Samos-born immigrant Christopher Nickles’ cemetery plot has been discovered and restored at the Martyn St Cemetery in Cairns almost a century after his burial.
Mr. Nickles’ granddaughter Bev Starrenburg recovered Christopher’s grave earlier this year with her husband Nick and says she was adamant on solving the mystery.
“We knew he was buried in Martyn St Cemetery but we could never find it,” Mr. Starrenburg tells Courier Mail.
“All we could do was guess.”
“Then at Easter (this year), we were wandering around looking at the grave markers. As we were doing it a tractor drove past driven by a cemetery worker named Ben and he invited us down to the office and we looked at these really old documents.”
A Cairns Post funeral notice for Christopher Nickles published in August 1941 (Source: Courier Mail)
Mrs. Starrenburg determined that there was a major mix-up six months after her grandfather was buried in August, 1941.
Mr Nickles was buried without a plaque or headstone, leaving his family confined to the restraints of newspaper articles and fruitless assumptions about his resting place.
On Sunday, Mr Nickles’ descendants across Queensland installed a plaque at the head of the tailor’s grave.
“We really wanted to honour him, he was a good father and soldier. There was so much tragedy in his life and for 80 years he laid there in an unmarked grave,” Nick Starrenburg says.
Mr. Nickles emigrated from war-torn Greece to Innisfail in 1917.
He worked as a master tailor in the School of Arts building on Lake Street in Cairns before marrying an Australian woman named Elizabeth in 1924. They raised four children – Edna, George, Elizabeth, and Terrance – through the Depression and the early war years.
“It was a real struggle, they fought for their freedom and all he wanted was to be an Australian. And then he dies like that and I think it was really sad how his wife struggled to raise the four children.
“He is not forgotten, to me that is the most important thing, 80 years later.”
West Adelaide Hellas Soccer Club (SC) has responded to a federal safety audit which deemed its Kilburn stadium ‘unsafe’.
The Department for Infrastructure and Transport audit found several cases of tripping hazards, as well as “high risk” inadequate construction.
West Adelaide Hellas SC President Alexandros Alexandrou says most of the safety issues addressed by the audit were sorted within 48 hours.
“There’s two pitches there [at the Kilburn stadium]. We can’t use the main pitch at the moment but we’re awaiting confirmation so we can start using it again. As far as completing the projects so we can start playing there again, we’re exploring some other avenues but we’ve been inundated with donations of trades and products, from paints to electrical stuff, so we can move ahead and finish it off,” Mr. Alexandrou tells the Greek Herald.
“With a project like this, there’s always defects. They are being addressed and being actioned upon by the people that did the work. It’s all standard stuff.”
“The West Adelaide Hellas Soccer Club has a long and proud history of the development of the game at both a state and national level. The club provides a safe and inclusive environment for over 500 junior boys and girls, senior men and women, and amateur players. Since 2014, we have embarked on a club-defining project to establish the Kilburn Sportsplex, for the benefit of West Adelaide Hellas and the wider community at large.
Through the State Government and Football South Australia, $4.8 million has been provided towards building the Sportsplex. As of July 2021, the total spend is $5.34 million, along with a further $500,000 of in-kind club contributions. Since construction commenced in 2017, the club has contributed in excess of $1 million in cash and in-kind contributions. To date the club has delivered, albeit an incomplete facility valued in excess of $12 million.
A recent safety audit conducted outlined issues that were raised with the club and were addressed and completed within 48 hours of notification from the Office of Recreation and Sport. All elements of the Sportsplex have been constructed in accordance with the approved documentation and all relevant structural inspections of the works have taken place, and approved by all relevant government instrumentalities, including the Port Adelaide Enfield Council and the Development Assessment Commission.
The volunteers of this club are committed to working with the Hon Corey Wingard MP, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing, and all government agencies to deliver on its commitment and complete the Kilburn Sportsplex to a match-ready standard.”
Eleni Psillakis has not only defied the odds of a sobering statistic but dedicated her career to lowering it.
