Story of Arete Girdis (Roumanas) and Despina Roumanas (Drakos)
By Con Drakos, son of Despina
Arete Girdis was one of nine children of Nicholas and Maria Girdis (nee Nicolaides) in Alatsata in Asia Minor. The children were, in order, John, Stavros, George, Mark, Sophia (died as an infant), Elizabeth, Arete, Evyenia, and Christopher. The four older boys migrated to Australia between 1905-14, to avoid forced conscription into the Turkish army.
In 1914 the Young Turk movement, eager to create a sovereign Turkish state of their own, started the ethnic cleansing of non-Turks from Asia Minor. After months of pillaging and killing they forced the expulsion of those people (the first expulsion).
Nicholas, Maria, the three girls and Christopher escaped to Athens, where they were stay for the duration of World War I (1914-1918). By the end of the war the Ottoman government collapsed and Asia Minor was to be partitioned into the various ethnic regions as it was before the war. This meant that all the displaced Greek citizens could return to their homeland.
In 1919 the Girdis family were in readiness to return to Alatsata, but unfortunately Nicholas Girdis died in Athens from pneumonia. The rest of the family returned to Alatsata, with Maria now the head of the family.
To fulfil the treaty of partitioning, the Greek Army landed in Smyrna later that year. However this triggered a revolution from the ‘Turkish National Movement’ to rescind the terms of the treaty and the Greco-Turkish War ensued. Although there was a war around them, the family returned to normal life, with the confidence of having the Greek Army to protect them.
Back in Alatsata, in early 1922 George Roumanas arrived from USA to marry Arete. On the war front there was a shift of support towards the Turkish Revolutionaries when in mid-1922 the allies proposed to amend the Treaty. The Greek government didn’t agree, forcing the British, French and Italians to withdraw their support. The Turks, now with military aid from Russia were repelling the Greeks on several fronts and were now gaining the upper hand.
In July 1922 Arete fell pregnant. On August 30th the Turks decisively defeated the last Greek stronghold at Dumlupınar and declared victory. This date is celebrated as Victory Day, a national holiday in Turkey. The advance towards Smyrna was now a formality with the remaining Greek divisions surrendering, and captured the city on September 9th.
The Turks continued their onslaught of civilians in Smyrna and surrounding areas including Alatsata. All men were killed, the women were raped, their shops were pillaged and their homes looted. Once again the Girdis family were forced to leave their homeland (the second expulsion). George Roumanas was killed and the remaining family fled towards Cesme to escape. Christopher , aged 15, was hidden under Elizabeth’s nun’s habit, but the Turkish soldiers saw his legs under the habit and killed him. The four terrified women escaped to Cesme and then to Athens.
The brothers in Australia arranged passages for them all to come to Brisbane. George and Mark also requested their mother find and bring two girls for them to marry. Stavros had already married in Australia earlier that year to Malama Marinakis. For her two sons, Maria seeked out two fellow Alsatsatanian refugees in Athens – Ourania Gatzounis (Ganis) and Kyriakoula Roumanas. The Girdis family knew the Ganis family well. Kyriakouli also was already known to them – she was George Roumanas’s (Arete’s husband) first cousin. Maria decided that she should stay in Athens until her daughter Arete had her baby and let her two sisters leave. Eugenia and Elizabeth boarded the Orient Line ship “Ormus”. They shared the cabin with Maria Cholakos and her daughter Kiriakoula, and Evyenia Lathouras and her daughter Ourania, who also were heading to Brisbane. The husbands of Maria and Evyenia were captured by the Turks never to be seen again. The ship arrived in Brisbane on May 21st 1923. (Maria Cholakos, nee Vlahakis, would later be known by the other refugee families in the community as “Kalomana” for her philanthropic role in helping those families who were struggling to cope with life in their new country).
On April 15th 1923 Arete had a baby girl and was named Despina. In December 1923 Maria, Arete, baby Despina together with the two prospective brides, Ourania and Kyriakouli boarded the French ship "Ville De Verden’ and arrived in Australia on January 8th 1924.
Evyenia Girdis by this time had met Con Caris and were to marry so a triple wedding was held for the three siblings on February 10th 1924.
Soon after the wedding Con and Evyenia bought a house at 30 Bank St West End and named it “Smyrna”. It is unsure whether the Girdis brothers insisted, or Con Caris offered, but Con and Evyenia had taken in to live with them - Maria, Elizabeth, Arete and baby Despina.
