Heart surgeon James Tatoulis was a child of Bonegilla.
The notorious migrant camp housed many Greeks hoping to start a new life they had been promised in misleading advertising.
Professor Tatoulis remembers watching his mother’s disbelief on the train to the camp.
“On the train I remember my mother crying, because all she could see was land and sheep and no people.
“Quite unlike Greece.”
A stark difference to the colourful ethnic journey on the ship to Australia.
Passing through the Suez Canal at just four-and-a-half, he remembers stopping at various points and seeing new cultures for the first time.
“I have vivid memories of all the boat vendors coming on the side of the boat – really colourful – and throwing up fruit and different garments.”
But that didn’t last for long.
Most at Bonegilla were destined for the sugarcane plantations in Queensland, as was Tatoulis’ family. Along with his mother (already six months pregnant) and sister, Professor Tatoulis was only in the camp briefly and remembers the strangeness of a new country.
“I have memories of the camp at Bonegilla, the awful smell of those white pork sausages they cooked for everybody. I do remember the nissen huts that were there, but we weren’t there for long.”
They managed to leave the camp out of the sheer boldness of his father. Along with two men, his father fled the camp, hitching a ride to Albury. Knowing they would be caught if they got on the train, they took a very long taxi ride to Melbourne, where he knew some friends.
After securing a job, that’s when the family joined him.
Life was typical for the family. Both parents worked and complemented each other: the father worked the day shift at a factory, and the mother would pick up the night shift.
They adopted the Australian culture easily, and Professor Tatoulis remembers lapping up his time off from school.
“We used to play in the streets, down the local parks, go out to the movies, all the usual Saturday afternoon matinees at the Westgarth Theatre, and have a great time.”
The only thing he couldn’t avoid was Greek school.
“I resented that because I had to go to Greek school twice a week. I thought the teachers were awful, pretty masochistic and not very nice,” he says.
“I hated it.”
It’s something he hasn’t inflicted on his children.
Academic studies, apart from Greek school, were his forte, and pretty quickly he was being considered for scholarships. It was at that time that Professor Tatoulis decided to pursue a more meaningful career than the token suggestions every high school student receives.
His work on cardiothoracic surgery is world-renowned, and he is also a medical advisor to the National Heart Foundation.