History of the Association
After Diamantina Roma, the next Zakynthian to arrive in Australia was Ekaterini Plessa, who married an officerin the English army and lived in the second half of the 19th century.
In 1885, brothers Alexandros and Markos Maniakis arrived on a ship from London. However, it wasn’t untill after the Second World War that the Zakynthians arrived in Australia in large numbers. They came partly because of the war (andits after math, the Greek Civil War), partly due to the 1953 earthquake that devastated Zakynthos, but also because of a desire for a different life that of their parents.
The Zakynthians who arrived in Australia with little more than the proverbial suitcase, settled mainly in Melbourne and Sydney, but also in the NSW industrial towns of Wollongong and Newcastle. In 1963, the first Zakynthia Philanthropic Association was formed, to help the new arrivals and later the fledgling Zakynthian Community. The present Zakynthian Association was formed in 1982 (the brainchild of Dimitrios Skiadopoulos and John Koutsis) to meet the changing needs of the Zakynthian Community in Sydney and NSW.
Specifically, to carry on Z.akynthian culture and traditions in Australia, and pass them on the next, Australian-born generation.
So it was in 1982, a group of Zakynthians met in the Sydney suburb of Eariwood, in the offices of solicitorPeter Livers, and agreed to the formation of the Zakynthian Association. The first committee included Joh Koutsis as president (from village of Mouzaki), Dennis Mystriotis as Vice-President (Agia Triada), Spiros Arvanitakis as Secretary (Tragaki), Tim Xenos, Treasurer (Louha) and committee members Steve Koutoulogenis (Romiri),
ternet John Xenos (Louha), George Arvanitakis (Lagadakia), Maria Batsas (Agios Leondas) ure and Dimitrios Skiadopoulos (Vougiato).
Since 1982, apart from countless dances, dinners, barbeques, excursions and the like, the Association achieved a number of things, such as hosting the visits of eminent dignitaries from Zakynthos as well as the “Tragoudistades Tsi Zakynthos” choir, formation of the Women’s Committee and its ongoing success, the Zakynthian Library, launching an internet homepage and, of course, paying off and developing the Zakynthian house.
It is to be hoped that this link with our beloved Zakynthos, its culture and traditions can continue for many years to come
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