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National Geographic : 1979 Feb
Contents
Australia's oldest neighborhood rings with good cheer during an annual parade celebrating the election of the honorary Governor of the Rocks (left). Here, on the rocky shore of Sydney Cove in 1788, the British founded the convict colony that was their first settlement in the Antipodes. The wharfside neighborhood called the Rocks, where it all began, suffered long decades of decay before being stylishly renovated and revitalizedin the 1970's. Af ter the parade, celebrators on a pub crawl (below) demonstrate the art of prodigious beer consumption-at which Australian elbow benders excel. its owner, "ever sell a dog without papers." Milling through an endless jumble of mer chandise, Paddy's customers mirror the eth nic origins of Sydney's population, 65 percent of it foreign-born or only one genera tion removed. Until World War II ended, this was-in terms of people and customs-very much a British outpost. The postwar era, however, called for more muscle than the pommy pipeline provided. First to respond: well educated, skilled Polish and German refu gees. But they were not enough. By 1948 the federal government was ac tively recruiting manpower from abroad, scoring heavily with economically disad vantaged Greeks, Italians, Yugoslavs, Mal tese, and Turks. Southern Europeans came in droves, and the inevitable chain migra tion of families followed. After Middle East erners and South Americans were admitted in 1966, New Australians were settling in Sydney at the rate of 30,000 a year. Some Hopes Become Tarnished Congregating for the most part in ethnic enclaves, they brought a new look and life to the city. For some, this became the promised land; for others, a disappointment. Gennaro Abignano arrived from Italy in 1957 with twenty dollars. Starting as the lowest-paid laborer, he now owns a con struction business worth ten million dollars in equipment alone. "Christmas, 1960, I got only ten dollars. So I buy my papa back in Napoli a bottle of the best wine. He thinks I do real well, so he stops saying come home." Home is where a number of transplants would prefer to be. A young Greek summed it up: "The work here is not much, and ev erything costs big. The people, they do not mix well; too many do not want us here at all. I save now to leave syntoma-soon." Greeks, Turks, and Yugoslavs give the fringe precinct of Newtown a delightful in ternational flavor. As regional officer for the Good Neighbour Council, Margaret Hel man helps newcomers adjust. We strolled a street filled with the fra grance of exotic cooking and the babel of many tongues. "Most Newtown migrants fall into a classic mold. Husband and wife take factory jobs, buy a house, fix it up, sell it for a profit. (Continuedon page 231) 227
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