Greeks in Melbourne

 Greeks in Melbourne 

Melbourne in Victoria is a Greek cultural center in Australia. And there is more than one area in this city where Greeks congregate.

One is Lonsdale Street in the city centre. This is an area that runs adjacent to Melbourne Chinatown on Little Bourke Street. According to the 2001 Australian census Melbourne has the largest Greek Australian population in Australia and indeed it has the largest population of Greeks of any city in the World - outside of Greece.

The annual Melbourne Antipodes Festival is held on Lonsdale Street one week in March and has been held since 1987. The festival is renowned for its Lonsdale Street "Glendi" (Greek for "party") - a weekend-long event that is held to coincide with the Greek National Day on the 25^th March.

An annual Greek Film Festival is also held in Melbourne over two weeks in September, and has been held since 1990.

However recently Greek community life has dispersed from Lonsdale Street to the suburbs and a number of Greek cafes have closed down in this street. To counter this trend recently a Greek entrepreneur built a $15 million, 15-storey beacon of Hellenism on the site of the original three-level headquarters of Melbourne's oldest and biggest Greek community organisation. Papastergiadis said it was important to ‘maintain a central, visible presence as a symbol of a mature, diverse and successful

migrant community that has become part of the city's cultural fabric.’ He added that, ‘During the Lonsdale Street Festival we get 100,000 people through here over two days. The prime minister last year said it was the biggest street festival in Australia, and half the attendees are not Greek.’

Chef  George Colombaris

Also in the city, as poster boy of the Greek community, is Chef George Colombaris. The Press Club and Gazi are two of his restaurants.  He has done a lot to help raise the profile of Greek cuisine in this city. 

Photo: Simon Schluter

Oakleigh is one of those suburbs where Greeks now congregate.

 

Oakleigh is 15 km southeast of Melbourne's central business district. In the 2011 census Oakleigh had population of 7,535. Once a large independent city, Oakleigh was absorbed into Melbourne as part of the eastward expansion of the metropolis in the 1950s. As a result, it once had its own large historic municipal buildings. The area’s strong Greek cultural influence is largely due to the influx of Greek immigrants to Australia in the mid-20th century. Fourteen per cent of those now living in this suburb speak only Greek at home.

 

 Evidence of Greek cultural influence can be found in the football club, Oakleigh Cannons, established in 1972 by Greek immigrants. Further evidence of Greek cultural influence can be found in the Greek Orthodox church of Agio Anargyroi

Plus a very strong presence of Greeks from Lemnos!

 

Thus this area contains many older commercial buildings including banks and retail complexes dating back to the early days of the city. But it is the cafes on Eaton Street, which is a pedestrian mall that most visitors come to visit. The thriving shopping district has an abundance of Greek butchers, bakeries, beauty salons, and specialty shops selling Greek sweets, but more and more there are shops representing other ethnic groups – Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese.

 

Oakleigh is an important shopping and eating area for Takis and me. We drive there at least once a month to stock up on Mythos, Greek beer, and Greek cheeses. And while there we are sure to have a souvlaki or a coffee and Galtibouriko. We have just now returned from stocking up with Greek goodies prior to Xmas!

 

A Busy Time of Year

A Busy Time of Year

Writing and Other Projects

 

One reason I’m taking out time and not doing two blogs a week is that it takes time from my writing schedule. At the moment I’m writing a whodunit about Lemnos. I’m finding this great fun and hopefully it will be finished soon so I’m trying to get most of it finished before Christmas.

Its set in the year just before Syriza was elected, and a time when folk in Greece knew that great changes were ahead but could not guess what they were. But I won’t say anything about these ongoing writing projects, as I feel to talk about them too early is bad luck. (Am I becoming Greek, with a belief about the evil eye?)

Library Talks

Takis also signs the books as the story is as much about him as me.

 

I’ve mostly done these in the form of an interview, with my Emerald friend and teacher of a writing group asking the questions. She’s read the book and can prompt me, letting me ramble on for a while and then bringing me back to what she thinks the audience would like to know about the book. We cover the main stories of the retirement adventure, the house renovation (including those about mice, hidden fireplaces and discovery of the well.) I included a slide show as folk gather for nibbles and buy books after the talk.

