THE GATES FROM PARADISE
Evangelos Scordilis Family Story written by Marie Ganley
On February 28, 1927, Manuel Scordilis was working as a shop assistant in the ASD Café in Brisbane. As a Justice of the Peace, Christy Freeleagus witnessed Manuel’s application to bring his younger brother Evangelos to Australia. Manuel had been in Australia for 2 ½ years.
His father George Scordilis on the island of Tenedos off the coast of Asia Minor, had died as he watched his rights as a Greek citizen to own property and flourish as businessmen stripped away. George had married Maria Vroulou born on Syros and together they raised eight children on Tenedos one of the most prosperous and productive regions of Greece and Turkey for wines and oil.
The Treaty of Lausanne with the New Turkish Republic of 1923 had made Tenedos and Imbros part of Turkey but guaranteed a special autonomous administrative status there to accommodate the Greek population. It did however exclude the Greeks on Tenedos from population exchange because the Greek presence there as the majority. These rights were revoked after the Civil Law legislation of 17 February, 1926 in violation of the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkish policy consistently undermined both the spirit and letter of their commitment: Schools were required to teach exclusively in Turkish, and the local Greek population was marginalised in multiple ways.
Large numbers of mainland Turks were settled on the two islands and Greek property was expropriated by the Turkish governments, claiming security concerns. The adequacy of the compensation is disputed. Guarantees that were made to all the Greek inhabitants of Turkey in the Treaty of Lausanne were ignored, and the Turkish government implemented a policy of intimidation.
Records of receipts and official documents showing application for movement back and forth from Tenedos to Istanbul give testimony to the family of George and Maria Scordilis experiencing the restrictions of an occupied territory. The businesses and family homes of George and Maria Scordillis properties were stripped from their possession, and their three sons faced conscription into the Turkish army to fight the Greek forces. The eldest son Constantine was part of the Greek Army by 1921 fighting on the Turkish mainland.
Between June 27 and 20 July, 1921, a reinforced Greek army of 9 divisions launched a major offensive, the greatest thus far against the Turkish troops commanded Ismet Inonu of the line of the towns of Afyonkarahisar-Kutahya-Eskisehir. The plan of the Greeks was to cut Anatolia in two, as the three towns were on the main rail-lines connecting the inner country with the coast, consolidating the north-west and centre fronts. Eventually after breaking the hard Turkish defences, they occupied the these positions.’ Instead though of pursuing and crippling once and for all the Turkish nationalists’ military capacity, the Greek Army halted. In consequence and despite their defeat, the Turks managed to avoid encirclement and made a strategic retreat on the east of the Sakarya River, where they organised their last line of defence.
This was the major decision point that sealed the Greek destiny in Anatolia, for at this point the Greek army halted and stalled. When the Greek army advanced eventually to the Sakarya River (Sangarios) less than 100 km west of Ankara, it faced fierce resistance which culminated in the 21 day Battle of Sakarya, (August 23 – September 13, 1921. The ferocity of the battle exhausted both sides to such an extent that they were both contemplating a withdrawal but the Greeks were the first to withdraw to their previous line. That was the furthest in Anatolia the Greeks would advance, and within a few weeks they withdrew in an orderly manner back to the lines that they had held in June.
It was from this military backdrop that Constantine Scordillis sent two post cards back to his family in Tenedos. Both cards are dated December with one dated November 2, 1921 and the locality is Kassamba a region north east of Smyrna connected by rail. However the conditions are far from idyllic for Constantine for he reports "My beloved mother, look at the photo, I am on a donkey some place in Turkey.What a mess. Everything is very bad here…". Another photo dated December 20, 1921 as Christmas and New Year draws closer, he writes…. "My loving parents, I wish the New Year to bring you good luck and a happy ending to war if we are lucky…". In the fierce battles of 1922, Constantine in his early 20s was lost on the battlefield and his body was never found.
The second son Manuel Scordilis was the first to be sent from the family home on Tenedos to Australia, arriving some time in 1924 fearing that he too would be subjected to the same fate as Constantine. Finding work in Brisbane, Manuel made application on February 28, 1927 through Christy Freelegus, Justice of the Peace, to sponsor his young brother Evangelos, then 20 years of age to come to Australia.
