The man who shaped the landscape of Canberra and its growing Greek community is the topic of a new book, devoted to the notable Greek family, Tsoulias.
The book is the first in a series called A Trilogy of Greek Voices in Australia looks towards highlighting the work of distinguished Greeks in the Australian community. The book launched at The Hellenic Club in Canberra centers on the life, input and contribution of Nicholaos and Kostas Tsoulias.
Professor Anastasios M. Tamis of Notre Dame University has authored the book, and he joined the festivities at the book launch. The event also served as a fundraising opportunity, with over $25,000 being collected for the New Born Intensive Care Foundation. In attendance were the Former Chief Minister, the Hon. Kate Carnell, OA, Opposition Leader Zed Sezljia, and many more community, business and church leaders.
Kate Carnell spoke to 150 guests at the Hellenic Club about the enormous contribution made by pioneer Greek settlers arriving in Australia immediately after the WWII. “I read this extremely well-written book by Professor. Tamis and I am able to state that the contribution made is both substantial as well as rewarding for the broader Australian society” she explained. Nick Tsoulias had been one of the pioneer builders who substantially contributed to the development of Canberra and its suburbs; he served as the president who co-ordinated the building of St. Nicholas’ Church, the erection of the Hellenic Club.
Nick Tsoulias was the president of Olympiakos soccer Club and the inaugural president of the Macedonian Hellenes in Australia in the early 1970s. His son Kostas Tsoulias, following the family tradition served as president of the Greek community and church of Canberra, vice-president of the Hellenic, president of the Canberra Property Owners Association, vice-president of the World Council of Greeks Abroad and president of the Friends of National Centre for Hellenic Studies for many years. His contribution as benefactor and donor of Greek studies in tertiary institutions has been well acknowledged.
The other two important personalities of the Trilogy, whose contributions have substantially shaped the history of the robust Greek community in Australia, were the late Theophilos Efkarpidis, whose volume is still to be launched and industrialist and great benefactor Jack Dardalis of Marathon Foods Industries in Melbourne. The three individuals were selected as a result of their enormous contribution to the Hellenic and Australian communities and their input in establishing cohesions amongst the community leaders of the Hellenes from other states.
In his eulogies, Kostas Tsoulias described the occasion of the launching as both a memorial, as well as a celebration. “It is a memorial to the pioneer pre and post WWII Greeks who founded our ethno-linguistic and religious shrines of worship, our temples, our schools, our community and our Hellenic Club; like him there were others who contributed arguably more. Hence, this evening is devoted primarily to all of them. We shall remember them.
It is also a celebration. I am celebrating tonight with all of you reverend fathers, business colleagues, family friends, former partners in our community efforts, collaborators in our strive for a better community and for opportunities for our children and grandchildren” The author of the Trilogy, Professor Anastasios Tamis, explained the reasons for the compilation of the book: “Much had been written on the nature of the Australian migration and settlement, its stages, its context, its characteristics and the final maturity of Australia as an immigrant country, especially after 1973 when the White Australia Policy was dismantled. The relevance of this study is confirmed by the aforementioned processes.
The emergence of certain individuals within their own ethnic groups as inspiring leaders or charismatic stakeholders is important to be duly recorded and documented. Their stories are important to demonstrate the impact that those individuals brought upon the nation as well as the influences that they exerted on the events that greatly defined the national history of Australia. Certain of these individuals comprise the living tradition of their ethnic groups with a vital historical role to play. Their political and socio-cultural contributions took place over a long period of time and immensely swayed the decisions of their group and its religious, social and economic institutions.
After all our experience of the past is ultimately based on the recordings and knowledge of the people who lived through it. Despite the flowering of research and publishing on so many individuals emerging from the Anglo and non-Anglo socio-economic background in Australia, there are still many individuals with immense contributions that remained unknown or even disputed. There are also substantial and important contributions to our knowledge of many ethnic Australians that will never be exposed. Within the numerically robust Australian Hellenic community of more than 500,000 members, its numerous ethno-religious and socio-economic institutions, its 1000 community organisations – covering sports, culture, social welfare, political and economic establishments – there were many Greeks who played a truly significant role, yet their names and contributions have gone unrecorded by posterity.
“Their multitude of achievements, triumphs, hardships or even tragedies that marked their days arguably will never be recorded. Many of these immigrants were unable to read or write and many families back in Greece or Cyprus were left to speculate on what had befallen them. Several Greeks were distinguished as skilful traders, successful merchants, competent industrialists and dedicated teachers, scholars and scientists. Most of Greek Australians were successful in securing a safe and stable life and adequate education for their children, inheriting to them their passion for the love of their country of birth.
Naturally, all settlers arriving in this country as immigrants have an important personal story to narrate; family achievements to record together with an amazing experience of acculturation and consolidation. “The three Australian Greek voices are all unique cases of settlers with advance civil conscience: First, is the story of an orphan; then, a refugee from the Grecophone region of the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea); and finally, the child of a refugee from Asia Minor. Jack Dardalis, the Maecenas, has not been the richest Greek Australian settler; however, he was arguably the most generous and the most unique personality of post-WWII Greek Australian settlement, whose patronage gained him immense esteem nationally and internationally.
Theophilos Efkarpidis, the Megas Pontios, the longest serving President of the Greek Community of Canberra, whose undisputed authority on ethno-political and socio-economic affairs of the Greeks in Canberra seriously impacted upon the affairs of Greeks in Australia. Arriving as an unskilled labourer and seeking ephemeral employment in the kitchens of the rural Greek cafes in the vast hinterland of NSW, he built his own supermarkets and later on his construction and development realm. Constantine (Kostas) Tsoulias, ‘the Euzonos’, the son of a refugee from Proussa, Asia Minor, who arrived as a child with his mother and sister. Having worked from his adolescence years in the building sites of his father, he built his own business dominion and benefited Hellenism.”