania Bahadoury. As Rose’s parents grieved terribly after her death, they returned to Greece with the Mantsavellaki Family and settled in Athens.
I apologise for any misspelling of names or errors, and any names of families that I have omitted. There were also a number of Asia Minor families who lived in country Queensland and who are not mentioned above.
A funny thing I remember is that most families were referred to as Vourliotes (from Vourla), Chesmelides (from Chesme), Smyrnios (from Smyrna) Alatsatiani, (from Alatsata) and Panayousis from either Kato Panagia or Pano Panagia, I am not sure which, and so on.
LIVING
Most families lived frugally as these were the years of the Depression. Families planted vegetable gardens. The first thing planted was a lemon tree, some had olive and fig trees and many planted other vegetable varieties such as cucumbers, chillies, capsicums, eggplant, ocra, radikia (type of endive), tomatoes, radish, onions, rocket, and the usual Greek herbs, eschallots and garlic. The garlic was dried and made into a plait which was hung under the house until the next season. Many other varieties of vegetables and herbs were planted according to season. The vegetable gardens were organic. Horse manure was mostly used as fertiliser. Natural sprays such as lime, bluestone and sulphur, were also used. Every family had chickens and roosters for the supply of fresh eggs and meat.
As vegetables such as eggplant, ocra and radikia were not available locally, the migrants brought seeds with them from Greece. The families would also harvest wild dandelion from paddocks. We had an easement or lane beside our house where a lot of dandelion grew. Funnily, I read recently that they are serving these wild leaves in some top restaurants in Brisbane and the dandelion is collected from the bush.
We ate a Mediterranean diet, mainly of lentils, chickpeas, haricot beans, rice, and split peas. The milkman and baker delivered their goods with a horse and cart. There was no food wasted – stale bread was made into paximathia (rusks) or bread crumbs. There was no shortage of stale bread as there was plenty available from the uncles’ cafes. The dried paximathia were dampened and wrapped in a tea towel and used as bread to eat with the legumes etc. The milk was sold by pint-size or as much as you wanted to buy.
Every family made their own cheese. Cottage cheese and hard cheese was made by putting the curds into wicker baskets and allowed to dry. They were then put into a barrel with brine and this would harden the cheese for later use. A type of cheese spread called kopnisti was also made which tasted like blue vein cheese.
When tomatoes were in season and very cheap, the families would buy them by the box and make tomato paste which was bottled in jars and sealed with wax on top for use throughout the year Lots of other things were preserved this way – olives, fish, vegetables which they pickled by preserving them in vinegar and oil. Olive oil was difficult to obtain. It could be only bought at the chemist shop. Some families roasted coffee beans and ground their own coffee. They had a type of fry pan with a covered lid and a handle which one would turn to mix the coffee beans while roasting and then grind them in a hand-held brass coffee grinder.
The families made their own macaronia (pasta), fitheh (a small noodle for use in soup) and trahana which was a type of granulated dried pasta. This was made with dough then mixed with tomatoes and spread out in pieces to dry in the sun. When dry, it was rubbed in a course sieve (coskino). Many other things were made such as tarama from the broken mullet roe. This was made into patties and fried and also made into taramasalata (a dip). One way of preparing the whole roe was to dry it in the sun. It was waxed and later eaten as a meze.
We had a wire safe about 70cm square that was hung outside on the back stair landing – this box was made of fly-screen wire. This was used to keep the milk, cheese and butter cool. We didn’t use butter very much on our bread, but we generally used dripping, saved after frying. Later on, I remember the family being the proud owners of an ice chest. The ice was delivered by a man on a horse and cart.
Meat was eaten very sparingly – usually we ate the cheapest cuts such as lamb fry (livers), topside mince and tripe. The topside mince was made into patties and fried (keftedes). This was our Saturday night special. The best keftedes were made by my Aunty Ourania Lathouras. She would buy the topside meat whole and chop it up into pieces with two sharp knives, one in each hand cutting sideways in opposite direction. This made the meat slightly chunky and there was no loss of moisture in the meat.
Occasionally a leg of lamb or a round rib roast tied with skewers and string was roasted. Of course occasionally, the old rooster or old hen would meet its maker, boiled first to make egg and lemon soup (avgolemeno) and then later roasted. A man selling fresh rabbit would visit every Saturday. He would skin the rabbit and my mum would use this meat to make ‘lago stifatho’ with small onions. This was my favourite!!!!