George Scordilis, Tabac lived long enough to see his lifetime work seized. His wife and children became refugees and were scattered to Egypt and Australia. The boys Manuel and Evangelos were never to see their mother again. Evangelos was sent to Australia with a wad of money pinned to the inside of his jacket. His journey by ship was a long and adventurous, passing through Istanbul, Egypt, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and on September 9, 1927 he arrived in Sydney, where he was met by Manuel.
Maria and her daughters fled to Cairo and became part of the Greek Diaspora. The eldest daughter Maruthia had married by this time and was living on Lesvos but witnessed the atrocities on her own husband who was disembowelled in her presence. Maruthia severely traumatised, returned to Tenedos now called Bozcaada and married Juani Melamatene but never had children of her own.
Both the houses of George and Maria Scordilis and Maruthia and their summer house in the hills of Tenedos are today owned by Turkish nationals. George’s vineyards to this day produce what has been described ‘as the best wine’ in the world. The seizure of the Scordilis family properties was swift and harsh. George was dead barely three months when the family land where George was buried was taken over. Maria was forced to dig up her husbands remains with the youngest child Galatia looking on, and bury them in a plot on the outskirts of the islands only village centre. This was an image that Galatia carried with her into adulthood.
Maria left Tenedos and lived in Egypt with her daughters Despina, Eleni, Angeliki, and Galatia. In 1956 during unrest in Egypt, Angeliki and Galatia became refugees once again and leaving all their possessions behind came to Australia with their families and settled in Sydney. Life in Australia for Manuel and Evangelos was a struggle as for all Australian citizens as the country dealt with a period of the great depression. Before the arrival of Evangelos in Australia, Manuel sent many postcards to his mother and family. They list Katoomba, Nowra (1928), and Coonamble, New South Wales where in 1929 Manuel applied for naturalization which was granted in 1931. When work was hard to find, the two brothers joined other Greeks who foraged throughout the countryside hunting rabbits for their sustenance and to sell. However being an enterprising Greek, Evangelos did not miss the opportunity to profit from the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on March 19, 1932. From his suitcase, Evangelos sold pies on the Bridge. It was so successful that he made many trips back to his lodgings where he had spent all night cooking.
On a card dated March 20, 1932, Manuel and Evangelos’ younger sister Galatia wishes both of them a Holy Easter and hopes that when they have completed the work that they are doing that they would smash their red eggs together at ‘the end of the world’ (Australia). Their mother Maria often writes of her deep love for both of her sons but gives many a gentle nudge to her youngest son (Evangelos) who does not write. On March 30, 1932 she writes "My Dear Evangelos, I wish you many years of your name day (March 25). Don’t forget your name day – now that you have changed your habits – now that you have become ‘catholicised’. Even if you forget that you have a mother, do not forget your name day. God will bring the new morning for everyone".
After 1933, both brothers move North to Rockhampton in Central Queensland, and it is here that they find permanent work and begin to put down their roots with the local Greek business men who by this time were beginning to open the many traditional cafes that became a feature of town and regional Queensland. Evangelos found work at Wotley’s Café in the main street of Rockhampton and through his long hours as a shop assistant was able to get a good look at the local Rockhampton girls who came by after work for a soda and some of the lavish cakes displayed in the Wotley’s window. It was here that he met and courted Mary Hilda Graham. Mary loved to dance and often Mary would look up to the balcony to see Evangelos watching her dance. Ballroom dancing was a style of dance he had not known on Tenedos. They were married in Rockhampton on May 8, 1937 and together they managed the Busy Bee Café in East Street.
Manuel was also married in Rockhampton to Ruby Davies on the November 28, 1934, and had one son George. By this time both brothers had anglicised their name to Scott, and Evangelos became Angelo. Sometime after Evangelos and Mary moved to Mackay and joined many Greeks who made good money with the backbreaking work of cane cutting. Sadly their first born child died at birth in Mackay, and they returned to Rockhampton.
As World War II broke out Manuel and Angelo Scott found work in Townsville running the Blue Bird Café and Dry Cleaning business next door in Flinders Street opposite the Townsville Railway station. The Greek community in Townsville became firmly established as it had in Rockhampton and many Greek weddings were celebrated there that left us children with happy memories of beautiful food and many new friends.
