On this day in 1829, the first Greeks set foot in Australia. They were seven sailors who had been convicted of piracy in the Mediterranean Sea by the British.
Their names were: Georgios Vasilakis, Gikas Voulgaris, Georgios Laritsos, Antonis Manolis, Damianos Ninis, Nikolaos Papandreas and Konstantinos Strompolis.
The name of the ship that brought them to Australia was also duly recorded. It was the British ship the Norfolk, and it brought a total of 192 other criminals, mainly from the United Kingdom, to the harsh continent to serve their sentences.
The voyage, which must have been a type of punishment in itself, lasted between 91 and 93 days and the captain was assumed to be Alexander Greig.
Later on, despite the fact that the Greek authorities granted them an official amnesty, two of the men, Antonis Manolis and Gikas Voulgaris, decided to stay there, thereby beginning the long history of the Greek presence in Australia.
