Greek roots bind Australian clan

Daryl Edmonds, Denise McEvoy, Paul Willis and Dianne Jaspers don't speak Greek, have no connection with Greek culture and Hellenism means little, if anything, to them.

Yet, they are the perfect example of why we are drawn to our roots, to the place of origin, to the person that started everything.

They are among the descendants of the first Greek who came to South Australia in the mid 1800s.

Now, 167 years later they delight in recounting the story of their great-great grandfather, Yiorgos Tramountanas.

Yiorgos Tramountanas, from Limnos, came to Australia in 1842 with his brother Theodoros and settled in South Australia after some years at sea. He was 20 years old.

His brother left for Albany, Western Australia, never to be heard of again.
Yiorgos changed his name to George North, married Lydia Vosper and had two sons, George Henry and Hero Clare.

He lived in various settlements in the Eyre Peninsula and spent his life raising sheep in the properties he owned.

He died at the ripe age of 89 having established the oldest Greek-Australian family in South Australia and possibly the oldest in Australia.

We don't know what made Yiorgo Tramountana choose Australia but along the years he lost his name, his language and his religion.

None of his children or grandchildren had Greek names and the story of a grandfather who could speak Greek became a small part of the family's history that faded with the generations. But time, often, has unexpected effects no matter how opaque a founding cultural identity has become.

The Greeks say "you can't turn blood into water".
Over a century later some of his descendants - totally unaware of their Greek origins - wondered why Greek music would make them want to dance, why the sound of a foreign language sounded so familiar, why they'd feel at home in the company of Greeks, while a few others would be perplexed by their olive complexion in a family dominated by blue eyes and blonde hair.

One of the clan was convinced she was adopted on account of her Mediterranean appearance until she found out about her Greek roots.

In the early 1990s the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia (GOCSA) was instrumental in restoring Tramountanas' memory after local historian Dr Michael Tsounis recounted his story in the book The Story of a Community. A plaque was placed on the Greek nursing home in Ridleyton in honour of George Tramountanas-North.

It sparked an interest in the community for the first Greek in South Australia who was also one of the pioneers in the state, which was created in 1836 by free settlers in contrast to NSW and Victoria which started as convict colonies.

His name was also displayed in South Australia's Immigration Museum. It was noticed by one of the visitors who had heard that her grandmother's maiden name was North. She talked to her two sisters and the three of them went to GOCSA to find out more.

GOSCA put them in touch with John Lesses, former vice-president of GOSCA and history aficionado. The result of that simple enquiry was the birth of the Tramountanas-North Association.
That "birth" was preceded by countless hours on the Internet, various archives and libraries to find out more about the person that started the Tramountanas-North family.