Opening the Multilingual Archive of Australia

Greek-Australian Archive – Platon Ioakimidis

Item

Title

Greek-Australian Archive – Platon Ioakimidis

Subject

Australia--Emigration and immigration—History

Immigrants

Greek language, Modern

Voyages and travels

Assisted emigration

Employment

Category

5. Cold War (including Decolonisation)

Author

Ioakimidis, Platon

Keywords

Greeks in Australia

Oral history

Bonegilla camp

Creator

Doumanis, Nick

Current holder

State Library of New South Wales

Date

December 7, 2021

Link

https://greekaustralianarchive.sl.nsw.gov.au/oral-histories/platon-ioakimidis

Access rights

Digitised

Rights 

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

Country of origin

Australia

Place

Sydney

Journey

Bonegilla Migrant Centre

Language 

Greek (Modern)

Description from source

Interviewer: Nick Doumanis Occupation: Labourer, Poker machine service technician Year of arrival: 1954 Method of transport: Ship (Toscana) 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. Interview summary Platon describes life in Greece in considerable detail. The interview gives a vivid description of rural poverty, and the reaction of his fellow villagers to news that Australia needed ‘labouring hands.’ He discusses his early days in Bonegilla and Grafton as well as his arrival in Sydney and efforts to find work.

Physical format

Sound recording

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