This year marks the Hellenic Community of Western Australia’s centenary, a celebration set to last a year. The Community’s President Paul Afkos OAM spoke to Neos Kosmos about the milestone and what’s to come.
“It was important we commence our celebrations in our own church Saints Constantine and Helene with a thanksgiving service in recognising all the volunteers and employees who have contributed over the 100 years and also to provide thank you to all who continue to volunteer and the 212 employees the community presently has,” he said.
“Every month until May 2024 we have scheduled one event either with entities of the communities or together with other sister associations which of their own choice have requested to hold an event to celebrate and congratulate the central community.”
The thanksgiving ceremony kicked on May 7 officiated by Bishop Elpidios of Kyanea, off a year of festivities.
This was followed by a memorial service for all volunteers that served the HCWA in the last 100 years and who now have been laid to rest.
Alongside Afkos, those in attendance for the thanksgiving service included the Consul of Greece in Perth Georgia Karasiotou, President of the Castellorizian Association of W.A Jim Manifis, Principal of St Andrew’s Grammar Craig Monaghan and the Chairperson of the HCWA Centenary Celebrations Sub Committee, Peter Katsabanis.
They may be celebrating, but the work doesn’t stop for the HCWA, who look to continue improving and maintaining the Greek community in Western Australia.
“The HCWA seek to continue to foster our objectives and Hellenism, to assist Greek Australians either be new migrants, or Australian citizens with their needs at our school, at our aged care and with sacraments in our church.”
“The services we provide are many and we’ll always look at improving and growing those services. Be it in education, aged care and general home assistance.
“Build on existing profitable aged care, 95 beds to 120 beds with the present profitable template. To grow our Saint Andrews School up to 900 students and consider an inner-city campus which is presently a trend in Western Australia. There are many opportunities to spread the growth of our community when we have a good and strong balance sheet.”
The HCWA are looking to grow a society that has been around for way longer than the association. The Greek community in Western Australia has a long and storied history, dating back to the late 1800s, with one specific sector of the community, the Castellorizians.
The Castellorizians have a big presence and historic in Western Australia, with many fleeing Greek Turkish conflicts in the early part of the 20th century, and more followed during and after both World Wars.
In 1912, the first WA Greek association was established, the Castellorizian Association, the first Greek regional fraternity in all of Australia.
The association made sense, given 100 of the 139 Greeks living in Perth at the time were Castellorizian. Fast forward to 1923, and the Hellenic Community of Western Australia (HCWA) was created as more Greeks arrived from Castellorizo and other parts of the Greek word.
The Greek population grew, but life was hard for Greek migrants, in an alien and hostile environment. The HCWA formed with its first goal being to build a Greek Orthodox Church, the one place that could possibly provide relief and comfort for the Perth Greeks. A place to maintain their Greek language, customs, traditions, and religion.
The original 1924 HCWA Constitution stated that: “The object of the Association is the erection of a Greek Orthodox Church, Greek school and the improvement of the religious, moral, mental and social conditions of its members.”
The HCWA took over the pan-Hellenic responsibilities from the Castellorizian Association, but both parties are still involved today.
In a letter congratulating the association on 100 years, prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis said emigration is an integral part of Greece’s history and WA has become a beacon of Hellenism.
“Through a multitude of activities and means, the Hellenic Community of Western Australia has been bringing together, for a century now, all generations and all ages of Greek-Australians, significantly contributing to preserving the Greek spirit, the Greek conscience and the Greek language,” Mitsotakis said.
“Distance, both in terms of time and space, presents many challenges to the preservation of your bonds with our country, your πατρίδα. So it fills me with pride and emotion to see how Greeks in Western Australia have managed to grow, thrive, overcome all diversity and remain attached to their homeland, despite being so far away.”
As Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, Western Australia has a thriving Greek community, that began more than a century ago when the Castellorizians first arrived in Australia and became, and continue to be, a massive part of the Hellenic community in the west.
