Presentation to the Australian Hellenic Council (NSW) reception, Pan-Corinthian House, Sydney, 16 April 2010

1. OUR NATIONAL ISSUES
Presentation to the
Australian Hellenic Council NSW Inc
2010 Annual Reception

2. Australian Issues

3. Hellenic Education in Australia

4. Levels of Education
Pre-school
Primary School (Kindergarten - Year 6)
Secondary School (Year 7 – Year 12)
Tertiary
(university-community/evening colleges)

5. Australian Curriculum
What is it?
Australia-wide programme covering certain
subjects
When is it coming in?
Starting with English, Science, Maths and History
in 2011.
Later with Geography, Languages and Creative
Arts

6. The Australian
17 June 2009, 35
AHC pushing for Hellenic
to be included in
National Curriculum –
Languages, along with
French, Spanish, Italian and
German.

7. Structure of the History curriculum
Stages of schooling
• Stage 1 (typically from 5 to 8 years of age)
• Stage 2 (typically from 8 to 12 years of age)
• Stage 3 (typically from 12 to 15 years of age)
• Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human
communities to the end of the Ancient period (c. 60,000
BC — c. 500 AD)
• Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to the
beginning of the Modern period (c. 500–1750)
• Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia (1750–1901)
• Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World (1901–present)
• Stage 4 (typically from 15 to 18 years of age)

8. Australian Hellenic historical topics
that could be included in Unit 4:
Australia and the Modern World
(1901–present) of the Australian
Curriculum – History.

9. War Song of the Greeks
On in battle! Grecians on!
Think of all your sires have done,
Dream, oh dream of Marathon
and glorious Thermopylae!
Think of Leuctra's gory plain;
Think of Persia's myriad dale;
Think, and act those scenes again,
in wild war’s dreadful mimicry.
Shall the sacred earth lie still,
Where the mighty one’s have trod
Shall it be profaned, oh God!

10. By impious Stamboul’s tyranny!
Shall the sun whose crimson rays,
Saw it free as in other days,
O’er lie bandaged pillars ... ... ,
Make dead the light o’er some cemetery!
From their slumbers wake your swords,
Yield no more to Paynian lords,
Burst your hearts and be your words,
"A freeman’s grave or liberty!"
Sydney, April 10, 1827.

11. The Argus (Μελβούρνη)
17 Οκτωβρίου 1923,15
Οι καθηγητές A.C. Scott και
Alexander Leeper του
Πανεπιστημίου Μελβούρνης
παρουσίασαν ομιλία με τίτλο
«Πάντα οι Ίδιοι». Θέμα ήταν η
ιστορική συνέχεια των Ελλήνων
από αρχαιοτάτων χρόνων.
Μεγαλήτερο αποδεικτικό
στοιχείο: η γλώσσα των
Ελλήνων.

12. Australian Hellenes and phil-Hellenes in
the Balkan Wars (1912-1913)

13. The role of Lemnos, Imvros and Tenedos
in the Gallipoli Campaign (1915)

14. Διακόσμηση στον χώρο έξω από μία σκηνή του
13th Battalion στην Λήμνο το 1915.

15. Οι πρώτες ημέρες των Αυστραλών στην
Λήμνο, Απρίλιος 1915

16. Ο ερχομός των Αυστραλιανών νοσοκόμων
στην Λήμνο, Απρίλιος 1915.

17. The Argus (Melbourne) 7 January 1916,7

18. Αυστραλοί τραυματίες από την Καλλίπολη περιμένοντας να
εισαχθούν στο Αυστραλιανό Γενικό Νοσοκομείο στην Λήμνο.

19. Ένας Λημνιός όπως τον είδε Αυστραλός
φωτογράφος το 1915

20. Australians on the Macedonia Front
(1916-1918)

21. Sydney Morning Herald 23 July 1915, 10
«Όπως είναι τα πράγματα,
αυτοί οι γενναίοι
Αυστραλοί πολεμούν τον
παραδοσιακό εχθρό των
Ελλήνων, και οι Έλληνες
κι όχι οι Αυστραλοί οι
οποίοι θα προσκομίσουν
τα οφέλη όταν συντριφθεί
ο εχθρός, και οι σημαίες
μας πετούν πάνω από την
Κωνσταντινούπολη».