There was one illegal activity performed by some of the Micrasiates and that was to produce Raki (a spirit) 100 proof (or 50% ABV) to make ouzo. Most houses had wood stoves built into a recess in the kitchen. Some recesses were corrugated iron and some were brick. I remember my father having two cans on the stove with the fermented grapes in one and water in the other. Copper tubing twirled around and the cooled condensate dripped into a glass.Every now and then my father would throw the alcohol into the fire and if it exploded into flame it was known to be ready to bottle. The police were aware of this practice and raided some of the Greek homes. The families devised devious ways to hide the stills. My uncle Nicholas Cholakos had a hole in the garden, and if word got around that there would be a raid on a certain day, my Uncle would pile the still and equipment into this hole, put boards across the entry and cover with soil! Wine was also home-made and stored in terracotta jardinières. As you can see, the families were very self-sufficient during this time.
THE HOUSES
Most houses were made of timber and comprised of mostly three bedrooms, a kitchen and a family room where there was a dining table, chairs, a day bed (ganape) and a gramophone. In our kitchen there was a kitchen dresser which was used to store groceries, crockery, tableware etc. There were shelves on the wall above the stove and these paper-lined shelves held the canisters containing flour, sugar and tea. The stove was lit most morning to boil water for tea and was also used to toast bread. There was a gas ring for making Turkish coffee. If there was no gas in the area, a spirit stove was used for coffee. After meals, our family would sit around the table and discuss politics and other issues of the day, as well as reading the papers and the bible. A Greek newspaper came from Sydney once a week.
The sala (lounge room) was used only on special occasions when we had visitors. The furniture comprised of a formal dining table and chairs, sideboard and lounge suite. When visitors arrived they were usually offered a brandy or ouzo and a preserved fruit, either nearagi (Seville orange peel) or a spoonful of masticha fondant in a glass of water, or quince preserves. Greek coffee with a sweet, such as kourambie, coulouraki, finiki or on special occasions, baklava, was also offered.
We slept on iron beds which had a frame that held a mosquito net canopy as the windows were left open in the summer. The main bedroom had a dressing table with mirror and a lowboy which was a smaller cabinet used by my father. There were no built-in wardrobes in those days. I remember that we had bed bugs! It was a weekly ritual when we had to take the wire mattress out and pour boiling water over the wooden frame of the mattress, especially the joints and crevices.
Floor mats were hung over the clothesline and belted with a broom stick to get rid of the dust. Our furniture generally was second hand. Floors were stained or covered with linoleum. As the families became more affluent they purchased better quality furniture, carpet squares and hall runners. In fact, a lot of Greeks had their furniture specially made by a Chinese cabinet maker by the name of Percy Mee Lee. I acted as an interpreter for all the relatives and eventually started my first job as a cabinet maker apprentice with Percy.
SHOPPING
As was stated earlier, the families were very thrifty. A couple of times a year, there were half price sales in the Valley department stores such as McWhirters, TC Byrne and Overells. These stores were located very close together. My mother kept me home from school on these occasions so I could shop with her and interpret for her. All the shoppers were there before opening time and there was a stampede to the remnant cloth department! Everybody grabbed what they thought they wanted. My mother grabbed items and placed them on the floor. I was told to sit on them and wait until she had made her selections. She would then sort them out and purchase what she required. Most of the ladies were seamstresses and made their own clothes – shirts and pants for us and dresses for themselves.
The stores had a system whereby the docket and money was placed in a special cup which was attached to a pulley and spring. This would travel on a wire to the cashier on another floor, who would send the cup back with the receipt and change. As mentioned, most of the ladies were experts in embroidery, knitting, crotchet. My grandmother, Kalomana was expert in making yarn from raw wool which she spun by hand and not on a spinning wheel.
She would tie a bundle of washed wool wrapped in brown paper onto a leg of a bent wood chair. She would then pull the wool slowly and spin it on a piece of stick (known as the spindle or shaft) the length of about 40cm, tapered at each end and with a hook at one end and an empty cotton reel on the other end for balance. After the spinning process, she would make the wool into skeins. That is when I generally got involved. As I held my hands apart, she would wrap the wool around both hands, then tie it up, wash it and then wind the wool into balls. I still have a pure wool blanket she crocheted by hand, albeit with a few moth holes. This blanket was exhibited at the Brisbane Royal Show and her method for making the wool thread was exhibited at the Wide Bay display.
Most of the young ladies were very good at embroidery and crocheting. They made their own doilies, table cloths and runners. I remember they made covers for the old Singer Sewing Machine, all in colour with cherries, coloured branches and the word Singer on the front. Old cloth rags were made into Kourelou (mats), by ripping the cloth into strips and woven into mats. Old Hessian sugar bags were made into aprons, carry bags, and bags to hold the clothes pegs in.
