The Greek Community of Australia

The very slow increase rate of immigrating Greeks to Australia in the first years of the discovery of gold deposits in the continent was followed by a main immigration current in the latter part of the 19th century (after 1880) and a massive one in the 1950s, mainly from the islands of Kithira, Ithaki and Kastelorizo. The first immigrant who arrived in Sydney in 1838 was a sailor named John Peters. The greatest part of the Greek population inhabits the cities of Melbourne and Sydney and the feeling of "nostos" has made many of them return after an average of 22 years, a rate that has increased the recent years. The first Greek inhabitants of the Continent worked in the gold and the coalmines, but the great financial and social difficulties led many of them to turn to the establishment of small, private and commercial enterprises, such as grocery shops and restaurants. After World War II the migration waves increased in order to man the developing industry of the country and many Greeks participated in this effort.

The Greek community, under the umbrella of multiculturalism that became the official national policy of Australia aiming to maintain the individual characteristics of the different cultures that were part of the Australian continent, is encouraged to learn and cultivate the mother language to the degree of having a unique Greek literary activity flourishing especially after the destruction of Smyrna, which produced a new wave of cultivated and educated Greeks immigrants from Asia Minor. The social aspect of immigration becomes the main theme in the literature of the era. The role of the Greek Orthodox Church is that of the element that connects the Greeks of Australia with the metropolis, supporting the formal instruction of the Greek language and culture and instituting Hospitals, Homes for the Aged and schools.