The President of the Greek Community of Melbourne Bill Papastergiadis and the General Secretary Costas Markos met with the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, as well as with the Minister for Culture, the Minister for Tourism, the Mayor of Athens and leaders of political parties, during their recent trip to Athens.

The Greek Government passed the relevant legislation related to the approval and implementation of the working holiday visa. All relevant Ministers signed the legislation and the Ministry of Education is the responsible authority.

See below the amazing new e-newsletter of the Greek Community Schools.

We say "Excellent work" to the kids, teachers, families and everyone else that contributed towards this jam-packed first semester of 2017.

Η Ελληνική Κοινότητα Μελβούρνης ανακοινώνει ότι η κλήρωση για τον ειδικό λαχνό με πλούσια δώρα (Raffle Permit No 10648/16) που κυκλοφόρησε πέρυσι, πρόκειται να γίνει στις 26 Μαρτίου, στο κοινοτικό κτίριο, 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

To honour the life and work of the great Greek film maker Nikos Koundouros the Greek Community of Melbourne will be screening his multi-awarded movie “O Δράκος” (English subtitles), with Dino Eliopoulos, on Sunday 19 March 7:00pm at the Greek Centre.

The Lonsdale St Greek Festival, Melbourne’s biggest Greek street party, celebrates 30 years in 2017.

For the first time in the history of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM), 92% of the organisation’s membership endorsed the Board’s motion to develop the Bulleen property, an unresolved issue plaguing the organisation for many years. The vote was considered by all present, as a vote of confidence to the GCM’s Board of Directors and its President Bill Papastergiadis.

The Victorian Association of Argos Orestikon and District (Orestias) proudly announced that donated the sum of One million dollars to the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria.

The White Tower stands proudly in the foyer of the Greek Centre in Lonsdale Street. It is the first leg of its tour of honour to the various venues around Melbourne. It is the replica of Thessaloniki's most famous landmark which has been meticulously decorated by 8,000 white laurels, the symbol of highest status and an emblem of prosperity and fame. These flowers were crocheted by ladies in our local community as well as ladies in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Adored songstress Glykeria returns to Melbourne and to the Festival stage for the 30th anniversary of the Lonsdale St Greek Festival (Antipodes). Glykeria will perform her greatest hits on the Delphi Bank Stage on Saturday 25 February, making this her third performance at Melbourne’s largest celebration of all things Greek.

The Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) is pleased to announce a plan that will not only contribute to the development of the site at Bulleen, but will financially strengthen the GCM and create new facilities and services for all Greeks in Melbourne. The Plan focuses on the Community’s core activities and services and brings together organizations from across Melbourne in a landmark development called “Greek Centre on the Yarra».

Members of the Board of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) met with Dr Konstantinos Pantos, the world renowned Greek Australian fertility specialist and director of “Genesis”, Greece's largest fertility clinic, to discuss the possibility of organising a conference in Melbourne which would provide a forum for Greece to exhibit its many achievements in health, medicine and medical tourism to the broader Australian community.

Notification of upcoming Special General Meeting and Annual General Meeting.

More than two hundred people including students, parents, supporters and benefactors joined in the celebrations at the Greek Community of Melbourne’s (GCM) Christmas Party at the Greek Centre on Thursday evening. Presentations of the annual VCE Awards were made to students who had excelled in Modern and Ancient Greek.

Twelve students from the Greek Community of Melbourne’s Language and Culture Schools (Balwyn & Doncaster campus) and twelve Greek students from the Hellenic American Educational Foundation (Psychico College), completed on Monday 21st November, at 7pm, their first group Skype meeting as a result of their participation in the Program “Melbourne- Athens: A journey of friendship”.

Once again the students of the Greek Community’s Language and Culture (GLC) school and Alphington Grammar School have excelled in their Classical and Modern Greek final VCE exams.

A fundraising campaign for the reinstatement of the first Greek Orthodox church in Melbourne, "The Annunciation of Our Lady", was announced by the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV).

In this subject students explore issues in the modern construction of ethno-national, civic, multiple and other identities. We examine the evolution of the concept of "Hellenism" and the diversity of its manifestations in various parts of the modern world by way of an imaginary journey through the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, London, Nicosia, New York, and Melbourne.

