“When I first got involved with the community and charity life it was not to receive any awards or recognition,” Emanuel George Kallinicos OAM tells The Greek Herald. “It was to help.”
Mr Kallinicos was recently recognised in the Australia Day Honours List 2023 for his lifelong contribution to the Greek Orthodox Community of Brisbane in Queensland.
In an interview, Mr Kallinicos details how his family “has roots in Australia since 1906.” His grandfather first came Down Under together with his brothers. His parents were born in Greece and his father came abroad in 1935.
When the family later moved from the Queensland city of Ipswich to Brisbane, the father worked hard with the Kytherian community of Queensland. Mr Kallinicos recalls these years as difficult.
“There were many Australians who were against Greeks and Cypriots,” he says.
Growing up, he remembers his parents being close to other Greeks, keeping the traditions alive.
“The need for companionship and support was important,” he adds.
In the last decades, Mr Kallinicos has been Treasurer, Vice President and President of the Greek Orthodox Community of St George in Queensland. He was also Treasurer and member of the Kytherian Association of Queensland and a Founding Director of the earlier Kytherian Brotherhood of Queensland.
Mr Kallinicos details how Brisbane’s Greek community includes a broad range of associations such the Kytherians and the Castellorizians. Many of these associations come together and become involved in the broader Greek Orthodox Community of St George.
“It was very hard for the individual associations to establish a church community so they all had to come together,” Mr Kallinicos says.
Over the years, certain needs popped up in the local Greek community of Brisbane. Afternoon school programs were established, as well as a nursing home for the elderly and a welfare program.
“The emphasis was then on looking after age care [services]. But while you devote all your resources to look after the aged, you neglect the youth,” he explains, while adding that a youth group was later formed to help resolve that matter.
“That’s why, we have now gone down the path of trying to establish a Greek Orthodox primary school. We are one of the only states in Australia that doesn’t have a Greek Orthodox school,” he says.
The school is set to open in 2025 and Mr Kallinicos says there are a lot of parents who want their kids to come there.
“The good part of having a strong community in Queensland is that we embrace each community and we work together. It is not a case of them or us,” he says.
When it comes to his name being included in the Australian Day Honours list, Mr Kallinicos appreciates that there are people around him who felt he is worthy of recognition.
After everything that he has offered though, the most important thing for him lies in two words: “Thank you.”
