Dorothea Papadopoulos | Greek-Australian Archive

State Library of New South Wales

Greek-Australian Archive

Dorothea Papadopoulos, 2023.

Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου

Dorothea Papadopoulos

Interview date: 6 Jan 2023 | | Language: Greek

Dorothea Papadopoulos, 2023.

Speaker background

Occupation: Seamstress, teacherYear of arrival: 1962Method of transport: Ship (Bretagne)

Dorothea was born in 1936 to Pontian refugees from the Black Sea region of Turkey. Her childhood years were spent in Thessaloniki, where she primarily spoke Turkish. At the age of eighteen, Dorothea migrated to Australia as part of the Migration Assistance Scheme. Shortly after marrying, Dorothea settled in Kingsgrove where she worked as a seamstress. For a large part of her adult life, she also worked as a Greek School teacher.

Place of birthFanari, Central Macedonia

Location in AustraliaKingsgrove

Interview summary

Dorothea describes the conditions of her war-torn village, her schooling in Thessaloniki, and why a disappointing exam mark compelled her migration to Australia. She recalls her early working life and role in facilitating Greek language courses in the community. She also describes her involvement with the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales and the Pontian Association.

Interview highlights

highlight

Dorothea talks about her motivations to come to Australia.

Dorothea: What was going through my mind? It was because I was disheartened [owing to her inability to enter university]. I was a very good student. What more can I say?
Interviewer: In other words, disappointment?
Dorothea: Disappointment. The newspaper had published that female graduates were needed to take up nursing positions in Australia. I would say nursing sisters more so. That’s what motivated me. […] My cousin didn’t end up going and stayed in Athens […] In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have gone.
Timecode 04:13 - 05:07

highlight

Dorothea recalls her efforts to find work.

Dorothea: I got a job in the city. I was well-versed in reading the newspaper. I had made an effort to familiarise myself with the streets, and I’d visit the workplaces. They would ask, ‘Are you experienced?’ I would reply, ‘Yes.’ I was inquiring in dressmaking factories.
Interviewer: Did you know anything about dressmaking?
Dorothea: Not at all! I didn’t even know how to use the foot pedal! I would go to a dressmaker and work there for a week. In those days, people would take advantage of our circumstances. I learnt how to thread the machine and all that. And when they then called me to the office, they’d ask, ‘Are you experienced?’ I’d reply, ‘Yes.’ They would say, ‘OK, sit there. Pass a thread through the needle.’ I’d make a mess of it. One day, an Australian lady took pity on me […] taking time out of her tea break to show me the ropes and offered her continued support.
Timecode 10:26 - 11:56

Listen to more oral histories

Person singing in a club

Ioannis Dimou

Ioannis Dimou was born in 1932 in the village of Pigi, located in the Epirus region. He married a local girl and had three children. Finding it hard to make ends meet as a builder’s labourer, he believed that he could earn far more doing the same job in Australia. After being sponsored by his brother, who had migrated a few years earlier, he arrived in Australia and commenced work in the construction industry in the Parramatta area. Ioannis dedicated much of his free time to promoting Greek social and cultural life, especially the local Epirote brotherhood and youth soccer.

Platon Ioakimidis with daughter, Barbara, and son, Steve. Abercrombie St, Redfern. 1959

Platon Ioakimidis

Platon Ioakimidis was born in 1932 into a Pontian Greek family in Molocha, central Macedonia, and came of age during World War II and the Greek Civil War. After years of menial work, he and his young wife took advantage of Australia’s assisted migrant scheme. In Australia, he settled in Redfern, where he and his wife raised a family of four. After trying his hand at various labouring jobs and small business ventures, Ioakimidis settled on a job fixing poker machines. He was involved in the Pontian Greek community and has been a church chanter.

A child in traditional Greek attire

Costa Vertzayias

Costa was raised in Rosebery and Maroubra in the 1950s and 1960s. His mother’s family were originally from Kastellorizo. Hence, most of the family’s social time was spent with other Kastellorizians who frequented the Kastellorizian Club in nearby Kingsford. Costa studied law at the University of New South Wales and was one of the founders of the Greek student association Hellsoc. After graduating, he started a legal practice that attracted numerous Greek clients. Over the years, he has dedicated a great deal of time to serving the needs of the Greek associations. He has also worked tirelessly to support the provision of Greek language courses at UNSW.

A portrait of a couple

Mary Nihas

Mary was born in Sydney in 1930, to parents from the Peloponnese and Castellorizo. Her earliest memories are of her father's barbershop in Riley Street and the urban environment of East Sydney. Following the death of her younger brother, the family moved to Inverell in Northern New South Wales for a short period. The family later returned to Sydney.

A person is sitting on the arm of a lounge

Matina Kallithraka

Matina was born in 1935 into a poor family in a Peloponnesian village near Tripoli and Sparta. As the family could not afford a dowry, Matina was sponsored by a distant relative called Yannis to come to Sydney. She married Yannis, a photographer, with whom she set up a photography business. Aside from raising a family, first in Redfern and then Kingsgrove, she was also a member of a women’s charity focusing on relief work for Greeks, both in Australia and in Greece.

Konstantina Tourvas (centre), Garifalia, sister (left) and Damasko, sister(right). Athens, 1958

Konstantina Tourvas

Konstantina Tourvas is an artist, activist, teacher and writer. She was born in 1940 in Evdilos, Ikaria and grew up in an orphanage. She migrated to Australia in 1959 on the Dutch ship The Waterman. She lived first in Woollahra, then Marrickville and currently resides in Turrella.

A portrait of a person

George Hagivassilis

George Hagivassilis was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1935. After completing his schooling, he worked for the Greek newspaper Tahidromos. Following the Suez crisis in 1956, the Egyptian government nationalised his parents’ printing and stationery business, forcing them to find alternative work. George’s father sent him to Greece to seek employment opportunities. When he was unable to secure work, he and his family migrated to Adelaide where his maternal aunty had lived for forty years. Due to their printing experience, George and his father quickly secured work at the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper. Following an invitation from newspaper publisher Theo Skalkos, in 1969 George moved to Sydney. The pair developed a long-standing professional relationship. During his career, George worked for a number of Greek newspapers, before serving as editor of O Kosmos for more than three decades.

Evdokia Kokkinakos and daughter, Maria, outside of family business, Alexandria, Sydney, 1962

Evdokia Kokkinakos

Evdokia Kokkinakos was born in Athens in 1934. She worked as an apprentice dressmaker for an haute couture designer, who made evening gowns for high-end clients including Athina Onassis and the Greek royal family. At the age of 23 she was sent to Australia by her father, to visit her younger sister who had migrated the previous year. A year after her arrival Evdokia would be married and then running a mixed business store in Alexandria. She and her husband lived above the shop before purchasing their first home in Concord where they settled. Over the years she undertook various jobs as a seamstress in the textile industry.