The first generation Symi-Australian says it all began at her first full-time job post-release when her draft of a four-day program for ex-offenders caught the eye of the founder of a global non-for-profit organisation.
“[The founder] asked, ‘What is your interest in people with a record trying to get employment?’, and I replied, ‘I am one of those and I know how hard it is’,” Psillakis tells the Greek Herald.
“She said, ‘Right! I want someone with that lived experience working on this program.”
“I’m just glad she saw me for my skills and experience rather than the record.”
Eleni Psillakis runs the Success Works program from Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-west.(Photos: Supplied/Dress for Success)
Psillakis has run the Success Works program within Dress for Success for two and a half years from an office in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-west.
Success Works helps female ex-offenders regain financial independence by offering professional and personal workshops.
In 2018, Dress for Success helped over 15,000 women in Sydney re-enter the workforce in less than a decade.
Psillakis knows all too well that the effort this took was no walk in the park.
“I’ve had women say to me, ‘This is too hard, at least in jail I get a roof over my head’,” she says.
“900 women in 2019 were released into homelessness from prison. It costs the government more money to keep someone in prison than to support them into employment.”
Eleni Psillakis (second from right) says criminal record checks are a ‘big stumbling block’ (Lenore Taylor Editor Guardian Australia, Sam Mostyn Chair ANROWS, Eleni Psillakis, Peer Support Coordinator – Success Works, Dress for Success, Jane Jose CEO Sydney Community Foundation image: Susan Papazian)
Psillakis says employers’ criminal record checks are a “big stumbling block” and are “automatically excluding” candidates who have come in contact with the legal system.
“I understand why it’s there, but don’t just have a tick box where there’s no further assessment process,” she says.
“Instead, how about asking the person the context about what happened.”
“The offence might have nothing to do with the role that you’re offering.”
Eleni Psillakis has recently co-authored a joint USYD-Dress for Success report on discrimination in the workplace (Left: via Conscious Conversations) (Right: Screenshot)
“We found that the ones that disengaged from the program were ones who we having housing troubles,” she says.
“Employment and housing are the two biggest factors for re-offending.”
On the flip-side, the report found that 46 per cent of the women who reached out to Success Works were supported into employment.
“We also found that having women with lived experiences working on the projects – so myself and [a] peer support coordinator two days a week – was a really strong point for the women coming into the program because they felt that they weren’t judged and that they were working with someone that could relate to their experience,” she says.
“The hardest thing to overcome every single day is to not define yourself by what has happened to you.”
“I always say to the women that come onto the program, ‘This is something that happened. It is not you’.”
Greek Australian hospitality figures in New South Wales are calling for the state government to exempt fully-vaccinated patrons from restrictions.
Sydney Restaurant Group owner Bill Drakopoulos says allowing double-dosed patrons back into restaurants would be great if it meant the hospitality industry could reopen.
“If the government were to say you’re only welcoming vaccinated people, and that means you can open in early September, something like that, fantastic,” he tells the Daily Telegraph.
“If that was a way to get our workforce back, dust the cobwebs off our chairs and tables, get trading again, not rely on government handouts to live from week to week … we’ll do that with open arms.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the state government is keen to explore different incentives.
“In particular, we know that people value their freedom, their desire to go back to work, their desire to engage in community life. And those are the type of incentives that will be looking at over the next little while to provide our citizens with the opportunities to know, that if they’re vaccinated and their loved ones are vaccinated, there will be opportunities for greater freedom moving forward,” Berejiklian has said.
ClubsNSW and Australia chief executive Josh Landis says the incentive will help save the hospitality industry from the economic downturn brought on by lockdown.
“We think anyone who does the right thing and gets vaccinated should be allowed to enjoy some of life’s usual freedoms once again, such as enjoying themselves at their local club,” Landis tells the Daily Telegraph.
Landis has also called on the state government to set a vaccination target and for the federal government to support the initiative by waiving the excise on any beers poured on “freedom day”.
The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) has responded to the updated vaccination priority of Year 12 students to help schools return to in-classroom learning.
NSWTF President Angelo Gavrielatos says Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s plan is coming too soon an will put the safety of students and teachers at risk.
