2021-11-16

Sydney

Kaimasidis, Melpomene

Greeks in Australia

Oral history

Elefterias-Kostakidis, Eleni

Digitised

Copyright holder : State Library of New South Wales
Please acknowledge : Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Interviewer: Eleni Elefterias-Kostakidis


Occupation: Seamstress and Salesgirl
Year of arrival: 1957
Method of transport: Ship (Patris)

Melpo Kaimasidis was born in 1937 in the village of Pentavryso in Kastoria, a prefecture of Macedonia, Greece to a large multi-lingual family originally from Samsounta in Pontos. She speaks Greek, Pontian and Turkish. As a young woman, she worked in the fur industry in Kastoria. In 1957, she migrated to Australia.

Interview summary
In the interview, Melpo discusses her family’s traumatic history during World War II. She also discusses aspects of their working lives as wheat and tobacco farmers and some of the horrors of the Civil War period that followed the end of WWII. She goes on to recall her experiences on the ship that brought her to Australia and the feelings of sea sickness suffered by many of the passengers. She discusses her husband’s illness and subsequent death and the financial difficulties of being a single mother. The interview also covers Melpo’s involvement with AHEPA (Australasian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) in raising money for charities and hospitals in Sydney as well as her leadership roles as a member of the Pontian Association, Panagia Soumela.

Sound recording

Siobhan Campbell