The Cyprus Community of NSW recently relocated from its long-standing site in Stanmore. In moving forward, the Community found itself returning – returning to a place and to people with whom it had already formed a connection, a history written more than a century ago.
The Cyprus Community’s arrival at the Lakemba Club is a quiet quirk of history – in which two peoples meet again, not as strangers, but as old mates reconnecting.
This district – Canterbury, Bankstown, Lakemba – sent its young men to the battlefields of the First World War. They fought across Europe, in Greece, in Africa, and throughout the Middle East. It was in these same theatres of war that Cypriot volunteers first came into direct contact with Australian forces, including those from this district. The Cyprus Mule Corps, operating in difficult and often exposed conditions, supported frontline troops – among them the Anzacs – carrying supplies, ammunition and the wounded across terrain where conventional transport could not pass.
This was not a peripheral role. In campaigns defined by logistical constraint, it was essential. Australian units operating in Gallipoli and later in the Middle East would have encountered Cypriot volunteers regularly. The relationship that formed was not symbolic; it was grounded in necessity.
That relationship did not end in 1918. It re-emerged during the Second World War, when members of the Cyprus Regiment and other Cypriot and Greek volunteers again served in the same campaigns as Australian forces – in Greece, in Crete, in North Africa and across Europe. Their responsibilities were often centred on transport, engineering and support, yet these roles placed them directly within operational environments, including withdrawal, capture, and sustained engagement under pressure.
Australian forces were present in each of these theatres. Units moved through Greece and Crete in 1941, through North Africa during the desert campaigns, and across the Mediterranean. Men from Canterbury, Bankstown and Lakemba who enlisted during this period would have encountered Cypriot and Greek personnel repeatedly, within the same command structures and under the same conditions.
The connection between Australian and Cypriot personnel was therefore not incidental. It was consistent, practical, and formed across two wars under the same operational demands.
The Second World War: Continuity across theatres
By the Second World War, this association extended across a broader operational field.
The Cyprus Regiment, established in 1940, drew volunteers from across the island and was deployed in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. Its members were engaged primarily in transport, engineering and logistical roles, but these roles placed them directly within operational environments, including withdrawal and capture during the German advance in Greece in 1941.
Australian forces operated in each of these theatres. Units from the 6th Division in Greece and Crete, and formations in North Africa, moved through the same campaigns. Men from Canterbury, Bankstown and Lakemba who enlisted during this period would have encountered Cypriot and Greek personnel repeatedly – within the same command structures and under the same operational pressures.
At the same time, the district itself was drawn directly into the war effort. Bankstown became a major airbase, later utilised by United States forces. Canterbury Racecourse was converted into a military camp. A large military hospital at nearby Herne Bay treated thousands of servicemen. Training, logistics and observation units operated throughout the area. Lakemba and its surrounding suburbs functioned as both a source of personnel and a support base.
What might appear as coincidence is better understood as continuity. Generations apart, shaped by different circumstances, yet connected by a shared history that has drawn us back together in Lakemba. Our forebears knew each other well, and we now continue that friendship decades later.
There is something instructive in this.
The founders of the Lakemba Club and the families who built this district carried with them the experience of service and sacrifice from the First World War, followed by the further demands and losses of the Second. In both conflicts, our peoples served in the same theatres, under the same conditions, and for the same cause. Across distant battlefields, a practical bond was formed—one that has endured well beyond those years of conflict.
The Cyprus Community carries its own parallel history. Today, those histories sit alongside one another—not as separate narratives, but as part of the same story.
As Australians, we inherit that story collectively. The values formed in those years—discipline, loyalty, sacrifce, and mutual reliance—remain central to how communities endure.
That is the context in which we now stand together again.
It is in that spirit that we honour those who came before us.
Lakemba and the adjoining districts of Belmore, Punchbowl and Canterbury do not sit on the margins of Australia’s war history. They are part of its formation.
By the end of the First World War, the district was still emerging—part rural, part suburban, connected by rail and shaped by modest landholdings. It became, in practical terms, a place of settlement for returned soldiers. In 1916, in what is now Lakemba, local tradesmen constructed a house for a wounded serviceman, donating their labour to ensure he had a permanent home. Across Canterbury, similar acts followed. The district absorbed those who had served and incorporated the consequences of that service into its civic life.
The men who settled here had fought in Gallipoli, on the Western Front, and in the Middle East. Their experience was not uniform, but it was continuous. They returned with it and built communities that reflected both endurance and restraint.
Shared Campaigns, Shared Ground
During the First World War, Cypriots enlisted in large numbers in the Cyprus Mule Corps, a logistical formation operating under British command. Their function was precise and indispensable. In Gallipoli and later in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, mule trains transported ammunition, water, provisions and the wounded across terrain that could not be traversed by vehicles.
The veterans of the Lakemba district first encountered their Cypriot counterparts in the theatres of war; a century later, their descendants gather once more, united in honouring their service.
The Lakemba War Memorial
In 1953, the Lakemba War Memorial was unveiled near the railway station. Its form—a broken column—records interruption rather than completion. The inscription is restrained. It names loss without interpretation.
That restraint reflects the district itself. It does not elaborate. It acknowledges.
The presence of the Cyprus Community within the Lakemba Club is best understood in this context. From Gallipoli and the Middle East in the First World War, through Greece, Crete and North Africa Australians and Cypriots operated within the same campaigns.
19 April: Commemoration in context
On 19 April, between 3:00pm and 5:00pm, a commemorative service will be held at the Lakemba Club.
The occasion recognises Australians of all backgrounds—including those from Cyprus, and Greece—who served side by side across both world wars.
The Cyprus Community expresses its appreciation to the Lakemba Club for hosting this commemoration and for maintaining a tradition that aligns closely with its own history. There is a shared understanding that the connection between these communities is longstanding, formed under conditions that required cooperation rather than distinction.
April 19 brings together two sets of descendants whose forebears served in both World Wars, often in the same theatres, yet from opposite ends of the world—now meeting again in Lakemba.
That, in itself, is a moment of historical significance. It is one that members should recognise and value, particularly given that a substantial majority of our Community are descendants of families who came from Cyprus.
What exists today is not a new relationship. It is one that has simply become visible again.
Arguably, it extends back more than a century—and we are fortunate to share in this moment together once more.
LAKEMBA RSL SUB-BRANCH MEMORIAL SERVICE