With his family of wife and two children Maree and Paul in Rockhampton, Angelo commuted between the two cities. However, Angelo never came home empty handed, and once again put his enterprising business sense into operation by purchasing heavy equipment from the American Army in Townsville and they withdrew from the Pacific as the war drew to a close. He brought the machinery and trucks by road and sold all to the Rockhampton City Council. In the 1940’s, Angelo’s adventures with army vehicles became legendary around Rockhampton. His was the only vehicle in Mary’s extended family as the war drew to a close, so all found a space in Angelo’s utes or jeeps with the many trips to beach side Yeppoon. As fuel was difficult to obtain, Angelo mixed fuel additives which meant the vehicle was shrouded in a pall of smoke as it rounded the bend at the Bluff, Yeppoon. On returning from Yeppoon in the hot summer evenings, many thrilling hours were spent in the North Rockhampton Cemetery. This was about the place where Angelo would run out of petrol. His children and the children of Mary’s relatives clambered over gravestones while Angelo would walk back into town to fetch petrol.
Angelo’s generosity to his extended family seemed to know no bounds and he was much loved for his kindness and gentleness. Nothing was too good for his beloved Mary. However all did not seem to go as well as Angelo attempted to get an independent footing in the Greek Café industry. He and Manuel do not seem to have gathered enough financial resources to launch their own business successfully. Also there was the need for Angelo’s young family to have stability in one permanent spot rather than to engage in the itinerant nature of his work post war searching for work in cafes. Also Mary began to feel more excluded as Angelo’s work options led him further and further into a strong Greek community.
Both were very brave as the 1950’s began, to leave family and business associates in Rockhampton and pack all their belongings in the Ford ‘tilly’ and head to Brisbane to an unknown future but one they were determined to share together. Through hard work they established a home and reared and educated their two children Maree and Paul who became successful professionals rearing their own families with the same loving, loyal spirit shown by Angelo and Mary.
Maree Scott (Scordilis) became a secondary school teacher. Maree went to country Queensland in her early years of teaching. There were three years in Longreach in central Queensland, and then for five years in Yeppoon on the Central coast and finally after rearing her son with her husband Phillip Ganley, completed 40 years of education in Queensland having filled positions of Head of Department and Dean of Studies.
Paul Scott (Scordilis) reared two children, Stephen and Natalie with his wife Veronica in Brisbane. He held managerial positions with Patrick’s stevedoring. During his later years he was often pulled up by passersby who were sure he was some Greek relative of theirs from back home in Greece. Sometimes Angelo tasted the thrill of running his own business as he would relieve people like Jimmy Londy in his café at Caloundra who at times desperately needed a break from long hours behind the counter and the stove. It was back to the old days as Mary would send the potatoes into the peeler and Maree and Paul would serve the delicious milk shakes, mixed grills, fish and chips and parfaits.
It is cruel fate that just as Angelo was able to gather enough financial resources to follow his lifetime dream of to own his own business that Mary died of cancer at the age of 45. It left Angelo with two teenage children to rear alone away from any family support whatsoever. All his dreams were set aside as he worked to ensure that their education was complete. Years later with his partner Joyce, Angelo set up his small mixed business by Graceville station. It became so successful that by this time through ill health he had to sell out. From then on Angelo and Joyce bought a van and travelled up and down the coast of Queensland. Angelo died on April 19, 1978. He remained a gentle and loving soul all his life. His contribution to the life and progress of Queensland was to hand on to his children the qualities of resilience and survival through hardship; to accept whatever life had to offer and to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
In April, 1995, Maree Ganley (Scordilis) daughter of Angelo took her fourteen year old son Brendan back to Tenedos to visit his grandparent’s home. All properties remain and many precious hours were spent amongst the original family properties and vineyards and original Greek cafes by the port. They celebrated Easter on the island with the few remaining aged Greeks still living there.
Maree Ganley (Scordilis)
Special thanks to Leo and Kathy Naoumis of Highgate Hill for assistance with translations.
George and Maria Scordilis and Family (circa 1906), in Tenedos. Evangelos was yet to be born.