Con Rontos (b. 1925, Skala, Italy)

Date of birth: 22 December 1925

Place of birth: Skala, Peloponnese

Arrived in Australia: 17 February 1956

Occupation: Baker and Factory Worker

I completed primary school in 1938. Our parents had no intention of sending us to secondary school, but neither did we, the children, want to go. We also had the odd idea that when you failed a grade or two, you shouldn’t continue with school. So most of the children only finished primary school which today is like finishing Form Four in High School.

The teachers were authoritarian because that’s how they were taught to be; to be aggressive, domineering and to speak with an angry tone of voice towards the student. This way the students had lost their confidence to express themselves. Those were terrible years.

Then, in 1940, I went and learned the trade in a clothes shop so I could open my own shop in the future. Then the war (1) erupted and the owner of the shop was conscripted, so I went back to my father, who had an orchard and I worked for him through the years of the Occupation til 1944 (2).

On the 28th April, 1944, with German assistance, G. Rallis, the temporary Prime Minister of Greece, helped in organising security forces, which were primarily forces whose main aim was to police the country. That’s when I joined. these security forces were only temporary. They were there basically to counter the strengthening forces of ELAS (3), the communist forces.

From 1946 until 1949 I served in the anti-communist forces which actively fought against ELAS, who wanted to take over the country.

In 1946, on May 5th, we had repulsed the communists who attacked Skala. In the photo I am on the far left with fellow officers during our stint with the force in 1946.

During the Civil War I was still working on my father’s property, the bakery and orchard. Work was hard because the well had little water and the oven operated on wood.

Our family consisted of six children, three boys and three girls, but being the eldest son of a large family, I had to work for the rest of the children. Later, when I saw that the family was not progressing financially, I decided to migrate.

In 1955 I prepared all the papers to come to Australia. It was a country that I used to see on the map, but because some migrants had gone to Australia and had written that the country is prosperous and very pleasant in all aspects, I decided to come to Australia myself.

On January 22nd in 1956 I left aboard a ship called ‘Skarbou’ with another 1200 bachelors.

This is my passport photo.

We arrived in Adelaide and they told us there that whoever wanted could work in Renmark4. However, since I received a letter from a friend saying that there are jobs in Melbourne, I came to Melbourne by train.

I went to Spencer Street, to the Railways headquarters, and asked for work. They put us all in line there, about a hundred, and they took five. The next day when I was right in front, they took ten. I started to work, had my medical examination and then they sent me to Jolimont Station. It was pick and shovel work with other Italians and various migrants.

You could register with the unions and they accepted you of course, but if you had a complaint, they used to say ‘OK, we’ll see.’ They postponed it indefinitely. But personally, I worked regularly and well, and I never went to the union to complain.

As far as language was concerned, I went to school for a monthy, but later, since I worked on the railways where most of the workers were Greek and Italian, and work was so heavy and tiring, I had no energy to continue going to school.

This photo was taken at the back of our house in Edward Street in October 1966. Next to me is my wife Athanasia and in front of me are my children Sotiris and Tasia.

When I decided to come to Brunswick in 1956, my first thought was to find a good house to live in with low rent and close to the shops. In 1957, in March, I moved to a small house in Evans Street but the conditions were terrible. For four years we were living with another two families and everything, the kitchen, the living-room, the fridge, the gas, even the television had to be shared. So, despite paying only 3 1/2 pounds for rent, my wife and I decided to buy our own house. That was in 1962.

It had to be in Brunswick though. Maybe because I was used to it, maybe because there were many compatriots here, maybe because the Greek shops and the church were around, I decided to live here. Later, this helped because a family who was living with us at the time suggested to me to go to Holeproof, a factory which is close to Edward Street. I went there and after a week they employed me. I was very happy and I worked there for 5 1/2 years, from 1962 until 1968, the year I decided to go back to my country.

In 1968 I went back to my country. My father had left me the family home and wanted me to go back and open my own business, so that I wouldn’t have to work in a factory, and live a life of routine. I went and opened a bakery with perfect and updated machines. I was happy for three to four years. After that though, the governor there made a mistake. He issued free licences to prospective bakers. Work decreased and various disappointments forced me to return to Australia in 1974.

After many struggles I found work in a factory (5) here and that became our way of re-establishing ourselves financially. The factory I worked for closed after 14 months and later I found work in a glass factory in Spotswood (6). Where I worked, my job was very difficult, shiftwork of course – but I had the misfortune of suffering an accident. I am now retired.

 

1 Fighting broke out between the Greeks and the Italians on the Albanian border on 28th October, 1940. This signified the beginning of Greece’s involvement in World War II.

2 Greece was occupied by the Germans during World War II between 1941 and 1944.

3 ELAS was the military arm of EAM (National Liberation Front) which was a coalition of popular forces formed during the German occupation of Greece.

4 Town in the fruit growing area of South Australia.

5 Millers, a woollen mill.

6 A.C.I.

Source: ’1985. Brunswick City Council. For a better life we came’. Collected and edited by the Brunswick Oral History Project.  Copies available for lending and sale at Moreland City Libraries (Brunswick) ph 9389 8600.  Images taken after 1955 are available in the print publication. Original images available in exhibition boxes in storage at Brunswick Library.