This is the Family Story of Leonidas Naoumis as told to Voula Castan
The story begins with Anagnostis Naoumis and his wife, Stiliani who had four children, namely, Leonidas, Elli, Anna Naoumis and Fotios. The family came from a small Island called Koutali in the Sea of Marmara. This island in 1300 a.d. was used as a naval base by the Catalonians (Spain) who had been given permission to use it as a naval base by the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos the 2nd . In 1307, this use came to an end and the Greeks, who were mainly ship owners and fishermen settled on the Island.
During the Ottoman Empire, most ships from Koutali sailed through the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas to Europe, especially Italy, France, Spain and England bringing to Istanbul mechandise from these countries. Other ships went fishing and traded fish in the Sea of Marmara. This trade extended up to the Romanian and Russian Coasts, from where the people of Koutali were also receiving wheat. To –day the ruins of past windmills are still evident on Koutali as the wheat from Romania, Russia even from Marmara was grounded to flour.
Later, in 1816, some ship owners decided to change to sponge-fishing vessels. This fleet was anchored at the port of Istanbul. The main occupation of the people of Koutali was commercial shipping, sponge-fishing, fishing and the trade of salted fish. Before 1896, Koutalis’ population was 2.400. There was a school of 110 students. The ruins of this school and the church next to it still exist. However, in 1923, the Turks took over the Island, and the Greeks now became refugees and had to leave their homes and start a new life in Greece, in places such as Lemnos Island, Salonica, Athens, and Piraeus. A large number of refugees left for the U.S.A.
To return to our story, Anagnostis Naoumis who was a merchant ship owner of five vessels including his own traded to and from the Island of Koutali to other Aegean Islands and to mainland Greece. When the family had to leave Koutali, Anagnostis took his family aboard his own merchant ship and sailed it into Kimi on the Island of Evia. The remaining four ships were lost/ taken as a result of becoming refugees.
Leonidas Naoumis’s father Fotis, was then nine years of age. The family stayed on this Island for two years. Anagnositis Naoumis used his merchant ship for trading. The family moved to Lavrion in Attica where his youngest son Fotis joined him on his merchant ship and continued to trade until the vessel sunk.
Leonidas, continues with the story and says, the El. Venizelos Government gave the refugees from Koutali and other small Islands in the Sea of Marmara government houses to live in. Fotios married Hariklia Farmaki from Livadia and they had three sons, Anagnostis, Leonidas and Konstantine. The family lived together with the grand- parents in Lavrion, Attiki. Fotios worked as a painter in a factory whilst raising his family. Anagnostis became a carpenter whilst Konstantine was a boiler maker. They continue to live in Lavrion with their families.
Leon worked in hotel in Sounion to help provide funds to continue his education. As is the case in Greece, he was called to complete military service and served in the Air Force for 27 months. In 1969, at the completion of this military service, Leon accepted an invitation from his mother’s sister, Aunty Anna to come to Australia hoping that there he would be able to complete his education. Leon enrolled at Granville Technical College which was part of the Sydney Institute of Technology to complete his training in Mechanical Drafting. This was a three year evening course. In his second year of training and needing to obtain some practical experience he worked during the day at the Holden Car Factory, while continuing his studies in the evening. He met his future wife, Kathy and they married in 1972.
The same year, he left the Holden Car Factory and started work at Plessey, a factory manufacturing parts for telecommunications. At the end of 1972, he qualified as a detail draftsman and in that same year started work in the afternoon as a teacher of Modern Greek at the Greek Ethnic School of St Michael’s Orthodox Church in Crows Nest. He continued teaching at the Ethnic School till 1976. That year he decided to return with his wife and young family to Lavrion, Greece and stayed there for five years working as a draftsman with Lavriotiki, a steel fabrication factory. In 1981 he returned to Australia with his wife and started work in Brisbane as a detail draftsman. Leon and Kathy have three children.
Charis was born in 1974 and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. She has worked in the Queensland Government as a Senior Advisor to a number of Ministers. His son Nicholas was born in 1975 and he became an Architectural Draftsman in 1996 and works for PDT Architects, a major architectural firm in Brisbane, while his youngest son Alexander was born in 1984 and graduated in International Relations and Modern History at the University of Queensland in 2006.
Leon was headmaster of the greek school in Crows Nest, Sydney
Leon’s parents with his aunty Anna and her children along with Leon’s grandmother Annastacia and godson Fotis at the Temple of Poseidon in Sounion. Aunty Anna sponsored Leon to come to Australia.
Leon with his parents and older brother Anagnostis in a ceramic factory in Lavrion along with some of the other refugees
Leon representing his high school on Greece’s National day
Leon’s father Fotis with his first grandchild Fotis (named after him), the son of Leon’s brother Anagnostis
Leon’s parents outside their house in Lavrion in a neighborhood where many of the refugees settled