A moving story: Bayswater's George Stavrinos is writing a book about his people's journey to Australia. Picture: Ted Kloszynski
IT is rare enough for a group of migrants from one nation to descend on a suburb halfway across the world.
But when they hail from one island halfway across the world, it is even more amazing. This is the situation at Bayswater's Palesviaki Enosis Greek Club, where almost all of the members hail from the picturesque Greek island of Lesbos.
Established in 1952, the club set out to make new migrants from the Mediterranean feel at home in their new homeland.
"We wanted to encourage relations with other cultures here in Australia and decided to set up in Bayswater," the club's president George Stavrinos said.
"We now have 360 members, most from Lesbos, and there are thousands of migrants from the island throughout Melbourne. We have members from all over Victoria, but naturally most are from the Knox area."
Mr Stavrinos, 76, has been awarded a $5000 government grant to write and publish a book, titled The Empty Net, about the experiences of those before (and after) him who have made the journey from Lesbos to Australia.
"It's about the experiences of young Greeks and their difficult journey to Australia and their personal and professional life once here. I guess it is both a true story and a historical book."
Many of these migrants in the 1960s worked in the scallop fishing industry in Port Phillip Bay. Once the bay was emptied of scallops, they moved to Lakes Entrance in the 1970s to keep working.
Mr Stavrinos was one of these, and feels it is important to show younger generations how their grandparents and parents shifted to a different lifestyle in an unknown country.
"It's a story that needs to be told. The fishermen of that era approached me about having their story published, a story about hardship, love and establishing themselves in a foreign land."
The Empty Net will be published just before Christmas in h Greek and English versions.