The Legendary “Patris” Ship: Uniting Greece and Australia in an Epic Journey

With a capableness for astir 1,800 passengers and a unit of implicit 250, the “Patris” was designed for the weeks-long voyage. Public Domain

The legendary “Patris” vessel agreed Greece and Australia successful an epic travel betwixt the 1960s and 1970s, transporting tens of thousands of Greeks Down Under.

In the precocious 1950s, arsenic Greece sought to retrieve from the devastation of World War II and a bitter civilian war, a caller question of migration began. While the United States had agelong been the superior destination for Greek emigrants, a distant caller onshore was emerging arsenic a “Promised Land” for those successful hunt of a amended life: Australia.

This agelong and arduous travel required a caller benignant of vessel. Initially, the Hellenic Mediterranean Lines serviced the way with the “Kyrenea” and “Tasmania,” but a void was created erstwhile these ships were retired. It was past that the Chandris Shipping House stepped in, making a immense concern to span the distance.

The emergence of the “Patris” uniting Greece and Australia

The way Greece-Australia arsenic advertised by Patris. Public Domain

In precocious 1959, the Chandris household purchased the “Bloemfontein Castle,” a vas built conscionable 9 years earlier. After extended refitting and renaming it the “Patris” (meaning “homeland” successful Greek), the vessel was transformed into a veritable floating city.

With a capableness for astir 1,800 passengers and a unit of implicit 250, the “Patris” was designed for the weeks-long voyage. The vessel was equipped with 2 cinemas, an orchestra, and adjacent organized Greek parties to assistance passengers consciousness astatine home.

Its inaugural voyage from Piraeus, Greece, connected December 14, 1959, carried implicit 1,000 passengers connected a 23-day journey. Many spent Christmas and New Year connected committee earlier the vessel arrived astatine Fremantle, Australia, connected January 2, 1960. The affectional scenes were repeated arsenic it docked successful Melbourne and Sydney, wherever the Greek diaspora tearfully welcomed the vas that had go their lifeline to their homeland.

A bequest beyond migration

Over its career, the “Patris” made 91 voyages betwixt 1959 and 1975, cementing its spot arsenic a awesome of anticipation and transportation for Greek migrants.

Its legacy, however, extended beyond its superior mission. In a singular enactment of humanitarianism, Antonis Chandris offered the vessel to the Australian authorities connected Christmas 1974 aft Cyclone Tracy devastated the metropolis of Darwin. The “Patris” served arsenic a floating edifice for those who had mislaid their homes, strengthening the bonds betwixt Greece and Australia.

After a last travel successful 1979, the “Patris” was sold, but its representation remains “engraved successful the representation of the Greek diaspora” arsenic the legendary vessel that brought a caller beingness wrong reach.

Related: The First Greek to Settle successful South Australia