Greek festival

I spent Sunday at Brisbane’s annual Greek festival. It was an interesting mix of all things Hellenic with plenty of Baklava, Halloumi, and grape crushing along with a healthy lashing of Queensland on the side in the form of Castlemaine XXXX beer tents. The fact that there are enough Greeks in Brisbane not just to run an annual festival but also maintain a large social club on the grounds is all down to Australia’s post-war ‘Populate or Perish!’ campaign. It’s difficult to fully consider the position Australia was in by the late 1940s, but being extremely under populated and having come six months or so (and a MacArthur) spare of being invaded by the Japanese the Australians opted for an active policy of encouraging (white) emigration of Greeks, Italians, Slavs, Serbs, Croats, Dutch, Poles, Turks, Lebanese, and of course the odd Brit. In the space of three years alone, around one quarter of a million people migrated into Australia. So, more than sixty years later that results in a very fine annual festival on south bank of Brisbane.