For fifth generation Monash resident and historian Helen Gobbi the hardest part of curating an exhibition on migration in Oakleigh, including Greek migration, has been showcasing the many resources in a limited space.
“The hardest thing with this exhibition was to condense it down,” she said.
“There was so much information on migration it took me weeks to distill the information.”
History Monash vice-president Ms Gobbi has curated the Oakleigh historical society’s latest exhibition, Oakleigh: A changing multicultural community that explores the story of Australian migration and its local impacts. It describes the journey of migrants from many countries, including Greece, to the Melbourne south-east suburb of Oakleigh from its beginnings to the peak post-World War II government-sponsored migration program.
Gobbi OAM, is probably the most qualified person to curate such an exhibition.
Greek settlement: Ann Nield (L) and curator Helen Gobbi note the contribution Greek migrants, including second generation trailblazers George Lekakis and Dr John Malios, made to Oakleigh, in their exhibition. Photo: Dora Houpis
Born and breed in Oakleigh, Gobbi, 76, went to Hughesdale Primary School, married and raised her son in Oakleigh and now lives in Murrumbeena. She has been with the historical society for more than 20 years writing books and researching. Her pioneering great-great grandfather Attilio Gobbi, was a farmer from Switzerland who arrived in Australia in 1852. He married a fellow Swiss resident French-speaking Marie Deschamp and settled in Oakleigh. Attilio’s contributions to Oakleigh included establishing Clayton North Primary School, now near the corner of Dandenong and Clayton roads, Clayton. Attilio is buried at the Oakleigh Pioneer Memorial Park cemetery.
She hoped visitors to the exhibition got a greater appreciation of migration to Australia, and Oakleigh.
“It changed the culture and broaden everything…and contributed to the country,” Gobbi said.
The exhibition begins with five facts sheets hanging from the wall that outline the waves of migration to Oakleigh from the English, Irish and Scots in the mid- 1800s to the Italian, Maltese and Greek migrants after the world wars, and then south-east Asian migration.
Memorabilia from the Greek-Cypriot Apeitos family occupy the third glass cabinet in the exhibition showcasing Greek settlement in Oakleigh. Photo: Dora Houpis
The fact sheets on Greek settlement includes stories on two prominent locals, the former Victorian Multicultural Commission chair George Lekakis, and Oakleigh GP of nearly 50 years Dr John Malios. Once explored in its entirety, the exhibition shows the medical, educational, musical, religious, commercial, sporting and cultural contributions Greek migrants made to Oakleigh.
Carefully curated, the exhibition devotes one large glass cabinet boasting primary sources to each migrant group who settled in Oakleigh.
The first cabinet features the McNally and O’Flaherty families, and includes a handwritten letter from American relatives dated 1840s. The prominent 1860s “Age” writer, Peter O’Flaherty lived in Ferntree Gully Rd, Oakleigh.
The second cabinet outlines the lives of Italian migrant Andrea Celle and Maltese migrant Antonia Felice who met in Australia, married in North Melbourne in 1953 and moved to Clayton in 1960. A skilled seamstress who worked in Malta for a boutique whose clientele included the late Lady Mountbatten, she made her own wedding dress which is pictured in the cabinet, along with Celle’s original crew landing card from the boat “Florentia”.
Helen Gobbi’s book “Fallen Leaves” that examines the Oakleigh men who fought in World War I and Ann Nield’s ground-breaking book on Greek settlement in Oakleigh are displayed at the historical society’s immigration exhibition. Photo: Dora Houpis
The third cabinet is devoted to the Apeitos family. Greek-Cypriot Chris Apeitos, who died in 2023 and his wife Antigone, who died in 2024, were among the first Greek settlers to own a house in Oakleigh buying a house in Carlisle St, in 1954. The couple lived there until they died. On display is Apeitos’s British passport, a wedding photo taken by Studio Michel, in Warrigal Rd, Oakleigh, and memorabilia from their son, internationally-renown conductor John Apeitos’s career.
The fourth cabinet reflects on south-east Asian migrants settling in Oakleigh in the later part of last century. It features long-time business owner Kim Anh, at her shop Kim Anh Fabrics, in Portman St, Oakleigh and physicist and former South-Eastern Metropolitan Region MLC, Dr Tien Dung Kieu.
One smaller cabinet outlines the lives of other notable Greeks like: Dr Maria Gindidis who founded the Protypo Greek Centre that teaches Greek, at Oakleigh Primary School, on Warrigal Rd, in 1981; Chris and Eugenia Babatsias who started the South Oakleigh Soccer Club, in 1972 (now the Oakleigh Cannons); and Evangelia Moutafis and her late husband Sts Anagyri’s Greek Orthodox church priest, Fr Nicholas Moutafis.
George Lekakis and Dr John Malios’s contributions to health services is outlined in the exhibition. Photo: Dora Houpis
Another small cabinet outlines the contributions of important Italians who settled in Oakleigh like brothers Frank and Nunzio Pellicano who established a local bricklaying business in 1967 before it became the leading property and construction enterprise, Pellicano, and World War II veteran, businessowner and Oakleigh councillor Tony Scarcella.
Hughesdale resident and History Monash Inc secretary Ann Nield who wrote the ground-breaking book Oakleigh is Our Life: Greek Settlement in Oakleigh, (Το ‘Οκλι είναι η ζωή μας) launched last year, said the inclusion of Greek settlement in the exhibition added to understanding of Oakleigh.
“I think the exhibition sets the Greek settlement of Oakleigh into the bigger context of Oakleigh,” she said.
“It shows what a vibrant place Oakleigh has become since World War II.”
The free exhibition is being held at Monash Federation Centre, 3 Atherton Rd, Oakleigh, on Tuesdays from 10am to 2pm, until November. For group bookings e-mail info@historymonash.org.au