22. The Argus (Melbourne) 20 November 1915,19

23. Sydney Morning Herald
22 December 1915,
15

26. Sydney Morning Herald
15 January 1916,10

27. Sydney Morning Herald
14 November 1918,9

28. A PHOTOGRAPH
OF THE CORINTH
CANAL, TAKEN
FROM THE
H.M.A.S.
"PARRAMATTA"
ON HER WAY TO
GREECE, FOR
DOCKING, 1918-
10-02.

29. Australian prisoners-of-war: witnesses
of the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian
Genocides (1915-1918)

30. The Argus (Melbourne) 28 June 1915, 7
«Αξιολύπητη κατάσταση
των Ελλήνων.
Ο Ελληνικός πληθυσμός
της Μαίδου και της
Κριθίας στην
Χερσόνησο της
Καλλιπόλεως, έχει
εκτοπιστεί στο
Πάνδηρμα σε θλιβερή
κατάσταση.»

31. Σεπτεμβρίου 1922

32. Σε μία συνεδρίαση της
παροικίας στις 24
Σεπτεμβρίου 1922
συγκεντρώθηκαν άνω των
500 λιρών υπέρ των
προσφύγων στον Ελλαδικό
χώρο.
Σεπτεμβρίου 1922

35. Captain Thomas W. White
Prisoners who were kept in the Armenian church
used its graveyard as their “exercise yard”.
“The iron-covered (Armenian) cemetery gates
were riddled with bullets as if by machine gun
fire and suggested that some Armenians had
sold their lives dearly”.
Many prisoners died at Akroinos of various causes
and were buried in the Armenian cemetery.
White, T.W. Guests of the Unspeakable

36. Captain Thomas W. White
“One soldier thus described
his experiences: on arrival at
Afion Karahissar I went
into hospital. There I saw
many weakly men knocked
about by the Turkish
orderlies simply because
they were too weak to
attend to themselves. I saw
this happen to a QMS who
died within a few days of
the beating.

37. Captain Thomas W. White
“I saw about half a dozen men receive an injection
from a Turkish doctor. This was done about 9
p.m. and in every case the man was dead next
morning. We nicknamed one of the Turkish
doctors ‘The Butcher’ from his habit of lancing
abscesses with a sharpened half of a pair of
scissors”.

39. “Underneath us on the floor of the room, were
huddled, in all kinds of rugs, about sixty
miserable creatures who, we afterwards
discovered, were Greeks and Armenians
employed on the tunnel. They were crouched
about the fires made in old mess dishes and in
that dull light, looked the lowest human beings I
had ever set eyes on. … their fires, which gave
forth horrible smoke and poisoned the air with
their fumes. Some of the Turks on the opposite
side objected to this and made one of the party
put out its fire”. G.K. Kerr

40. E. H. Keeling
“The number of Greeks was increased during our
incarceration by deportations from the coast of
the Black Sea, whence hundreds of women and
children, barefooted, in rags, and with enormous
bundles on their backs, were brought in under
escort.

41. “Almost all the Armenian inhabitants had been
driven out of the town before we arrived, their
property being confiscated on the ground that it
had been ‘abandoned’. Only one or two who
were useful, including the bank manager, were
allowed to remain”.

42. Australian rescuers of Assyrian and
Armenian Genocide survivors –
the Dunsterforce (1918)

43. Australian relief efforts for survivors of
the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian
Genocides (1915-1930)

45. Rev. Cresswell “The sights within the caves are
beyond words. No words
seem adequate to describe the
misery that must be the
portion of these poor people.
A few yards inside, the light
was very dim, then failed
altogether, and it was
necessary to use a lantern.
On either side of the cave
were to be seen families, men,
women and children, sitting
on the ground”.

