Australia’s second oldest Greek Orthodox community will celebrate its 90th anniversary midway next year.
The St George Greek Orthodox Church & Community of Port Pirie, founded in 1924 and incorporated in 1925, will hold a glendi on July 4, with a dinner dance and a ball at the local Northern Festival Centre, followed by a church procession the next day to commemorate the community.
The South Australian town, approximately two hours north of Adelaide, is native to roughly 100 Greek families that are rallying together, under a new committee elected in April, to maintain the town’s Hellenic roots beyond its already strong 90 year existence.
Community president Emanuel Skorpos told Neos Kosmos the community’s influence in the area, with its church at the forefront, needs to remain open, functional and inclusive if it is to continue.
“The community itself, although it’s small, has come to realise, with a young committee coming on board, that for it to have a strong and positive influence it needs to come together and support all the facets of the church’s and the community’s interests and the functions that surround that.”
“Despite the community being small and the ties being Australia-wide, members of our community have family in Darwin, in Queensland, in Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania and Perth, so we need to rally together to be able to ensure that we can maintain our traditions, within the community.”
Port Pirie was an early destination for many migrant Greeks because of its then thriving agricultural sector, and its smelter which employed just over 360 Greeks in 1925, the same year the Kastellorizon Brotherhood was formed in the town.
The community is now actively working with the younger generation, in the hope that the “responsibility for the church and the community’s future”, will continue to prosper by uniting its former residents around the country.