Garden Club Talks

Recently I’ve also done some garden talks (with slides) of the garden in Lemnos, and of the Lemnian natural flora. I’ve really enjoyed this last venture, into talks for garden clubs. They are great folks and very curious about gardening situation overseas, as well as fascinated by tales of other people’s gardens.

Before picture of Pergola

After picture of Pergola

The slides however are the main feature when giving the garden talk. I chat while the slides are showing. I have three slide shows that follow each other. One shows plants seen on walks through the island early and later in the year. Another about the planning and setting out of our garden and the last showing the house and garden today.

I tell folk that I’ve found its not always easy being a gardener in the Mediterranean. As I tried to point out one ‘Med’ place is often very different from another. On Lemnos the problem is not just of the hot dry summers, that can extend for three or even four moths, but the frosts and winter snowfalls, and also the very strong winter winds, which mean a root system is weakened and a plant that looks OK suddenly dies as the weather warms. And I tell folks that the plants I use in Greece are survival plants, found along roadsides, or plants that do well in neighbour’s gardens. Nursery plants I often have to replace year after year.

I tell them …

There were a few trees in the garden when we arrived, olive, almond, bitter orange (naranzi), fig. Most of the almond trees were very old and have since died of old age. The olives and figs survive well. The orange, though old and tough, nearly died one cold winter BUT it may be coming back And as we use bitter oranges to make marmalade I’ve planted another two trees, hoping they survive. 

While island nurseries are limited in their ‘Mediterranean’ offerings I’ve bought pomegranate, pine, box, rose, bougainvillea, citrus, agapanthus, bottlebrush, lantana, gaura, wisteria, yucca, fan palm and agave. Some of these do not survive the winter cold, especially the bougainvillea, though I have one of the hardy purple variety in a very sheltered corner and even if cut back by the cold so far it has regrown.  The lantana too is cut back by the cold but often revives. I’ve had to retry lemons several times!

But that plants from the roadsides do well, like euphorbia, hemlock, daffodil lilies, oleander, obviously they can cope with the summer and winter weather but when put in a garden situation they can take over! However mostly I check out what was doing well in other gardens and asked for cuttings or roots. I got my, honeysuckle, rosemary, bay, Iris, canna lilies, pampas grass, jasmine, basil, pittosporum, Virginia creeper, lilac, pelagonium and grapes in this manner. And then there are plants that I started with seeds, or have just arrived and continue to self-seed. These I happily keep and include, fennel, marigolds, pokeweed, zinnias, nasturtiums, alyssum and chamomile daisies.

And then there is Christmas to Plan!

 
Another reason, I’m afraid, my blogs are getting put on the back burner is that Christmas is drawing closer. 

In Greece Christmas is not as important as Easter, and in America the importance of Thanksgiving means that some of the business is taken away from Christmas. But here in Australia Christmas is the BIG holiday. It falls at the beginning of the summer holiday. It’s that time when works places close down for the long holiday and everyone has Christmas parties. So Friends meet and exchange present, Families have to decide who’s home will be the one that will be visited this year (often this planning involves going to one family home in the morning and another in the afternoon.)

As I look at my diary I see I have already six Christmas get together parties at our house to plan for.

We have already done preliminary menus and had one early shopping expedition. I’m pleased that Takis loves cooking, and so he’ll make a ham, and a roast lamb, and a couple of fish dishes, for these various occasions. I really love the traditional English Christmas pudding and cake but no one else in the family does. But whether anyone else will eat them it would not be Christmas with out mince pies and a trifle, so I’ll be making them.

 

Two Very Different Gardens

Two Very Different Gardens

Our Lemnian Garden – Exposed to Extremes

 Mediterranean Gardening

It was a dream of mine to have a Med. Garden, and I’ve blogged quite a lot about before about how my husband and I ‘retired’ and took up the project to renovate his grandfather’s old summer holiday house, and also about the garden I developed there.

