The Greek people spoke. If not with one voice, with an overwhelming majority of 61 per cent to 39 per cent.

Opinion polls suggesting a tight margin between the two camps were way off the mark, and as the result became clear in the early hours of Monday morning, Australia awoke to the historic news.

What followed was an unprecedented amount of media attention focused on Greek Australians and their opinions. Neos Kosmos presents a few of those reactions.

“By voting no, they voted for their independence,” Theo Bourboulis, owner of an Oakleigh travel agency told The Australian.

Mr Bourboulis said friends of his in Greece preferred more hardship, rather than having their future decided by others.

“They don’t want to be controlled. They don’t want someone saying ‘This is how you’re going to run your life’ … but they have a hard road ahead of them.”
George Fakos, owner of the Aroma restaurant nearby, said the feedback he received from his customers clearly supported the ‘NO’s.

“It’s about being sovereign again, governing themselves,” he said.

“We hear people say ‘I would rather be miserable with our own currency than someone else’s’. People are concerned about the way they have been dictated to.”

Mr Fakos spoke of a visit to Greece last year where he found a community in despair.

“They had given up hope for the future, hope for their children.

“Now I think there’s a sense of hope. They are holding on to the thought that they’re going to be self-governing again”, said Mr Fakos.

Sky News buttonholed retailers in downtown Melbourne

Emmanuel, the owner of a Greek sweet shop on Lonsdale Street, said the result meant “they [Greeks] can have a lot of problems in the future for many years”.

Spiro, boss of the souvenir store next door, had a different opinion.

“I think it’s the greatest day in Greece’s history for many, many years now. I think we are free people.

“We expressed our right to democracy; we’ve made our case to the world and to Europe,” Spiro added.

Perth’s Michael Petridis, a finance officer in Athens before coming to Australia in 2012 with his wife and two daughters, told The West Australian that conversations between school students in Greece typified the situation.

“Children in Greek schools do not talk about their future careers or study plans, they ask each other what country they are going to move to.”

“[Greeks] have voted yes to everything that Europe has wanted since this started,” he said. “Now the crisis has only got deeper.”

In Queensland, 62-year-old Spero Bartzis celebrated the referendum result by hosing down his Brisbane driveway for two hours.

According to the online newspaper The Betoota Advocate, this is “a Southern-European practice – also know as ‘the Greek broom’ “.

“The moment I heard the news I went straight outside and turned on the tap,” said Mr Bartzis.

“I could think of no better way to celebrate my Greek pride than by hosing down my new concrete driveway for two whole hours.”