“These are very, very difficult and concerning times and we certainly believe that the announcement made by the premier last week was premature, particularly when you consider the caseload, more than 200 each day over the last three days, and more worrying still, less than half of that in isolation during their entire infectious period,” Mr Gavrielatos told the Today show.
NSWTF President Angelo Gavrielatos speaks with the Today Show (Photo: Screenshot from 9 News)
He says schools were very similar to large worksites, with hundreds of people closely interacting.
“We want our students back to face-to-face teaching and learning. We want them back but we want them back when it is safe to do so,” he said.
When Ms Berejiklian announced the staggered return of face-to-face schooling on April 21 last year, the number of daily cases in the community was around five, making it a very different situation even before the Delta variant came into play, Mr Gavrielatos said.
“This is the Delta strain, it is highly contagious and highly transmissible. We must put the health and safety of students, their teachers and families first.”
Announcing the plan for Year 12 students to return last week, Ms Berejiklian said students would be given rapid antigen testing to catch any cases of COVID-19, and those living or studying in hotspot areas would be prioritised for the Pfizer vaccine.
“We don’t want students coming to face-to-face learning, getting the virus and taking it home to their families, that’s why we will start a vaccination program,” she said.
Greece has withdrawn from the artistic swimming competitions at the Tokyo Olympics after four of their athletes tested positive for COVID-19.
The athletes who tested positive were asymptomatic, Greek officials say, but one positive case quickly led to three more.
“The team from the very first day it entered the village has not come into contact with any other member of the Greek Olympic team for obvious reasons,” the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC) said.
”After this development, there will be no representation of Greece in the teams of synchronised swimming.”
The diagnoses ruled the team of nine out of the Games and are now quarantining in a seperate hotel, Greek officials said on Tuesday.
The HOC says the synchronised swimming team was not in direct contact with other athletes and staff since their arrival in the Olympic Village.
It’s dashed the dreams of the team who were just days away from entering the group and duet artistic swimming events.
Greece’s Evangelia Platanioti, a member of the duet team, saw her Olympic prospects slipping when she tested positive in late July.
Her replacement was already selected before she tested negative and was reinstated for the competition.
Tokyo Olympic organisers on Tuesday reported 18 new Games-related COVID-19 cases, bringing the total since July 1 to 294.
Greece is evacuating several towns as the country battles its most intense heatwaves and wildfires in decades.
A fire on the outskirts of Athens is the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece within a 24 hour period after the area to the capital’s north hit 34-year record-breaking 45 degrees Celsius.
“Our country is undergoing one of the worst heatwaves of the past 40 years,” Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias says.
“We continue to fight hour by hour, with our top priority being to save human lives.”
“We will do so all night.”
Smoke blankets Athens (Photo: AP/Aggelos Barai)
Residents near Tatoi evacuated towards Athens amidst a heavy blanket of smoke with Greece’s main north-south highway partially closed.
Fire crews attended to each house and responded to 315 people’s calls for help and six people required treatment for light breathing complaints.
No severe injuries or disappearances have been reported and authorities say several buildings have been damaged.
The cause of the blaze is unclear.
Wildfires also raged in other parts of Greece and prompted evacuations in the southern Peloponnese and the islands of Evia and Kos, authorities say.
To Greece’s far east, Jason Zafeirakopoulis is one of many residents in Rhodes who’s been left counting the toll amongst the charred remains of his family’s vineyard.
“We are thankful that we still have our home and our buildings for our business because the flames came so very close that we might have been homeless today, so I guess we are thankful for that. But we do struggle to figure out how we are going to recover.”
Mike Koulianos is a Maritsa local and says it’s the first time the village has had to evacuate.
“We can see this every day, we have problems with the weather. Today we have 39 degrees. It’s very hot. Everything is changing for the worse.”
Mr. Koulianos says big business is driving climate change.
“Of course it is [climate change]“, he says.
“Especially the people who have factories and all that – everything starts from there. They have to do something so we can follow.”
He speaks for other residents when he says this week’s fires as the worst many have seen in their lifetime.