I had already learnt something about Mediterranean gardening before coming to Greece. I’d already found Mediterranean plants useful Adelaide before I moved to Melbourne, and then with global warming arriving fast even the garden of our small unit in Melbourne started drying up. However, while there are many books about ‘Dream Med. Gardens’, in France and in Italy many are made by British expats, with money, around large houses. I needed something about a less grand garden.

So I read books like Trevor Nottle’s book, Gardening in the Sun and Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s book Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside. I was much helped by joining the Med. Garden Society, and by reading Heidi Gildemeister book about Mediterranean Gardens, including ‘home gardens’. But what helped most was using local knowledge, and filling the garden with plants found in the garden or along the roadsides, and with plants given me by neighbours. These formed the basis of my Greek garden in Lemnos.

 

Gardening for ten years

The garden block is 1200 square meters (300 used by house and outbuildings) and when we arrived there was a collapsing 100yr old family house in one corner and two ruined outbuildings and a flat area of weeds. But there was a well, and plenty of stones to build walls. Now that it is developed we find we have a very useful garden. Takis makes marmalade from the bitter oranges and I make a lemon and fig jam, plus when we harvest in late summer the buckets of peppers and tomatoes and onions I turn into sauce - very useful to feed our many guests.

Here are some of the plants that were

There

Olive, grapes, almond trees, bitter orange, fig

Found

Euphorbia, hemlock, daffodil lilies, oleander

Given

Honeysuckle, rosemary, bay, Iris, cannas, pampas grass, jasmine, basil, pittosporum, Virginia creeper, lilac, pelargonium, grapes, day lily

Bought

Pomegranate, pine, box, rose, bougainvillea, citrus, agapanthus, bottlebrush, lantana, gaura, wisteria, yucca, fan palm, agave,

We are not often in Lemnos in winter to experience the extremes of wind and cold!

 

Difficulties

Losing plants because of severe heat in summer and frosts and snow in winter

Working with Anestis my garden helper using sign language!

Not being there full time and so not able to be there to sow seeds or to care for the newly planted.

Our Emerald Garden – Shady and Damp

Mild Climate Gardening

Our home state in Australia is known for its lush meadows and damp forests. The farms produce dairy products and vegetables. We lived in the main town of Melbourne, but found that we needed more space for our leisure pursuits, Takis for his carpentry and me for my gardening enthusiasms.  We also needed more room to entertain our six children and friends when back in Australia so we looked for, and found, a home in the nearby village of Emerald.

Though droughts have affected this forested area on the whole it was a return to gardening, as I’d known it, in England and pre-global-warming days in the Adelaide Hills.

Emerald is an area where there are towering trees and gardens are filled with azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons. In the place we bought we found a garden that was already planted with many of these shrubs.

 

Gardening for four years

The garden block is half and acre. We found much that we could work on already in place. There was a large water tank that collects water from the roofs, and that we use partly for water in the house and to water the garden in summer. The previous owners had many gates and fences to keep their dogs and I’ve removed some, and created lawns and flowerbeds.

I created an herb garden and we also grow vegetables here though less Mediterranean vegetables as there are not enough hours of sunshine in this garden. However we can grow berries and various kinds of greens for salad and horta.

Emerald - no frosts but very changeable weather patterns.

While I have found some plants I’ve moved to the garden from the roadsides, I’ve mainly filled this garden with plants I brought with me from other gardens, from the garden in Melbourne and from our previous holiday home.

 

Here are some of the plants that were

There

Camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons, a tulip tree, agapanthus, bougainvillea, cistus, erigeron, honeysuckle, plumbago, tree ferns

Found and given

Acanthus, crocosmia, flax, nasturtium, salvias, sedum, glory vine,

Brought with me

Chrysanthemums, pelargonium, geranium, rosemary, roses, lavender, liriope, box, wisteria,

Bought

Citrus, daffodil, narcissus, bay, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, iris, jasmine, flowering cherries, flowering pears, apple trees,

 

Difficulties

The ground is very fertile and not only do plants grow well so do the weeds. I have to be careful that things I plant do not take over.

