Ms Despi O’Connor’s father, Diamandis (Don) Miriklis was born in Australia in 1943.
“My papou Haralambos Miriklis migrated to Australia in 1920 and my yiayia, Despina Mangos in 1921, both were from Kastellorizo,” said Ms O’Connor to Neos Kosmos.
Most of the island’s inhabitants migrated to Perth and Adelaide in the 1920s after the mass expulsion of Greeks from Asia Minor by the Turks.
“My papou first worked on the lead mines in Port Pierre and later my father set up Miriklis Seafood in Melbourne” Ms O’Connor says, adding that they worked “extraordinarily hard as migrants”.
The independent candidate says she is “tired of major parties ignoring Flinders”.
Despi O’Connor has been living in Flinders for over 15 years where she was a teacher in a local school and has been “deeply engaged in the local community”.
“I’ve been involved in school councils, environmental groups, and sporting groups, I am different to any of the other candidates running here, I am very connected to my community.”
It is difficult to estimate the number of Greek Australians living permanently across the Peninsular. Many Greeks have got property and even more take holidays across the coast or own small businesses in Flinders.
“There are about 1000 permanent Greek residents down here and I know that a lot of Greeks come and holiday in this region including my dad’s cousin.
“In fact, I’ve just met someone from Kastellorizo, can you believe that!” Ms O’Connor said to Neos Kosmos.
Older Greeks live in the Peninsular in properties they had bought many decades ago, while their children remain in Melbourne.
The ageing issue across Flinders often goes unaddressed, particularly as the place explodes as a summer playground for seven million tourists.
Ms O’Connor wants to ensure that the recommendations from the Royal Commission Aged Care Report are implemented fully.
“That’s really important to me because we need to be looking after our ageing population right across the Peninsula.”
On her active Twitter feed Ms O’Connor supports the call for increased wages for aged care workers. An issue for the ageing population in the Peninsula according to the independent candidate “is the lack of transport.”
“The services are further up closer to Frankston, so it’s hard for our people down this way to actually access services and in particular if you’re in the older age group.”
Ms O’Connor is aware that if she was to get elected that she will also be working on national issues like language maintenance.
“I am running on a platform of equality and believe in multiculturalism.
My grandparents were migrants and I understand the tough life they went through as they raised their family.”
She says that “sharing of culture” is very important to her, “for all groups here whether they’re Greek, or from anywhere else in the world.”
“I am committed to servicing cultural diversity – I absolutely support language learning, it so important for all groups.”
She regrets that her father never taught her Greek and had to find a course to learn some Greek before she went to Kastellorizo which “was really hard in the Peninsula.”
One of her concerns is the lack of sufficient medical and other service-based infrastructure.
“Flinders doesn’t have the infrastructure for seven million tourists and that creates issues for us and it’s something no political party has ever addressed, and it needs addressing.
“We need support so that our tourists and our residents can actually live and play side by side because they actually support each other.”
Ms O’Connor says she wants small businesses to be supported particularly as they “suffered through the pandemic they weren’t supported enough given that it is such a tourism zone.”
“We need to make sure that all those things have support from our governments and that we’re not just left here hanging off the end of Victoria by ourselves,” Ms O’Connor said to Neos Kosmos.
Recently Zoe McKenzie, the Liberal candidate for Flinders had her campaign posters defaced with obscene graffiti. Ms O’Connor is vocal in her condemnation of the defacement.
“I called that out on social media, I don’t condone it at all, it is horrible to do that to anyone.”
It is difficult to gauge how this independent will go in Flinders, a regionally and socially diverse electorate. What is not difficult to measure is Despina O’Connor’s appetite for a win and commitment to Flinders.