There is no doubt that the Secret Census had its origins in the racism of early 20th century Australia – which gave birth to the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 or commonly called in the ‘White Australia Policy’ .

The Neos Kosmos feature ‘Australia’s 1916 ‘Secret Census’: A story of distrust towards Greek migrants‘, refers to views of Yianni Cartledge and suggests that the attitude of authorities of Greeks included in the Secret Census, (or not), were based on their social and financial standing and often influenced by quite parochial standards.

Wealthy, respectable, or, naturalised migrants were often excluded from the census and regarded as assimilated – Australian (British) subjects. Was this a judgement based on an unequivocal set of guidelines issued by the government?

This is doubtful and more than likely subject to the judgements made by the lower ranking officers ‘on the ground’ charged with compiling the list.

While Yianni’s is a reasonable assumption to draw, a notable inclusion in the Secret Census in Victoria was that of A J J Lucas (formerly Lekatsas) who by 1916 and dating from the 1890s, became a highly respected and financially successful restauranteur and businessman in Melbourne and President of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV).

Lucas married Australian Margaret Wilson in 1893 and was naturalized in 1903. With the ongoing financial success of a series of upper class fine dining restaurants, by 1916 Lucas in 30 years since his arrival from Ithaca, was reputed to be the wealthiest Greek in Victoria.

In the volume, ‘Life in Australia’ compiled by John D Comino and published in 1916 (referred to by Christos Fifis in the NK article), Comino devoted three pages extolling the achievements and virtues of A J J Lucas who headed the list of successful Greek businessmen and community leaders in Australia.

Despite Lucas’s marriage to an Australian, a common phenomenon amongst Ithacan and other Greek male migrants of the time, he maintained strong and patriotic support for the Greek community, its spiritual and cultural identity, while simultaneously adopting and respecting the ways of Australian society that helped enrich and educate him in a distinctly Anglo business tradition.

In this sense, it is arguable that A J J Lucas was the earliest example of a multicultural Greek citizen in Australia.

Much has been published in Neos Kosmos, researched and written by Jim Claven in recent years that demonstrated Greece’s support of Australian and Allied forces during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915.

Despite relatively primitive dissemination of news at the time, it is doubtful that news of Greek support for the Allied cause in Gallipoli did not reach Australia.

Why then, were exemplary Greek Australian citizens Lucas and Grigorios Matorikos, a similar migrant success story to Lucas and the latter’s colleague who, together with Alexandros Maniakis established the GOCMV in 1897, recorded in the Secret Census of 1916?

As mentioned above, one can only assume that the census was simply compiled on an adhoc basis without clear briefing and likely influenced by the information collector’s own subjective standards and prejudices.

Not unexpected in an isolated nation, recently acquiring nationhood struggling to establish a national identity while still tied to the apron strings of Great Britain.

Financial exploitation of Greek workers

On the question raised by Christos Fifis with regard to financial exploitation of Greek migrant labour in established Greek Australian owned businesses, there is reliable documented evidence that this did occur at the time.

I don’t question the fact, while deplore the practice, that even in recent times, has allegedly emerged in both Greek owned hospitality businesses, as well as reputable Australian ones with employers short changing workers.

In the early days, proponents of the practice had likely served apprenticeships under similar conditions as a ‘rite of passage’.

Doubtless, the practice probably stemmed from the struggle needed to contain costs of establishing a new business. Many ‘trade-off’ packages would also be devised based on providing board and lodging and sometimes family negotiated arrangements.

This did not excuse the more exploitative practices and points to the same questionable morality that had some business owners during WWII Melbourne, allegedly, ‘fleecing’ U.S. GI’s sent to ‘bail out’ Australia from potential Japanese invasion. Having enjoyed a meal of ‘steak and eggs’ in their establishments and proffering fistfuls of U.S. dollars in payment, some Greek café owners would greedily help themselves.

Others with kinder hearts regarded the ‘boys’ like their own sons who may have been serving in New Guinea, at the time, not knowing whether they would return home.

While some of these ‘urban legends’ persisted in the community, some were the product of a ‘tall poppy syndrome’ spread by common gossip that in a small and struggling community would circulate amongst those often left bitter by their own less than fortunate personal plight.

Why knowing the beginnings of the Greek Australian community history remains important

As a descendant of migrants of those times, it is important to reflect that the community, (small in numbers), represented a group of people who had established a viable presence in an alien society that possessed very little of the awareness and cultural sensitivity of Australia and the world today.

Many Greek migrants of the post WWII period, on arrival were ignorant of the origins of Greek institutional infrastructure, some of which had been established half a century before.

Indeed, many arrivals of the postwar era now credit themselves and their cohort, as having ‘established the Greek Australian community in Australia’.

While their arrival in significant numbers helped raise Anglo-Australian consciousness of multicultural communities, many do not appreciate the role that their forerunners played in laying the foundations of the community enjoyed today.

Indeed, the prewar Greek community, already having lived a life hardened by decades of inequities based on racism, on voluntary and forced assimilation and a lack of dedicated social services support, developed its own multicultural attitude to life in Australia. It was often chameleon like, responding to their context at the time, while generally and respectfully ‘toeing the line’.

A kind of coping mechanism that made us good citizens while often self-conscious and distancing ourselves from some of the ‘exotic’ behaviour exhibited by the neophyte community which by its significantly greater numbers began to overwhelm us.

Regretfully, it was at this point that we perhaps failed to grasp the initiative of helping to educate so-called, ‘New Greek Australians’ of our own history and help guide newcomers to a smoother transition through our own long experience.

Fortunately, community awareness and Neos Kosmos‘ current efforts are now reconciling some of those missed opportunities.

In recent times, the Ithacan Historical Society established in the early 1990s by the affiliated Ithacan Philanthropic Society (founded in 1916) has sought to document our long history in Melbourne and actively engage with the Greek Australian Community at large.

Having helped establish the Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria, that at its inception in 1897, comprised a majority of Ithacans, we have sought to reestablish those links and to collaborate more actively in projects that have a wider cultural interest to the Greek Australian Community at large.

We encourage your perusal of our new website.

Andrew Raftopoulos is a member of the Ithacan Historical Society and an author.