Archbishop Makarios of Australia has issued a statement today on the Census 2021, “fervently” asking everyone in the Greek Australian community to take part.
“I fervently ask all of you to take part in the Census of 2021, carefully filling in the fields related to the cultural background of each of us together with the question pertaining to religious affiliation by ticking the box indicating that you are ‘Greek Orthodox’,” Archbiship Makarios says in the statement.
Full Statement in English:
My beloved Brothers and children in Christ,
I am convinced that, following the example of your parents, grandparents—namely those who bravely travelled to the Antipodes and consolidated the presence of Hellenism within the Fifth Continent—you also hold today in your hearts the same Greek Orthodox values and traditions, and you continue to honour your identity and roots.
The constant concern and consistent exhortation of our Modesty to the Christ-loving plenitude of our Holy Archdiocese is for each and every one of us to give, through our life and personal example, the good testimony of our Faith and Greek Heritage within Australian society. In simpler words, to show on a daily basis who we are, what we are, what ideals we carry from our homeland, on what principles and values our presence and contribution to multicultural Australia is based.
But especially at this time, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics is conducting a general Census, until Tuesday 10 August 2021, I consider it necessary, in addition to who we are, to highlight how many we are. An accurate inventory of Australians of Greek descent will allow Government authorities and services to obtain a solid picture, which will reflect the reality in relation to the needs of our Greek community in the years to come.
For this reason, I fervently ask all of you to take part in the Census of 2021, carefully filling in the fields related to the cultural background of each of us together with the question pertaining to religious affiliation by ticking the box indicating that you are ‘Greek Orthodox’.
I am not unaware of, nor do I overlook, the difficulties that a large part of our Greek people are facing during this current period due to the prevailing effects of the pandemic and the strict restrictions applied in different parts of the Australian Nation. I believe, however, that it is worth dedicating the necessary time and due care for our older people, participating in this so that the result of the 2021 Census may reflect as faithfully as possible the existence of Hellenism here in the Fifth Continent.
For Census information in Greek visit: https://bit.ly/37cS8Ee or for more details visit: abs.gov.au.
When I first found out about 97-year-old World War II veteran, Ken Keamy, New South Wales had just entered a tough lockdown and I wasn’t able to meet with him face to face.
Cue the President of the Greek Orthodox Community & Church of Canberra, John Loukadellis, who set off on a mission to find Ken in the one place he knew he would be – sitting in the Hellenic Club of Canberra at Woden, doing his crossword puzzles and enjoying the delicious food and company of the local Greek people.
Ken is one of the Club’s longest-standing members since 1990 and as he tells me cheekily over the phone, he visits every day because there’s “never any trouble here.”
“I like the people here, there’s no trouble, it’s a well-run place, the food is good,” Ken tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
John Loukadellis with Ken Keamy at The Hellenic Club of Canberra. Photo supplied.
For his part, Mr Loukadellis, who always sees the war veteran on his visits to the Club, adds that all the staff love Ken as well and “care for him.”
‘I was one of the lucky ones’:
As one of the millions of Australians who fought for the country during WWII at the age of only 18, it’s no surprise people at the Club respect and honour Ken’s service daily.
Born in Yarram in Victoria on October 19, 1923, Ken was the second eldest of six children. He was boarding with an uncle in Melbourne and working in the city when he was called to serve in January 1942.
“When I was 17, I wanted to join the air force and become a pilot, but my mum wouldn’t let me. By the time I turned 18, the army grabbed you then,” Ken says.
Ken Keamy as a young soldier.
From there, Ken did military training and went on to serve with the 5th Machine Gun Battalion in the Torres Strait, specifically undertaking garrison duties on Thursday Island.
In March 1943, Ken transferred to the Australian Imperial Force and after recovering from dengue fever, he left Thursday Island with 100 other men, bound for Red Island Point, Cape York. On arrival, the men had to lay more than four miles of pipeline to help transport water to the Torres Strait Islands in the dry season.
