"buildsnburns"
buildsnburns@yahoo.com wrote;-
The new thing I learned about Australia was that the marines slept in
the soccer stadium.
I think Peleconos is proud of his Greek Heritage, and rightly so.
Something that bothers me though--and anyone here from OZ can enlighten
us, and perhaps slap me around--is that until the post-war years
Australia would not allow immigrants from Mediterranean countries in
because they were considered of a somewhat inferior race.
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I haven't yet seen the show, I don't think its screened here yet.
Somewhat O.T.
Soccer was at that time almost unknown here, as I think was the case in the US.
If they were in Melbourne they would have bivouacked in an AFL
(Australian football league or Aussie Rules stadium) or more likely at the time a cricket stadium.
Until post WW1 Australia was primarily an English-speaking Anglo-Saxon Society. There were people here from other cultures but they were decidedly in the minority.
Post WW2 the country deliberately embarked on a huge Migration program. The phrase, 'Populate or Perish' was used.
The primary source of 'new Australians' was the Mediterranean countries, Italy and Greece primarily. Melbourne is supposedly now the biggest Greek city in the world outside Athens. (The Children of this Generation of non-Anglo Australians now hold powerful positions in Academia, industry and government) The changes in cultural practice caused a lot of friction,and that's still going on now, as we got used to Vietnamese, Lebanese, South Americans, South Africans in the 60's and 70's, and now Russians, Indonesians, Sudanese, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and the list goes on. Sound familiar?
Australia has a similar area to the continental United States with a total population of only 20.6 million, slightly more than New York. approximating New York. That means the changes,which are enormous, penetrate deeply. Our rednecks aren't any happier about it than rednecks anywhere else.
Australia did prohibit migration from some Asian countries in the early part of the last century.
Eric
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