The South Australian industrial coastal city of Port Pirie in South Australia, 225 km north of Adelaide, has marked 100 years of Greek settlement.

Pirie’s economy is based on smelting lead, silver, gold, copper and zinc, from raw minerals in Broken Hill. The town’s port was explicitly built to load cargo ships, transporting the state’s abundant mineral wealth to markets in Asia, Europe and the Americas. It was one of the earliest places in the country where Greeks settled.

A century of Greek settlement and cultural legacy

Nick Seindanis published ‘History of Greeks in Port Pirie: Celebrating 100 Plus Years’ to ensure that the history of the Greeks in one of South Australia’s largest and most influential regional cities is not forgotten. In it, he traces Zacharia Karapetis, a descendant of Seindanis, who set foot in Port Pirie in 1924.

It was also the year the oldest Greek club in South Australia, the Greek Community of Port Pirie, was formed.

The Seindanis family is celebrating a double anniversary this year.

“My brother’s grandson is the sixth generation not leaving Port Pirie linked to this man, Zacharia from Ikaria,” Seindanis tells Neos Kosmos.

He says the book is a “labour of love” he volunteered to have ready in time for this year’s anniversary.

The book talks about five generational waves of migration since the early 1900s to the coastal city of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia.

“The very early Greeks were all single men, and the islands had no work; they were poor, so most were working on ships.

“And Port Pirie was recognised back then as one of the five busiest ports in Australia.

“So every sailor knew Port Pirie, and because they were building a smelter and a wharf, there was work. That’s why they came here.”

Initial arrivals to Port Pirie were from Levisi, a village in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), known today as Kayaköy, Castellorizo, and Ikaria. And then after WWII, they came from Samos, the Peloponnese, the north, everywhere,” Seindanis explains.

A smelter employee for 38 years, Nick Seindanis, was granted access to historical employment records to confirm firsthand the industry link to Greek migration.

“In 1926, the smelters were the largest single employer of Greeks in Australia.

“My dad had also worked there. Most were from Levisi and Castellorizo and worked there for 30 to 50 years.”

In the early 1920s, a catastrophic fire brought the Port Pirie smelter to a standstill.

During the Great Depression, many Greeks from Port Pirie went to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth.

But before this “internal migration” wave, Census data reveals that Port Pirie was the first in Greek population across South Australia and came second only to Melbourne and Sydney.

“Greeks that would arrive in South Australia knew that Port Pirie was their destination,” says Flinders University lecturer Yianni Cartledge, who assisted in the research.

“If you look at most arrival records, they put Florence Street, Port Pirie, as their place of arrival or place of abode.”

It was the one-stop-shop for all things Greek, he explains. It had the Greek church, club, coffee shops, hotels, etc.

“So, when they arrived, they would head to Florence Street. There, they would be housed by local members, maybe people they knew back in Greece, distant relatives or friends, someone they had already connected with.”

“They were offered work or guided on how to find work and be linked with the community. Often, marriages were arranged that way,” Dr Cartledge says.

While their marriage was not arranged, Seindanis’ parents came together due to this Florence Street community network standing in solidarity with new arrivals.

“I’ve included a chapter in the book of seven young Greeks who jumped ship in 1954,” the author starts telling the story.

“Imagine the ship is pulled up into Port Pirie. The wharf was two blocks away from Florence Street. There are about three Greek kafenia across the road from a Greek church, and they come at Easter time, so they go to the kafenia and the church. These guys are poor; their ship captain is a terrible man who withheld their wages, and staying in Australia was a perfect option compared to going back to post-civil war Greece.”

Seindanis’ dad, one of the seven men, met his mum’s brother, also from Ikaria.

Uncle Bill, a Greek, became their getaway truck driver. But it was the Australians who helped them hide.

“They had to hide in the hills from the authorities for 22 days. The ship couldn’t go because of a short [sic] crew, and the police were looking for them while waiting for another crew from Greece. If they found them before it left, they would have been handcuffed and put on the ship.”

“But the community here hid them. My dad was fortunate; he met a guy who became Mayor of Port Pirie and fought in Crete during WWII.

“He loved the Greeks and became a referee for my dad and some other Greeks. So they went to court, paid a ten pound fine and some expenses, and then off they went.”

“You know, one went to Sydney, another back to Greece… Now those families have doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople as their descendants.”

Stories of migration and community building

Seindanis, a lay historian, dug through archival, church, cemetery, community and other records.

He consolidated his research and sought to corroborate stories he and his siblings had heard from their father. His brother Fred is the president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Port Pirie, and his sister, Koula Korniotakis, is the organisation’s secretary.

“Koula took over the typesetting of the entire book. If it weren’t for her, I’d still be walking around with a big bulldog clip folder saying, ‘What do I do now?’

“I got to chapter 23, the book was almost two kilograms, 450 pages, and she said, ‘Nick, stop!’

“My two children – one in Scotland, and the other in Melbourne – edited the book and set up the Facebook group ‘History of the Port Pirie Greek Community’, which gathered over 750 members worldwide.”

In the book’s second part, Seindanis invited Pirie locals to write a summary of their family history. A total of 150 personal stories were penned.

“Every one of those is amazing. Someone will make a movie of some of these stories.”

Stories like how the SS Amazonia in 1924 came into port with 100 Greeks on it “of which 50 to 60 were from Rhodos island”.

“These guys had paid the captain; some would call them today illegal boat people.

“It was so discriminatory back then, too.”

There’s the story of the Foundas and Kranitis families, who were forced to leave Asia Minor in the purge of over two million Greeks by the Ottoman Turks. Seindanis talks about how they fled the coastal village Levisi “with people shooting at them”.

“They had a boat, and as they were leaving, the Turks were shooting at them. They killed the father and shot the son in the leg. As the father was dying, he told his wife, ‘Piyene yia ton ilio’ [Aim for the sun’s direction], and so she steered the boat, and they arrived at Castellorizo.”

The young boy was transferred to a hospital in Athens, and doctors had to cut his leg off to save him.

As the story has it, King Constantine’s wife, Sofia, saw the boy at the hospital, offered to pay for his operation, and helped sponsor their trip to Australia.

“That’s how this family ended up in Port Pirie. It’s amazing.”

This year also marks the centenary of Port Pirie’s Greek Community, and Seindanis came across the organisation’s 1924 constitution.

“I found it handwritten in Greek with twelve signatories. It was in a cupboard behind the church. No one knew it was there.

“And the wording is beautiful, in perfect Greek.

“Though they said they were illiterate, most early Greeks spoke five languages. They didn’t speak English, but they were very clever people.”

The book, Seindanis says, is dedicated to those Greek predecessors.

“They came to the unknown; they fled persecution from the Turks. There was danger and hardship; they were looking for a better life. None of them spoke English, and they created their history. So, I want to acknowledge that.”

“Port Pirie has a significant place in Greek migration history. And I don’t want that to disappear.

“That’s why I’ve done it; now there’s a book. A labour of love to celebrate and recognise our forefathers.”

The “History of Greeks in Port Pirie: Celebrating 100 Plus Years” book is printed on order. To register interest in the book join the History of the Port Pirie Greek Community Facebook group or email piriegreekhistory@gmail.com