The ‘Australian dream’ for the Zarifopoulos’ family started in the 1950s.
Zarifis Zarifopoulos arrived Down Under as a 5-year-old, joining with his four siblings and mother his dad who had already spent a year in the country finding a job, a house and preparing the ground for them.
“Our youngest brother Dimitri was the only one born here,” Mr Zarifopoulos tells SBS Greek.
The family settled initially in the Greek-dominated suburb of South Melbourne before moving to Dandenong.
“Back then, there weren’t many Greeks there [in Dandenong], but we would speak the language at home.”
Communication was rather basic though, he recalls.
“You don’t need much really as a kid to interact with your parents, you wouldn’t sit down with them and talk philosophy.”
'Being Greek is a privilege but comes with great responsibility too'
Like many from rural Greece at the time, Mr Zarifopoulos’ parents had not completed formal schooling beyond some primary years.
But they made sure to pass on things of more substance than grammar rules to their son, helping him develop an appreciation of his heritage.
Trained in teaching history among other courses, Mr Zarifopoulos was quite familiar with the events of the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece, regarded by many people of Hellenic background as a symbol, sacrifice for the homeland.
Zarifis in a recent photo at his Melbourne home in front of a selection of his books. Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
In 2020, in commemoration of the 2,500 years anniversary of the battle, Mr Zarifopoulos decided to pay his respects by staging an intimate wreath-laying ceremony along with a Philhellene friend and his daughter Stacey.
The group attended the Australian Hellenic memorial and Brunswick’s Sparta Place which hosts a statue of King of ancient Sparta Leonidas, who had led the Battle of Thermopylae.
Wreaths laid at King Leonidas’ statue in Sparta Place, Brunswick (L) and the Australian Hellenic Memorial by Stacey Zarifopoulos and her father Zarifis. Source: Zarifis Zarifopoulos/Supplied
Asked to explain the motive behind the initiative, Mr Zarifopoulos referred to the story of the battle as one he knew since “before finishing primary school”.
“Dad had told me about those events. Ending up teaching history didn’t play much role in this, there is no way I would forget this story no matter my profession,” he had then told SBS Greek.
Source: Zarifis Zarifopoulos/Supplied
Listen to the interview in Greek here.
“I did it because being Greek is a privilege but comes with great responsibility too.
“If you don’t know your peoples’ history, you don’t know where you came from.
“And if you don’t know where you came from, you can’t know where you’re heading.”
The milk bar experience: work or fun? It depends who you ask
Mr Zarifopoulos recalls his father always saying he wanted to go back to Greece. His son would sort of realise this dream instead for him.
By opting to spend a year there teaching in 1986, taking with his two daughters Stacey and Vickie who did their first year of school at their grandparents’ homeland.
While their return to Australia was repatriation rather than migration, the business they embarked on straight after was typical for newcomers.
Vickie and Stacey spent a year in Greece at the age of 5 and 6 respectively. Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
They opened a milk bar in Box Hill “mainly for Sotiria to have an occupation” Mr Zarifopoulos says of his then wife.
He would help run it whenever not teaching; on weekends, early mornings and late nights. They kept it open only for a couple of years, “as legislation changed and big retail shops obtained license to operate at any time, so traffic at small businesses dropped.”
He says they were also keen to give children opportunities for getaways, as holidaying could not combined with all day shifts and being open 7 days a week.
But the time was enough for their daughters to gather fond memories at the shop.
Zarifis with his two daughters back in 1983 in Mildura. Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
“It was a lot of fun for my sister and I living upstairs from the milk bar,” Stacey Zarifopoulos tells SBS Greek.
“I also remember just a few doors down we had a Vietnamese bakery and there was a boy mine and my sister’s age, so we became friends and would often play games. I think we were the only kids in that strip of shops.”
Helping at the milk bar was also 8-year-old Stacey’s very first job.
“When I’d have to mind the shop, because I knew how to count money for a newspaper or a carton of milk I was able to [serve customers]. If someone bought something else there was a buzzer my mum would hear it from upstairs.”
Amongst memories standing out are “being cheeky with sister Vicki, waking up early on weekends and sneaking downstairs to get a little chocolate and lollies”.
“I don’t know if our parents had realised we were doing that,” Stacey says with a laugh.
Stacey and Vickie were born a year apart. Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
Did they?
“I can’t remember,” Mr Zarifopoulos admits.
“Two years when you’re 6 or 7 it’s a quarter of your life. For me it was just a blip.”
The period they were running the milk bar was also not one allowing much reflection time.
Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
“I remember my dad working all the time”, says Stacey, “for me it was more like childhood memories and all fun.”
“It was good while it lasted but I don’t dwell on it too much,” says Mr Zarifopoulos.
“I didn’t have time I think to romanticise it and be nostalgic about it. You do something for 15 – 16 hours, then all you’re left is just enough time to sleep.”
“Never met a Greek who said I’m going to die in Australia”
After selling the milk bar, the family bought a house in Box Hill, “so that the girls wouldn’t need to change schools.”
It remains Mr Zarifopoulos’ residence to this day.
Judy (Sotiria) and Zarifis Zarifopoulos with daughters Vickie and Stacey Source: Stacey Zarifopoulos
“I’ve lived in this house half of my life, 30 plus years.”
And while born in Greece he has spent over 65 years of his life in Australia, despite this not being his father’s plan.
“I never met a Greek who said I’m going to live and die in Australia; the plan was to stay for 5 – 10 years, make some money and go back,” says Mr Zarifopoulos.
Asked whether he thought of moving permanently to Greece during his one-year stay, he admits he had thought of the possibility. But the 1986 stint was enough to convince him not to.
The reasons are many, he says, and overlap with those that made many Greeks leave in the first place.
“But I’m also used to being in Australia and how things work here.
“And if you have kids here at a school age it’s hard to uproot them and take them to Greece permanently. I know people who regretted going back and returned.
“Where your family is becomes your homeland”.
