Australia’s Ambassador to Greece, Alison Duncan, has paid tribute to one of the country’s lesser-known humanitarians by visiting the Pontian village of Thrylorio in northern Greece — a village named after the Australian who helped establish it in the wake of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
During her visit last Tuesday, Ambassador Duncan was warmly welcomed by the local community of Thrylorio in the region of Rhodope, which was founded in 1922 and named after George Devine Treloar, a former Australian military officer and humanitarian.
Treloar played a key role as Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations in Thrace and Macedonia, helping to rescue and resettle tens of thousands of Christian refugees — mainly Pontian Greeks — who had been displaced following the Greco-Turkish War and the collapse of Hellenism in Asia Minor.
Among those welcoming the ambassador were Thrylorio community president George Salpingidis, president of the Pontian Association “Kerasounta and Kars” Chrysa Mavridou, Women’s Pontian Association president Anastasia Savvidou, village priest Father Nektarios Papalexiou, and founder of the local Basket Weaving Museum, Antonis Liapis.
Ambassador Duncan visited the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, toured the Basket Weaving Museum, and was shown one of the first homes built in the village. She also enjoyed a traditional Pontian meal prepared by the women of the “Kerasounta and Kars” association.
A legacy of quiet heroism
George Devine Treloar, along with his British colleague Colonel Proctor, is credited with founding around a dozen villages across Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace, including Thrylorio, which was established primarily by Pontian refugees from Giresun and Kars. In 1985, additional families arrived from Sukhumi, Kazakhstan, and Armenia.
Treloar’s efforts helped an estimated 108,000 displaced Christians from Asia Minor. Using his military expertise and humanitarian vision, he not only secured their survival but also facilitated their resettlement by founding communities like Thrylorio — which was named in his honour by the then King of Greece.
Although Treloar returned to Australia in 1926 disillusioned by the lack of support from the Greek government and the League of Nations, his legacy quietly endured. He died in Perth in 1980 at the age of 96, never officially recognised during his lifetime for his immense contributions.
It wasn’t until 1997 that his story began to re-emerge, when Australia’s former ambassador to Greece, Hugh Gilchrist, detailed his legacy in the book Australians and Greeks, Volume II. Since then, Treloar’s contribution has gained greater awareness — especially among Pontians in Australia.
In a lasting tribute, the Merimna Pontion Kyrion Oceania erected a statue of Treloar in his hometown of Ballarat, Victoria, depicting him alongside a young refugee girl — a symbol of his unwavering service to displaced populations during one of modern Greece’s darkest chapters.
