Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story

Three Begovich sisters: Manda, Mara and Anica Ravlich

Someone To Lean On

There was always someone ready to help us when life was difficult: fellow countrypersons, religious leaders and school teachers, work colleagues, friends and neighbours.









We left on the Orsova on the 22nd of May, 1961. The trip out wasn't very easy. The first few days were really sad, because we left our family. It was an English ship so we couldn't talk to anybody because we didn't know the language.
Marija Zaknich

It doesn't matter where you go, people are not all the same. It doesn't matter what country they come from; there are good people and bad people.
Spiros Niarros

I loved to dance. It was a bit difficult, particularly going to ask a girl to dance because of the language and as Maria said, young ones could be cruel. They called you names, but we persisted.
Petar Petkovich

Sometimes people treated us badly. Some people had a good character and were good persons but others — they never thought of migrants.
Con Frangonasopoulos

I have lived here for forty years and had good neighbours, but we are also good neighbours; we are very quiet people.
Veatrike (Vickie) Drosos

In the early days in Broken Hill when you went to work at a house, the women were very nice. They gave us morning tea which usually include Arnotts milk coffee biscuits. I loved those.
Dino De Franceschi

My neighbour and I talked so much over the fence one day that a saucepan of milk boiled over on my stove! They were nice neighbours. I used to go in and help them sometimes and they helped me.
Vasiliki (Vickie) Niarros

People found us fascinating because of how close our families were. The Greek community back in those days was huge. We did not have any actual family here but lots of friends and family connections.
Kathy Skiadas

When we came, we were more exposed to the community because we were children. We were out there and kids can be cruel, so it was hard for a few years.
Maria Petkovich


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Maltese priests and nuns supported the Maltese community


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Three Begovich sisters: Manda, Mara and Anica Ravlich