They say that as we grow older, we become more like our parents. Growing up in Melbourne as a young boy in the 1970s, one of my tasks was to bring home a copy of the Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos every Monday and Thursday for my parents.

One could safely assume that Neos Kosmos was in the home of most Greek households, an inseparable component in the lives of first-generation migrants. There weren’t many Greek news outlets; the internet wasn’t around. Neos Kosmos was the first go-to source for news about developments in Greece and the local community in Melbourne.

Scanning for the past lives of the dead

My father would go straight to the back sports pages for the soccer news and results. My mother would gravitate closer to the middle of the paper, which contained the obituaries and memorial notices. I would make fun of my mother, and say, ‘πάλι στους πεθαμένους’, why this fixation with dead people? There are so many exciting things happening in the world. She had a standard reply, ‘Maybe I might recognise someone’.

My parents are now retired, but I still bring them the paper; their habits haven’t changed, but mine have. I, too, gravitate to the obituaries. Why? Well, to see if I recognise anyone. I’m at an age where all my peers and friends have elderly parents dealing with issues of ageing and health concerns. Secondly, this is a generation that I admire and respect immensely. They came to Australia loaded with the memories and trauma of Greece’s turbulent twentieth century (German Occupation, Civil War, the Junta years, etc). We, their children, are products of their perseverance, stoicism, industriousness, unrealised dreams, missteps, pain and suffering.

Furthermore, I like to look at obituaries due to my passion for geography, so where did these Greek migrants come from? I recall my primary school years when I knew all the capital cities of the 52 Greek departments or administrative districts (νομοί); only later did I learn about the capital cities of Australia’s eight states and territories. That’s the way Greek school was back then. You learnt many things by rote, and there was one prevailing teaching methodology, το ξύλο βγήκε από το παράδεισο – spare the rod and spoil the child. This, however, is a discussion for another day.

Satisfying a curiosity

To satisfy my curiosity, I decided to examine 1,192 obituaries in Neos Kosmos and record the details of the deceased: names, ages, and places of birth. Anyone born in Australia was excluded. The aim was to identify the place of origin of Greek migrants who arrived in the post-war period and lived in Melbourne, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s; by the early 1970s, these migration flows reduced to a trickle. How did I determine the sample size that would allow me to make sound generalisations and identify macro-patterns? More than 150,000 post-war Greek migrants came to Australia, most settling in Victoria. Statistical analysis shows that with population sizes over 100,000 people, a sample size of 1,056 will give rise to data-capturing trends and tendencies with an error margin of plus or minus 3 per cent with a 95 per cent confidence level. A two per cent error margin requires a sample size of 2345 persons, while 1 per cent needs 8763 persons. Although time-consuming, one can increase the sample size to minimise the error margin, but this will have no impact on the general trends and basic conclusions reached with a sample size of 1,056 people.

The only new data that will appear would be on the periphery and statistically insignificant. I used a slightly higher sample size of 1192 as this captured data from the last 12 months (14th August 2023 to 15th August 2024). Feedback from funeral agencies specialising in Greek funerals notes that the overwhelming majority – 80-95 per cent, chose to place an obituary in Neos Kosmos.

Where did most post-war migrants come from?

The sample size of 1,192 had slightly more men, 54.7 per cent, than women, 45.3 per cent, and it revealed an average life expectancy of 85.3 years, 86.1 years for women, and 84.7 years for men. These figures compare favourably to the Australian national average of 83.9 years, almost a year and a half higher.

The average in Greece is 82.8 years. Many studies show that lifestyle and diet have played a role in these figures. Some contributing factors are the prevalence of home cooking, eating in family group settings, and napping after meals. The challenge for second-generation Greek Australians is whether they can maintain some positive habits or revert to the lower Australian average. My advice to younger Greek Australians is to enjoy your pulses, develop an appreciation for endives (χόρτα), olive oil is the best chuck out the rest, go easy on the lamb cutlets, improve your home cooking skills and take up gardening.

The Peloponnese and Macedonia dominate with 56.1 per cent combined the location of where most of our elders came from, and that is no surprise. The Aegean Islands are a distant third at 9.5 per cent, heavily dominated by migrants from the islands of Lemnos and Lesbos. Central Greece might be a surprise in fourth place, mainly due to the department of Aetolia-Acarnania, which has the sizeable cities of Mesolongi, Agrinio and Nafpaktos. Cyprus in fifth place is fascinating as most of this migration would have taken place after the 1974 Turkish invasion. Lefkada dominates Ionian Island migration, while Chania does so for Crete.

The low rankings for Thessaly, Epirus and Thrace are probably due to more significant migration to Western European economies. The origins of migrants who went to West Germany were mainly from northern Greece (Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus and Thrace) and the Ionian Islands and Crete. There were far fewer from southern Greece. Australia became a destination for Egyptian Greeks after the ascendancy of Nasserism in Egypt in the 1950s.

At the same time, Turkey makes the list due to declining Greek populations in Istanbul, Imbros and Tenedos. Georgia in the list is understandable as there’s been a Greek presence in the Caucasus since antiquity. One could argue that more regions would appear in the table if the sample size increased. For example, former Soviet states like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would emerge. However, this new data, albeit interesting, doesn’t impact on the main trends.

Communities across Melbourne

Depending on where you live in Melbourne and based on the profile of various brotherhood associations, the provincial origins of Greek migrants aren’t surprising. Who doesn’t know someone from Messinia (Kalamata), especially if you live in the south-eastern suburbs? You will encounter many Florinians in Melbourne’s north, while Laconians dominate in Brunswick and Coburg. Five (Messinia, Laconia, Arcadia, Achaia, Corinth) of the seven districts that make up the Peloponnese are in the top 10 places of origin.

Those from Lesbos and Limnos are from the same administrative unit and appear to be in near equal numbers. Greeks from Rodopi (Komotini) and Preveza departments do not appear but would definitely register in a larger sample size but with no impact on the big picture. Several hundred people did arrive in Australia from the Thracian region of Rodopi (Komotini), and I grew up with many of them. Their details are not in the obituary data captured as they’re part of Greece’s Muslim minority.

What is in a name?

When it comes to names, all appear relatively predictable. The most common male names in descending order are Georgios, Konstantinos, Ioannis, Dimitrios and Nikolaos. Meanwhile, Maria and Eleni lead the field a long way for women, followed by Panagiota, Vasiliki and Anastasia. It’s difficult to accurately determine those of Asia Minor and Pontian backgrounds as the surname isn’t always prominent. Considering surname suffixes ending in -idis, -iadis and -oglou gives a ballpark estimate of 10 per cent; this is most likely a minimum.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were only a few pages of obituaries and memorials in Neos Kosmos. Today, on a bad day, this could extend to six pages. The last census showed that around 15,000 persons nationwide were born in Greece. In 10-15 years, that magnificent post-war generation will have departed this world. The few thousand Greek-born Greeks that will remain will consist mainly of those who arrived in the last decade during the Greek economic crisis.

How will existing generations reflect upon the passing away of this great generation? The study of death notices and obituaries allows us to access important cultural and social material to understand their impact and contribution better.

*Dr Nick Dallas is a researcher and board member of the Greek Community of Melbourne.