Flavours of Monash

Settlement Story of Dimitrios and Penelope Zissiadis

To Pontiki 'the rat'

Penelope Zissiadis arrived in Australia in December 1958. She worked very hard in her early years as a furrier, beautifully hand stitching satin lining into her fur coats, a trade she learned in her native Ampelokipi, Kastoria in the North of Greece. Her beloved husband arrived in Australia in August 1962. Dimitrios was a fine craftsman carpenter and he commenced work at Stegbar and also working as a ferrier in the evening, as he too was from the same village as Penelope and learned the trade as a child.

After saving enough money for a deposit on a home, this happily married couple decided that they would buy their first home. It was a beautiful weatherboard home in a quite street - a dream fulfilled that they would buy land and settle in this foreign country Australia.

But one night whilst asleep they discovered that this beautiful home had a dark secret for at night the 'rats' would invade looking for food and warmth from the cold. Dimitrios and Penelope did not know what to do. Not being able to speak English they had to go and locate some rat poison. Shopping in those days was not as easy as today in our modern self serve world. In order to be able to buy something you had to be able to specifically ask for it at the counter of the store, and as most shopkeepers only spoke English they found it extremely hard.

Dimitrios, who was always working out new ways of doing things got an idea. He took a picture, which he drew himself to the store and hoped that the shopkeeper would understand that he wanted rat poison. Bravely he walked into the store and showed the shopkeeper the picture. The shopkeeper recognised that the picture was of a rat, and when Dimitrios put a huge cross through the picture, the shopkeeper understood that he wanted rat poison.

Dimitrios hurried home with the rat poison and the rat traps and set about making his dream home a 'rat free' home.

This is only one example of how difficult settling in Australia was however their courage, determination, love and hard work paid off handsomely. Dimitrios and Penelope went on to build their own successful business, raise two children and live happily in Australia with their family, friends and neighbours for many years.

Dimitrios is the president of the Argos and District Senior Citizens Club, which meets every Friday at the Moorleigh Community Centre. The club has approximately 138 members.