The following year, Ken was sent to Kapooka to complete the engineers training course at the Royal Australian Engineers Training Centre. According to the Australian War Memorial, he learnt everything from squad and rifle drill, to bayonet practice and small arms training.
Wagga Wagga, NSW: Trainees at the Royal Australian Engineers Training Centre, Kapooka Army Camp, cross a cable bridge under attack from low flying aircraft. Source: Australian War Memorial.
By 1945, Ken was serving as a sapper with the 2/5th Field Regiment and in July of that year, at only 21 years of age, he was at Balikpapan – the site of the last major Australian ground operation of WWII.
Codenamed Oboe Two, the landing at Balikpapan was the largest of the Oboe operations mounted by 1 Australian Corps around Borneo, and the largest ever amphibious assault involving Australian forces.
More than 75 years later and Ken remembers it all as if it was yesterday.
“It was damn awful. We had to dive off the barges into water… under fire from the ships there,” Ken says with deep sadness in his voice.
Balikpapan, Borneo, 1 July 1945: Troops of the 7th Australian Division landing at Balikpapan. Source: Australian War Memorial.
“[I remember] when the Japanese got into our camp one night and killed every second bloke in a tent.
“War is not very good at all. You’re risking your life every day of the week and of course, a lot didn’t come back. I was one of the lucky ones. A lot of my friends never came back.”
Returning to Australia:
Ken really was one of the lucky ones as he finally returned to Australia in February 1946 and was discharged from the army in July.
The veteran returned to his old job in Melbourne after the war, but later quit and went to work for the Repatriation Commission. He moved to Canberra in 1974 and worked for the renamed Department of Veterans Affairs until he retired in the 1980s.
Ken Keamy today. Source: Australian War Memorial.
Now, he spends his days relaxing, spending time with friends and at the Club. When we conclude our chat, it’s clear he’s also very happy to reminisce about his long-standing connection and love for the Greek community in Australia.
“When the Greeks came out here after the war, it didn’t matter what they were, you’d see them on Sunday in Melbourne all dressed up in the beautiful clothes and shoes,” Ken says.
“I just love the Greek people, I always have. After the Second World War, when they all came out here, they were some of the best workers that ever came.”
Striking praise from a man who also deserves to be recognised for his contribution to Australian society.
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The last few weeks have been a turbulent time for Year 12 students.
At first, Catholic school leaders called for this year’s HSC exams to be cancelled but this was quickly shot down by the NSW Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell.
Later, the NSW Government announced Year 12 students would return to class in mid-August, but they would need to undergo rapid antigen tests and those in the west and south-west of Sydney would be prioritised for the Pfizer vaccine.
These latest decisions, according to The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), have caused confusion and feelings of anxiety amongst Year 12 students as they worry about their final exams and the potential health risks.
One of these students is Ambrose Konstantinidis from Sydney Technical High School, who shared his lockdown experience with the SMH and detailed how he’s found it difficult to study.
Ambrose Konstantinidis is a Year 12 student from Sydney Technical High School.
“My fist bangs against the desk as my face falls into my hands. This is the third time I’ve tried to write this practice English essay today. I’m on the verge of exploding,” Konstantinidis said in his personal account.
“I look around my stuffy room at the infinite number of possible distractions. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. None catch my eye. Instead, my eyes glance down toward something much worse: my unchecked to-do list.
“Are trials really only two weeks away? I feel like I’ve done nothing this entire lockdown. I call my friends. The knot in my chest loosens as I find out that my household isn’t the only red zone in this productivity pandemic facing my me and my peers.”
Konstantinidis goes on to say that although he is trying to see the positives and “reassure himself” everything will be fine, he still finds himself reminiscing about “a better time.”
“I stare at my empty wall. It was where my 99 ATAR goal hung before I binned it. A week ago, I wasn’t sure there’d even be HSC exams. I try to reassure myself. I don’t have it all that bad. My four-unit mathematics class set up an online study group. It was where students sacrificed their precious study time just to help others,” Konstantinidis continues to the SMH.
“I collapse into my chair. As I stare out the window of my cement cage I reminisce about a better time.”
