Copyright (1916) KWHF

From Life in Australia, 1916.

View / download a .pdf version of these pages here:

Meimarakis_LIA_English_138-139.pdf

Entry from Life in Australia

(President of the Greek Community in Brisbane)

Mild-mannered, straightforward, gentlemanly, full of patriotic
sentiments and an inexhaustible source of charity, Mr Emmanuel
Meïmarakis is from the village of Kalesia, in the province of Malevesios in Crete. The positive features of purity, patriotism and philanthropy that are the ornament of the distinguished Greek of Brisbane, Emannuel Meïmarakis, are well known to all. Among the Greeks living in all of Queensland he has distinguished himself for his generosity towards every aim – be it national, of benefit to the whole community, lofty or sacred. This is why the Greek Community there, in recognition of his moral contribution and good deeds on behalf of the whole community, elected him as its President.

Arriving in Australia at the age of 23, on 28th April 1903, he found
employ in the businesses of various Greek shopkeepers. Launching forth, however, under the impulse of the spirit of commerce and relying upon nothing but his love of hard work and activity, he established a shop in Brisbane, on the site of which there stands today the largest building of the entire city. In the midst of bitterness and deprivation, far from his relatives, far from his loved ones, with no protector, Mr Meïmarakis succeeded in acquiring a considerable amount of property in Brisbane. This consists, apart from other things, of four splendid shops that he very ably manages.

We here show a photograph of one of them, situated at 170 Albert Street, Brisbane.

Such in a few words is the distinguished Greek from Crete, Mr Emmanuel N. Meïmarakis, who is surrounded by the love and admiration of his fellow Greeks in Brisbane.

A grandson makes contact

On Thursday, September 22, 2011, Georgios Meimarakis contacted the Kytherian World Heritage Fund to purchase a copy of Η ζωή εν Αυστραλία, Life in Australia.

Georgios Meimarakis lives in Munich, Germany.

The reason he ordered a copy of the book is because he and his family have no "detailed information about my grandfather".