46. Reverend Cresswell
“In some places, this was fairly dry, but for the
most part, it was damp - the air was clammy and
cold and in all respects it was depressing. Here
were women, pale and emaciated, children with
swollen abdomens, the result of starvation.
Again, one saw little babes, pinched and pallid –
further on, a little one just recently born, one
tiny atom among thousands of the suffering
children to be seen here”.

48. Dr Lincoln Wirt, Near East Relief
“I have never seen anything like the generosity of
the Australian people. I look upon it all as more
beautiful than anything else in my life. I did not
believe that any people on earth would have
done what Australia has done. … during my stay
in this country, ten different committees have
been formed, and all are hard at work; and we
estimate that in the next few months, we shall
have collected [pounds] 25,000 worth in money
or food”.

52. “Dr Wirt (International Commissioner for
the Near East Relief Federation) …
informed a representative of the
Australian Press Association that two
shiploads of food and clothing had
arrived from Australia…
“…appeals to continue…because a further
1,000,000 Christian refugees will probably
be rendered homeless during the coming
winter, Kemal Pasha having decreed the
evacuation of all Christians from Asia
Minor…before the end of the year”.
The Register (Adelaide) 20 November 1922,

53. Queenslander Joice
Nankivell Loch and
her Scottish
husband, Dr Sydney
Loch, spent decades
working to help the
community of
Ouranoupolis
recover from the
Asia Minor
Holocaust and the
Second World War.

54. “... the only thing that connected these two widely
differing groups was their fervent belief in the
Orthodox Church and the idea that they were
Greek”.

55. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake
that struck Halkidike in 1932, Loch wrote: “I
was struck by the courage of the Greek people.
... There was no confusion or fuss. Each person
took their turn. Those who were able helped the
patients by brushing away flies”.

56. Colonel George Devine Treloar
Born in Ballarat, he served on the Western Front
during World War One. Between 1922 and 1926,
he served as the League of Nations High
Commissariat for Refugees in northern Greece.
Treloar was engaged in the resettlement of the
refugees; at first based at Komotene and later in
Thessalonike, where his two eldest children were
born. By 1923 his mission was handling over
108,000 refugees across east Macedonia and
west Thrace.

57. Thrylorio Rodopes, western Thrace
One of the fifteen villages
Colonel Treloar
founded in west Thrace
and east Macedonia.

59. Australians and Hellenes in World War Two

60. Athens, 25 March 1941 (previous slide)
Australian soldiers from the 2/2nd battalion
talking with evzones near the Akropolis.
Left to right: TOM CAWLEY OF
WALCHA, PETER BROWN OF
MANLY, LEN LENNON OF
INVERELL, HARRY TOWNSEND OF
BEXLEY, and C. FOOT OF DENMAN.

61. AIF men
on leave,
March
1941

63. Athens, March 1941.
All good friends together.
Hellene soldiers on leave from the Albanian Front
do their best to make their Australian
counterparts welcome.
There was a new optimism evident in Athens since
the arrival of the ANZACs, who were being
welcomed like honoured guests.
“As far as our men are concerned their general
opinion is that Greece is the finest country in
the world – bar one”. G. Silk (photographer)

64. Piraeus after German air-raids,
6-7 April 1941.

65. Servia Pass. A New Zealand Field Regiment
observation post.

66. Brallos area, central Hellas, 23 April 1941. One of the
Australian guns is visible under camouflage netting
around the base of a tree (right).

67. Burning trucks on the plain south of Lamia,
after a German aerial attack.

68. Australians awaiting evacuation from Megara.

69. Australian nurses, Argos, April 1941

70. Kalamata, 25 April 1941. One of the
main evacuation points for Allied forces.

71. Battle of Krete (May 1940)

72. Sea of Krete, April 1941. Australians firing
at German aircraft during evacuation.

73. The island of Krete

74. Souda Bay, April 1941. Lance Corporal R.
Willots escaped from Kalamata with his kit.

75. Milos, May 1941. German mountain
troops waiting to board transport aircraft.

76. The skies over Heraklion, May 1941.

77. Overlooking Herakleion, Krete

78. Krete, May 1941.

79. Krete 26 November 1944 (next slide)
After being hit by German anti-aircraft fire over
Chania, this RAAF crew made a successful
forced-landing in a friendly part of Crete.
They lived for two days with the local villagers.
Shown with their friends-in-need are:
Back, left to right: R. Smith of Carlton, Vic; W. D.
Calvert, pilot, of Lane Cove, NSW.
Front: R. K. Mahoney of Rockhampton, Qld; K. J.
Wiblin of Strathfield, NSW.

