Following the death of Mihalis Hondroyiannis in Broome the first Greek divers decided leave. The oppresive heat during the wet period, the hostile sea and Hondroyiannis' unexplained death forced the divers to break their contracts and seek their fortune somewhere else.
By coincidence the Australian government had once again decided to prop up Darwin, now an important defence forces outpost in the North of the Australia. The government had decided to boost the Darwin population and improve the town facitlities and there was a great need for construction personel.
The
Kalymnian were not only experienced divers but also experienced builders
since 6 months of the year when there was no sponge diving they were involved
in housing construction at their island. The first group of kalymnians
came to Darwin and joined other Kalymnians who had abandoned pearl diving
and were already working in the building industry. The rest is history.....
The involvment of the Kalymnian migrants to the construction industry started gradually. A few Greek builders had already been involved with housing construction in Darwin. Most of them could not speak or write English but their skills compensated for their lack of literary skills. It was through these Greeks that the Kalymnian found employment in the construction industry and soon moved from been simple workers to supervisors and soon afterwards to construction teams. (Photo:Thundestrom in Darwin)
Many of these builders will aknowledge that they were not very skillfull but the worked quickly. In afew years time the Greeks were controling most of the duilding trade in Darwin and in the Territory since anumber of Greek builders built a number of government offices, police stations and houses in rural Aboriginal communities in throughout the Territory.
When the depression of the seventies arrived
many building businessesowned mainly by AngloSaxons folded in Darwin. The
Greeks were able to survive by cutting costs and working together longer
hours and minimal profit.
The competition between the Greeks and the
other builders created some animocity and this was the begining of some
tension between the Greek and the Anglosaxon community in Darwin. This
tension turned to open racism following the tragedy of Cyclone Tracy. It
must be pointed out that only a minority of Darwin residents exhibited
hostility and racism towrds the Greeks, the majority supported the Greek
community and soon this sad interval ended.
Christmas
1974 was supposed to be like any other Darwin Christmas, wet, humid
but joyfull. Unfortunatelly it was the day that changed Darwin forever.
On 20 December a low pressure system was identified in the Arafura sea,
north of darwin. This system eventually developed to a cyclone that was
named Tracy. On 22 December the Darwin radars identified the eye of the
Cyclone 200 kms north of Darwin. Heavy rain started falling on the city
from the 23 of Decemebr but the Darwin people were in the Christmas mood.
When the cyclone was confirmed that it was moving towards Darwin on the
Christmas Eve people had already left their work and were attending Christmas
parties throughout the City.
The weather deteriorated further during the
evening and by 10.00 pm extremely strong winds and heavy rain were lashing
Darwin. As the people were making their way home, Cyclone
Tracy released its fury upon Darwin. By 1.00 am 25th December houses started
to break appart and debri from these houses further contributed to the
demolition of more houses. At 3.00 am the wind speed reached 200 km/hour
and at 3.10 am the airport wind recorder failed at 217 km/hour.
Following the news of such tragedy the Australian government ordered the Navy to sail to Darwin and assist with disaster relief. Due to the magnitude of damage and the lack of facilities such as drinking water, electricity and sewerage the majority of Darwin residents, mainly women and children, were evacuated from the city. It took some 6 months before these people could return to the city.
The Greek community and the Cyclone Tracy
This was a hard time for the Greek community in Darwin. They had never before witnessed such a catastroph and as it is natural in this circumstances the Greeks turned into their own group trying to find comfort and relief. Most of the Greek people had lost houses and personal property but fortunately there were no casualties among the members of the community.
During this period a minority of Darwin people expressed openly their racist feelings against the Greeks because of their misconseption that" the Greeks had helped only themselves". In addition Greek builders took some of the blame for the destruction of the houses during the cyclone. The fact that the Government building branch was supposed to advise, check and approve buildings wa forgotten. Sometimes it is easier to find a scapegoat. However everything was forgoten when the Greeks started with all the rest of the Darwin people (mainly men) to reconstruct the city.
The
Greek community had strong feelings about the revival of the city since
they had invested heavily on Darwin real estate, they had nowhere else
to go and after all "here was home".
It did not take long for a new Darwin to rise from the cyclone ruins. A new strict building code ensures that the Cyclone Tracy destruction will not be repeated and Darwin as a modern, attractive city is now the capital of the Northern Territory.
Aknowledgments
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Greek Australians
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and the NT . Where
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first divers in Australia
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in the 60s & 70s Today
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