Our Courses in 2017

Learn Modern Greek by attending our courses offered in 2017 and planned according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages *

Commencement dates and other relevant details on our Ancient Greek for Adults classes.

The Delphi Bank 23rd Greek Film Festival, an event proudly presented by the Greek Community of Melbourne, officially closed on Sunday 23 October with Christopher Papakaliatis’ debut film and box office hit WHAT IF. Papakaliatis enjoyed huge success at this year’s Festival, with his moving Opening Night feature WORLDS APART playing to over 1400 patrons on Opening Night alone.

The President of Greece Mr Prokopis Pavlopoulos met with the President of the Greek Community of Melbourne Mr Bill Papastergiadis and the General Secretary Mr Costas Markos, at the Presidential Mansion, on Saturday 1 October.

More than 150 people attended the closing lecture of the Greek Community of Melbourne’s History and Culture Seminars Series. The invited speaker, former award-winning ABC and SBS journalist, Helen Vatsikopoulos, did not let the audience down with her energetic delivery, thus bringing a successful end to this year’s series.

On Thursday 15 September 36 students from Alphington Grammar, the Principal Dr Vivianne Nikou, the Teacher in Charge of the Project Mrs Toula Terezaki and three other teachers visited Voula, Athens as part of their tour of Greece. More specifically they visited local archeological sites and the 1st Junior High School of Voula with which they are sister schools through electronic twinning.

At the office of the Greek Community of Melbourne are available for sale the following books:

The Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria, being fully aware that Greek-Australians play a leading role in the shaping of public policy in general and ethno-specific, multicultural issues in particular, has proposed the following policy issues to take up with all political parties and has requested from all parties to respond in the public forum. Deputations to MPs and Senators and media releases are an integral part of the campaign needed in support of these claims.

As part of the 2016 program, the Creative Drama and Arts Centre (CDAC) of the Greek Community of Melbourne has scheduled a series of Drama workshops for adults.

At their last Annual General Meeting, members of the Philanthropic Association of Kastorians "Grammos" unanimously approved to amend the Articles of Association in order to transfer part of their assets to the Greek Community once the organisation ceases to operate.

Ζητείται θεατροπαιδαγωγός για να διδάξει στα σχολεία της Ελληνικής Κοινότητας Μελβούρνης καθημερινές απογεύματα, 5μ.μ. -9 μ.μ., και Σάββατο πρωί 9 π.μ. - 1 μ.μ. Η θέση είναι διαθέσιμη μόνο σε άτομα που έχουν άδεια εργασίας στην Αυστραλία.

Ancient (Classical) Greek for High School students and VCE students in 2017

Catering for students who wish to increase their cultural literacy, investigate the origins of philosophy, science, politics, rhetoric, history and literature, be inspired from the moral insight and virtue of the classical world, read the architects of western civilization in their own words and finally increase their performance at the VCE Classical Greek examinations with a high score scaling. (see vtac link here, PDF)

The Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) commends the Australian Greens for attempting to pass a motion in the Australian Senate in support of the suffering Greek people who are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis. The GCM President, Mr Bll Papastergiadis and the Greek Centre Director Jorge Menidis called for action from the other parliamentarians in this critical time for the Greek people.
“Last Thursday, (20 June) Senator Scott Ludlam moved a motion in the Australian Senate that called for action from the Australian Treasurer and member of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of the IMF, and Governor of IMF and The World Bank Group.

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Aimed to attract children, adolescents and adults who wish to cultivate their theatrical expression, the centre will provide students of a Greek background an avenue to express their feelings, emotions and character via their participation in theatrical experimentation and performances.

Οn the occasion of the 114th Anniversary of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne & Victoria we are proud to publicly release detailed images of the first minutes of the GOCMV (1897-1916).

The minutes contain hundreds of names of early Greek settlers and through its pages we observe the history of the organisation as it evolved through its first two decades: the establishment of the first Greek Orthodox Church in Melbourne, the contribution of the founding members to the war efforts in Greece and the first constitution of a Greek organisation in Australia.