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Con and Evyenia had four children - Jack, Chryssa, Nicholas and Chris. Despina grew up with the Caris children and was always included in social outings with them. She was like a sister to them. In particular, Despina formed a strong bond with Chryssa being the only other girl and also the closest in age to her. (Jack was killed in a Tram accident in 1943; Chryssa went on to marry Dr. Nicholas Aroney; Nicholas went on to marry Peachy Eleftheriou; Chris went on to marry Betty Londy).
By the end of the end of the decade West End had a thriving Asia Minor community and at the core of it were the Caris, Girdis, Cholakos and Lathouras families.
Maria, the Girdis matriarch, died on Nov 30th 1934 at age 71 from diabetes.
Despina attended West End State School for Grades 1 to 5 and South Brisbane Intermediate School for Grade 6 in 1936 (Intermediate schools were only in existence in Queensland between 1929 & 1953, and provided practical upper Primary level education).
When Despina was old enough, she went to work at the Melba Café. Her two favourite stories of her days at the Melba were the American sailor who would come to eat and greet her with “Hi, honey, gee you’re swell”; and the daily customer who would leave his dish of butter until the end of his meal, then take the butter in his hands, rub it through her hair, and comb it.
Some time in the thirties Despina had received a postcard from overseas, which was discovered many years later in her photo album. On the front of the postcard was a photo of her late father George Roumanas, and on the back written in Greek “Receive a body without soul and flesh and without blood. I send you an image of your father, so please don’t forget me”. This would be the first time Despina would see a photo of her father. The sender of the postcard is unknown.
On August 23rd 1942 Despina married Stan Drakos (Drakakis). Stan was Kalomana’s nephew through her sister Malama. (After operating a café in Oakey, Stan and his brother John came to Brisbane and ran a string of cafes together in the 1940’s and 50’s – the Atlantic City Café in Adelaide St, the Green Dining Hall (formerly Christies Café No.2 and the ASD Café) in Queen St, an un-named burger bar in Grey St, and the Lyceum Luncheonette next to the Lyceum Picture Theatre in George St).
Upon getting married, Stan and Despina bought a house at 23 Ashington St West End and took Arete to live with them. They were to have seven children. After their first two children were born, Nicholas (26/06/1943) and Lula (16/07/1944), they moved in November 1944 into a larger house at 15 Skinner St West End, where they had Rita (03/05/1946), George (04/08/1947), John (24/09/1949), Christy (25/12/1952) and Con (25/02/1955).
Although their cafes were open seven days a week Stan and his brother John still managed time off to spend with their families. Stan and Despina would pack up the car (later, a station wagon to accommodate their seven children and Grandmother Arete) and the favourite destination was Wellington Point, where they would meet other people from Asia Minor and picnic the whole day, usually a Sunday, and not leave until well after sunset.
In the 50’s Stan Drakos became a real estate agent in West End, which was a timely career change for him. After World War 2, the Australian federal government introduced a new immigration program to boost a larger population for the purposes of defence and development, and targeted Europeans. This saw a new wave of Greeks, now from other parts of Greece, coming to Australia. Those who came to Brisbane, of course to West End because of its established Greek community, found comfort that they had a Greek speaking agent help them find a new home. After helping many Greek families establish new homes he became a local identity and was called “The Unofficial Lord Mayor of West End”.
All the children attended West End State School and later, various High Schools in Brisbane. Nicholas attended Brisbane State High School, Lula - Domestic Science High, Rita - Commercial High, George and John - Kelvin Grove State High School, Christy and Con - Brisbane State High School.
Nicholas married Angela Crokidas and they had two boys, Martin (22/11/1970) and Dean in (18/07/1973). Lula married Theo Tamvakis and had a daughter Maryanne (10/07/1969). Rita married Jim Begnis and had Andrew (13/04/1975), Anastasia (09/04/1976), and Maria (15/06/1977). George married Sharon O’Connor and had two boys, David (15/09/1976) and Peter (10/05/1979). John married Ann Blinko and had two boys, Matthew and Jason. Christy never married and had no children. Con married Freda Kalis and had Steven (14/04/1979) and Anthony (19/07/1983).
Arete died in 1979 aged 90. Stan died from a heart attack in 1987 aged 70. Despina died from cancer in 2002 aged 79.
Reference material: “The Greeks in Queensland, A History 1859-1945” – Denis A Conomos ● National Archives Of Australa ● Trove ● Wikipedia ● Oral recollections from Chrissa Caris, Nick Caris and Despina Drakos
PS. Our family is eternally grateful for Con Caris's philanthropic gesture to take care of our widowed grandmother Arete and her only child Despina. Despina would have otherwise grown up without the true sense of family. We are so thankful that Con acted as father figure to Despina and treated her as one of his own children. I am so proud that I was named after him.
Con Drakos