The exhibition Zaks in the Outback, officially opened by the Consul General of Greece in Adelaide, Dr. Alexandra Theodoropoulou, with remarks from City of Unley Mayor Michael Hewitson AM and Athena (Tina) Karanastasis AM of the Zakynthian Association of South Australia, offers an emotional and richly layered account of the story of the Zakynthian diaspora community’s journey and legacy to the suburbs of Adelaide.
Curated by Karen Paris, the exhibition invites visitors into the lives of Zakynthian families who migrated to South Australia from the 1950s onwards. Driven by hardship but armed with fierce determination and rich cultural traditions, these migrants found a new home in Unley and surrounding suburbs.
Zakynthians brought with them a love of music, food, theatre, and storytelling; with traditions often shaped by the island’s Venetian past.
Carnival masks, golden mandolins, and theatrical costumes recall the exuberant Zakynthos Carnival, a three-week-long celebration held each February. The carnival’s unique features, including masquerade parades, the Giostra di Zante (a horseback tournament), and omilies (street theatre with political satire), reflect a unique cultural flair that the community holds dear.
This vibrancy carried over into daily life. Many Zakynthians arrived with little more than their skills and ambition, but quickly established themselves in local industries.
Men often worked in factories or on construction sites, while women sewed garments in their homes or staffed department stores like Miller Andersons. One such figure was Marieta Mavrangelos, a talented seamstress who designed dresses for both working-class and high society clientele, including Joan Bullock, the wife of South Australian Premier Steele Hall.
Others like Spiros Giatras used traditional methods from Zakynthos to repair shoes, shaping leather with broken glass and sealing heels with wax. These small trades became cornerstones of the community.
Zakynthian cafés and snack bars soon dotted the Adelaide CBD—The Chicken Shoppe in Brighton, Blue Bird Café on Bank Street, and the Symposium Café in the Adelaide Arcade, to name a few. Families like the Spatharos, Loutas, and Giatras clans helped share their food culture with South Australia.
But the exhibition also reaches further back, into the island life that shaped these migrants. The 1950s in Zakynthos were marked by poverty and simplicity. Most families lived off the land, cultivating olive trees, grapevines, and seasonal produce. There was little electricity or running water. As one account describes: “There was no sewage and only some houses had toilets that were manually filled with water… Others had none at all.”
Memories of struggle are underscored by the trauma of the 1953 earthquake, which flattened towns and killed over 450 people. Survivor Dionysios Lobotesis and his family lived in a shed for years after, too afraid to return to their home. This catastrophe acted as a catalyst for emigration, as many Zakynthians sought safer, more prosperous lives abroad.
Through personal stories, historical insight, and vivid photography, Zaks in the Outback is more than a community exhibition. It tells of a people who, though shaped by hardship and history, carved out a lasting legacy in a new land; never forgetting who they are, and never letting the distance of geography wash away the connection to their beloved Fiore di Levante ( “Flower of the East.”)
*All photos copyright The Greek Herald / Peter Tantalos.