Stonework is very expensive so I’ve had to find other materials to make paths and edge flowerbeds.

And, as above, not being here full time means limiting some plantings that I cannot oversee in the early days.

A Political Roundabout!

The Political Roundabout!

 

This is not my favourite topic to write about, although Takis and I have friends who we like to talk with about politics – often quite vigourously. However I feel like I must write something in this Greek/Australian blog and as in both Greece and Australia there has been something going on that has similarities, there has been a restructuring of the political scene that, funnily, has been a resumption of what was there before in both countries!

What goes round comes around again.

 

In Greece there has been yet another election and from what we hear from friends and family, folk are so weary about all the political shenanigans in that country they just did not bother to vote. And so, with a very poor turn out at the polling booths, in Greece the Syriza party is back again, with the same leader, Alexis Tsipras.

 

In Australia there has been a growing disillusionment of the leader of the present government, and more than that an almost air of unbelief about some of his declarations. And so, to pull the party back into the possibility of holding government there was a coup. (In Australia voting is compulsory and elections are very organized and expensive and don't happen as often as in Greece. But internal political coups are common!) The new leader of the country was once before leader of his party, when they were in opposition

Making Deals with the Devil

 

What I find strange, even weird is that Alexis, whose Syriza party is very left wing, is now declaring that he has a mandate to form government after an election when probably only 50% of the population voted. And while he has now got rid of some very extreme left wing members of his party he only makes goverment by joining with a right wing party. Can’t imagine where that will lead!

Will he be able to…?

Cut wage and pension costs again, but less than in previous five years (2% increase in workers' pension contributions, 2% increase in pensioners' national insurance contributions)?

           

Reform early retirement: Decide which categories will qualify for it (and revamp whole pension system before January)? Etc. etc.

 

And, in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, though a true liberal at heart, has had to make deals with some very conservative members of the Liberal Party to maintain some of the ‘less than liberal’ stances constructed by the previous prime minister. 

So, similarly, I can’t imagine where this will end up!

As one media analyst says, he is now having to defend many of the policies of the previous leader that he once criticized. And, as she suggests, any stop-gap schemes made to please the far right conservatives will surely come unstuck.

Meanwhile in the Media Confusion reigns

Oh dear, what will journalist do? All is no longer Black and White! The BBC and other outlets made much of the bravery of Alexis, challenging the EU. They could come up with wonderful headlines like ‘Greek Defiance’, ‘No end to Greek Drama,’ ‘Greece goes down the wire,’ 'Last chance summit,’ but suddenly they have to change focus, from full on praise for Alexis' (George and the Dragon style!) youthful vigour in defying international creditors, to a milder credit for ‘transforming’ the left wing parties to a ruling party. They now can't avoid needing to direct their journalistic fervor at that the crush of immigrants arriving on the shores of Europe, Greece included, and now they leave Alexis to make his own headlines.

 

In Australia too the media has been flummoxed too by the changes in government.  ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s coup against Tony Abbott has “set off a civil war within News Corp”, is how Murdock media company’s popular columnist Andrew Bolt put it.  The Murdock Press (owning 70% of all national papers) had been firm supporters of the ex Prime Minister – as had the shock jocks – now? What can they say? They’ve got the Liberal Party that they wanted running the country, but this guy as their leader? He sounds too liberal. (And definitely not black and white, perhaps he's grey?). Hard for them to rage against, and hard for them to support. 

Hope Springs Eternal!

Lets hope Alexis means it when he says ‘The mandate we received can be summed up in one word: Work. Without selfishness. With a collective spirit.’

And I do hope that he does not return to the need ‘To restore Greek pride’. A dodgy concept at best!

And in Australia? We have a man who believes Australia should become a republic, that we should do more for global warming, and many other policies, but who has to find a way to accommodate the old timers in his new cabinet, and yet find ways to bring Australia into the 21C.