Clothes were washed by hand in a copper pot on a stand with a wood fire underneath. Pieces of soap which was made at home, was put into the water and the clothes were boiled. They were then washed in a galvanised tub and rubbed on a washing board. Later, concrete tubs with a built-in washing board were used. The clothes were then hung on a clothes line to dry. The clothes line consisted of a post with a T piece across the top where two lines were suspended, and held aloft with clothes props which was a long sapling with a small fork at one end. A man used to come around occasionally calling out “clothes’ props, clothes’ props” and if you needed one you could buy it. Every house had a water tank and tank water was used to wash clothes as it was much softer than the tap water.
There was no such thing as a cistern toilet. There was a small out-house in the back yard. This contained a large can inside a timber box that had a lid. After using the ‘can’ one would cover contents with sawdust or shavings that were provided by the ‘dunny cart’ man every week. Toilet paper was not available in those days, only cut up newspaper or if you were lucky to have a fruit shop then you could use the paper that was used to wrap the fruit – a far cleaner option. It was not until the late thirties that sewerage was installed at West End.
The garbage man would visit weekly to collect the garbage. He would come with a draft horse and cart which was a heavy dray with a tip tray. These men were very fit and would carry a large hopper bin on their shoulders, walk to the back yard, empty the garbage bin and continue on to the next house. When their bin was full, they would empty it into the dray. Thinking back, I don’t know why the householders did not put their garbage bins out on the footpath on pick-up days.
HEALTH
There were only a few doctors In West End. Most people went to the two pharmacies, J P Davies and Kennedy’s Chemist to help with any aches and pains. Of course there was the usual castor oil and the veduses which is now known as ‘cupping’. These were used by putting a small piece of cotton wool on the inside of the glass, the cotton wool was lit with a match, then the glass pushed onto one’s back to create suction. This was supposed to draw out impurities from the body. There were linseed poultices for ear aches and sprains. I remember my grandmother placing a wad of cobwebs onto a deep cut on my foot following a tricycle accident. She thought that would stem the flow of blood! Tobacco was sometimes used for the same purpose.
A Lebanese family who lived close-by asked my grandmother if she knew anything about ‘leach therapy’ that could help remove a blood clot on the neighbour’s leg. She said yes, so off they went to look for leaches!
ENTERTAINMENT
The Micrasiates usually made their own entertainment, especially on ’name days’. If there was more than one person celebrating, the families would have the party in turns. Everyone would gather at a particular house where refreshments and mezethes such as anchovies, fried marinated chicken livers, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken, keftedes, beer and ouzo were served. The gramophone played Greek music for dancing such as the kalamatianos, syrto, ballo and tourkiko which was danced by the men. The dining table was pulled aside to make room for the dancing and all the kids sat watching under the table. All the men had different styles for dancing the tourkiko. The kids thought they were funny to watch; usually the nostalgia and the emotion (kefi) hit them. After a few drinks they would generally throw silver coins into the air and then there was a mad scramble by us kids to rush out on hands and knees to retrieve the money. Sometimes you could collect up to one pound ($2 today), which was quite a lot in those days.
There was also a lot of singing, accompanied by some one who improvised playing a tapsi (baking dish) and doumbeleki (a large saucepan). They were very innovative. These parties went on to the early hours of the morning. Neighbours would throw stones on the roof because the music and the singing were quite loud. I have to mention Mark Girdis. He came from Toowoomba with his family to live in West End, and he was an accomplished violinist. His son, Nick, also played violin and later learned to play the flute and saxophone. He became a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra which played concerts in various cities in Australia.
Evriklia (Mary Miller) played piano and there were many great sing-alongs. After seeing Mark and Nick play the violins, Costa Cholakos and I pestered our parents to allow us to take violin lessons. Eventually they relented and bought us violins and paid for us to take lessons. After a few years of lessons and constant practice I lost interest and gave it away, as I developed different musical interests. During the time when I was learning the violin, my parents would tell me to perform a few musical items when we had visitors. I found this very embarrassing. I played in the Saint Francis School of Music concert as fourth violin at the West End School of Arts. At least I managed to play on stage. Mark Girdis was also a composer and he composed a song called To Gaidouraki. It went something like this:
To kaiemeno to gaidouraki pou mou psofise to kaimeno
Pou to iha san pedaki O kaimenos ti tha yeno
Oios oios o kaimenos ti tha yeno
Pou to fortona tomates aginares ke patates
Ke alla fruta mironmena pou me fortona para oios oios.
I think the oios would be the donkey bray or the name of the donkey.
As children, our parents would give us two shillings (20c) to splurge at the old Lyric Theatre on Saturday matinee. 6 pence (5c) for an ice-cream and lollies and a milk shake for four pence from the milk bar. Across the road if you really wanted something more substantial to eat, you could buy threepence worth of hot chips. We would get a pile of the size of a half loaf of bread, all wrapped in newspaper – fantastic.