81. Souda Bay, Krete

82. Souda Bay Commonwealth War Cemetery

83. Souda Bay Commonwealth War Cemetery –
Australian Section

84. Australians and Hellenes
in the Korean War (1950-1953)

85. Korean War 1950-1953

86. Rocks arranged by the Royal Hellenic Battalion to
form a crown and “Ellas” - “Greece”.

87. Australians on Cyprus (1964-2009)

88. Australian Diaspora in the 21st Century
– Greece and Cyprus home to about
150,000 Australian citizens

89. Recognition of the Hellenic,
Armenian and Assyrian Genocides by
the Parliament of the Commonwealth
of Australia, as well as the state and
territory parliaments of the
Commonwealth.

91. The development of social security
arrangements between Australia
and the Hellenic Republic that
benefit all concerned.

92. Foreign Policy Issues

93. Cyprus
support for a just and lasting solution
to the partition of the Republic of
Cyprus, imposed by invading Turkish
troops in July 1974.

95. The site where Sergeant Ian Ward, NSW
Police, was killed when his car hit a landmine
on 12 November 1974.

96. (previous slide)
Ward was escorting a family through the buffer
zone. He was a member of the Australian
civilian police contingent serving with the
United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Parts of the wrecked vehicle can be seen in the
background, along with a sign on the fence
reading, “R.I.P. KILLED IN THE SERVICE
OF PEACE SGT. IAN DONALD WARD
AUST CIVPOL 12 November 1974”.
A nearby memorial cairn (not visible) also marks
the spot.

98. 25 April 1984. AFP personnel at the Dawn Service at
Wayne’s Keep Cemetery, in the ‘Green Line’.

99. Nicosia. 26 January 1985. AFP members prepare
to sail their homemade “Australia III” in the
Henley on Pedhieos boat race.

100. (next slide)
Three members of the Australian Federal Police
(AFP) contingent serving with the United
Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Left, speaking with a female civilian police officer
is Senior Sergeant Gary Brown.
They are observing the activities of Greek Cypriot
demonstrators at the Ledra Palace crossing point
in Nicosia, on the government side of the buffer
zone.

103. Macedonia
(a) maintenance of Australia’s support
for a use of the United Nations’
nomenclature (Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia – FYROM)
until just and lasting solution is agreed
upon between Athens and Skopje;

104. Macedonia
(b) promotion of the Hellenic
identity of the northern Hellenic
province of Macedonia (made up
of thirteen prefectures)

105. The Mercury
(Hobart)
17 April 1903, 9

106. The Argus (Μελβούρνη)
2 Φεβρουαρίου 1924,7
Ανακαλύψεις Ελληνικών
αρχαιοτήτων στην Δοϊράνη,
στα τότε σύνορα Σερβίας-
Ελλάδος.

107. The Argus (Μελβούρνη) 18 Ιουλίου 1934,16
“I, Athanassios Vassiliou
Defenes, of Greek
nationality, born at
Bapchori, Macedonia,
Greece, ...”
“I, Dimitrios Mihail
Stergiou, of Greek
nationality, born at
Bapchori, Macedonia,
Greece, ...”
“I, Nicolas Christian
Milaetis, of Greek
nationality, born at
Bapchori, Macedonia,
Greece, ...”

108. Support for the protection of the
human rights of the remaining
Christian minorities in the Republic
of Turkey, including protection of
their properties and cultural heritage

109. Parthenon Sculptures
support for the restitution of the
Parthenon Sculptures to their
home in Athens

110. Hellenic-Australian War Memorial
ANZAC Parade, Canberra