My grandpa is of Greek origin, I call him Papou. He immigrated to Australia by himself in 1966 when he was 31 years old.

He decided to immigrate here because there was not much employment available in Greece. He came on the ship called Achille Lauro and settled in Adelaide where he worked as a shoe maker.During that time he lived with four other migrants. He also told me that in his early years he had trouble speaking English and found it difficult to communicate with the Australian/English-speaking population.

Two years later, he moved to Melbourne and started working on a new trade as a concreter. It was at this time when he met my grandma who I call Yia yia. They soon got married in 1968.

My grandma also immigrated in 1966 to Australia and was accompanied by her mother.

They decided to leave their homeland because my grandma’s dad had passed away and her sister was already living here in Australia. So my grandma came to join her family here in Australia.