Later on, when the families became more affluent, they were able to purchase cars. During the Christmas school holidays, families would holiday at Wellington Point, set up tents and stay there the whole of the holidays. Nearly all the Micrasiati families did this plus some other Greek families. Wellington Point was known as Greek Point.
A few of my aunties and uncle enjoying a day out!
The men were very entrepreneurial. Money was saved and many were able to open businesses for themselves such as fruit shops, fish and chip shops, milk bars, cafes and cake shops. Some became agents, providing fruit and vegetables to other Greek shop owners in country towns. Many had saved enough money to buy properties in the late 1930s.
At the start of the Second World War, most of the Micrasiates installed short wave radios which were made by Tony Miller. At the back yard, they installed two long poles connected with wire which acted as an antenna. This provided enough reception to hear the news from Greece in the mornings.
Various artists visited from time to time to perform in concert. Stage plays were put on by the local community, mostly Greek tragedies. One I remember was a drama called Golpho. There were times when we were entertained by the Karaghiozi which are Greek shadow puppet theatres that continue to this day in Greece. They are descendants of the ancient shadow puppets of the orient through the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The artists would also perform a type of Punch and Judy puppet show called the ‘fasouli’.
My mother was very keen to instill in me a work ethic. I often worked in the uncle’s café, washing dishes and peeling potatoes. I would also work in my uncle’s fruit shop on Saturdays as a cashier. The staff would call out the amount and I would ring it up and hand out the change I did not receive any pay for this work usually a free dinner or a bag of fruit to take home.
I also earned pocket money by collecting horse manure and selling it in the neighbourhood for sixpence a cartload. As my father had a firewood business he would chop blocks of wood and there was always a lot of wood chips lying around which I would collect and sell them for sixpence a cartload. These chips were used in the chip heaters that were used to heat water for bathing. With money from all these enterprises, I bought my first bicycle.
RELIGION
The Greek Orthodox religion was a strong part of our lives. A priest from Sydney would come up for weddings and christenings from time to time. Services were held at St Marks Church of England in Stanley St where the museum is today and sometimes in St Lukes Church in Charlotte St, now the Pancake Manor.
Eventually the first Greek Church was built next to the Greek Club in Charlotte St. Kalomana and my Aunty Ourania Bachadouris who spent some time in a monastery in Chios, made a lot of vestments for the priest and other cloth paraphernalia for the Church. They imported some icons and other items for the church when the Ionian Association was formed. The ladies of the association imported an icon ‘Ta Eisodia Tis Theotokou,’ (The Entrance of our Lady to the Temple) who is the Patron Saint of the Micrasiates.
There were quite a lot of marriages in the 1930s, mostly by proxenias (arranged marriage). Kalomana and my mother were very involved with this process. Most brides and grooms would arrive in Brisbane with a photo of their prospective husband or wife. The young ladies and young men would line up on the rails of the boat clutching photos, and the proposed partners were on the wharf doing the same thing. Of all those early marriages, I don’t remember that anyone divorced. Marriage was for a lifetime.
Kalomana, and later my mother, was the chief koliva maker (memorial cake). Koliva was prepared and blessed during the church service when somebody passed away. Many young boys were altar boys. I was an altar boy for seven years. I normally did not mind it except for Easter week, particularly when we had to hold the candle on Thursday for the reading of the 12 lessons and sometimes during the midnight service. If we were not required, we would have a bit of a cat nap under the Agia Trapeza (Holy Table). The best part of the Sunday service was when the priest prepared the sacrament. As we did not have hot water in the altar, I had to go next door to the Greek Club with a silver tea pot to get the hot water. More than likely, the Kafezi (barista) would give me a loukoumi and a glass of soft drink. He was a Micrasiati by name of Evangelos Lirigis.
During the 1930s, Kalomana organised the Micrasiati ladies to collect used clothing to send to the monastery in Chios. The Kalogries (nuns), some of whom were related to my grandmother, wrote to her for help. The refugees from Asia Minor were destitute, and needed help as they escaped with nothing.
The collected clothing was bundled up in calico bales. I had to take the bales to be fumigated before they were accepted at the Post Office. I used to put them in my little cart and wheel them to a firm called Dibbs & Co who were in Stanley St. I returned a few days later to collect them. I was given a certificate in triplicate and these documents were given to the Post Office prior to posting. This was no mean feat for a ten year old!
Life was simple then! All in all, everyone worked hard and made every effort to help each other out. We tried to find a balance between keeping the old ways alive while making a contribution to our newly adopted country. We were always aware that in Australia we had the opportunity to prosper that probably wouldn’t have been available in the old country, and looking back, I think we had the best of both worlds – a strong, vibrant Greek community, set in a safe, healthy and welcoming ‘lucky country’.
9th November 2009 Written by Tony Lathouras
Edited by Tina Menz-Bugler