On Sunday 16 October, 2016 an historic family reunion event was held at the University of Sydney’s Great Hall. Over 220 Castellorizian relatives stemming from the Malaxos and Barbouttis families were in attendance, with a number of relatives coming from Brisbane, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Dimboola (Victoria), Adelaide and Perth.
Organised by Nick Malaxos and a team comprising of his relatives, the event was opened by Professor Katherine Georgouras OAM, the first Greek Australian woman to graduate in Medicine (Dermatology) and the first female Professor in Dermatology in Australia. Katherine was also the first woman President on the Standing Committee of Convocation at the University of Sydney, and the first woman to become the Castellorizian of the Year, awarded by the Castellorizian Association VIC.
Nick gave a detailed presentation on the origin of the names of Malaxos and Barbouttis and the names of six generations dating back from the 18th century. Among those included were Hareclea Malaxos – the first Castellorizian woman to attain a tertiary qualification from the University of Athens in the 1880’s; Konstantinos Malaxos (Perth) who was the first Greek graduate from the University WA in the early 1950’s; and George Malaxos (Melbourne) who received an award for literature by the then King Paul and Queen Frederica in the early 1950’s.
Nick himself was one of three Greek Australians to be the first students to attain tertiary qualifications in Modern Greek with Distinction in 1973.
He went on to inform the attendees that the name Malaxos came from the village of Malaxa, previously known as Revithimo, 7 kilometres from Chania, Crete. It was named Malaxa in 1663 AD in honour of the local priest Kyriakos Malaxos who built a church at Revithimo as a sanctuary for the Greek Orthodox Christians from persecution by the Turks and the Venetians. The same priest raised funds to establish a church on Castellorizo and the church was known as Aghios Yiorgos tou Malaxou. The much larger Church of Saint George now stands on the site, known as Saint George tou Santrape Luca and was built at the turn of the 20th century.
The first image was of a George Malaxos shown on a calendar issued by the Museum at Dimitsana, Greece, circa 1500 AD. As well, an Emmanuel Malaxos (1530-1581) wrote the Canons of the Greek Orthodox Church, and the original script is at the Museum of Dimitsana, Greece. In addition, there was a Makarios Malaxos who was a member of the Philiki Etairia.
The first recorded Malaxos to come to Australia was Michael Malaxos who came at the turn of the 20th century and was on the inaugurating committee that established the Castellorizian Association WA in 1912. Michael’s grandson is Steven Malaxos, a famous AFL player who was inducted in the Sports Hall of Fame in WA.
As for the name Barbouttis, attendees were informed that it came from a card game known as Barbu or Le Barbu, which was prominent with bridge card payers and depicted a bearded man with a sword over his head.
Attendees paid tribute to Lance Corporal Angelo Barbouttis, who was born in Darwin, moved to Townsville with his family, and was a gallant war hero during WWII. His heroism was acknowledged in the Australian Army Magazine in 1944, though was not awarded an appropriate medal for his bravery.
The Dungog Chronicle on 6 April, 1944 reported “Mrs George Barbouttis has made a donation of 5 pounds to the Dungog Hospital in memory of her nephew Lance Corporal Angelo Barbouttis who was killed in action in New Guinea.”
Amongst those in attendance on the day was Allan (Agapitos) Cresswell, President of the Castellorizian Association WA and Castellorizian of the Year 2016. He has developed an extensive Castellorizian Genealogy website that has over 28,000 individuals listed, and has attracted over 380,000 unique visits.
Dr Nicholas George Pappas AM was also present. He has documented the history of Castellorizo by producing a number of books about the island, and creating a free website available to all.