Imbros to be honoured in Hampton
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
The northern Aegean Island of Imbros will soon be honoured by a special commemorative plaque in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Hampton as part of a project to recognise the war service connection of the local Castlefield Estate. To mark the centenary of the creation of the Estate, a major community event is planned for Sunday 23rd March 2025, between 11am and 3pm, at Castlefield Reserve. All are welcome.
The commemoration is part of a local community project – the Castlefield Estate Centenary Project – to recognise the historical significance of the naming of a number of streets in the Castlefield Estate after sites connected to Australia’s involvement in the First World War. The Estate was a large War Service Commission homes estate built for veterans and their families following the war. This year marks the centenary of the establishment of the Estate.
The project was initiated by residents of the Estate, led by the former Bayside Mayor Felicity Frederico OAM and media and communications consultant Robert Curtain. Supported by Bayside Council, the project initiators successful grant application to the Victorian Government’s Victoria Remembers grant program was auspiced by the Sandringham & District Historical Society. They have also received corporate support for the project.
According to the Sandringham & District Historical Society, the naming of the streets after First World War battle sites occurred following the end of the war as the government built new homes for returning soldiers and their families. In Hampton, 67 acres of farmland was carved off the Castlefield Estate to create a neighbourhood of close to 300 Californian Bungalow houses – one of the largest war service home developments in Victoria.
As a result the streets of the new estate were named after battlefields, mostly of the Western Front. These include Amiens, Hamil, Lagnicourt and Passchendaele. These represent some of the major military engagements of the Australian military in the whole war. Imbros is included no doubt to represent the Gallipoli campaign, one of the major such military operations on the Eastern Front. The first residents of these new homes were veterans, war widows and their families. The Society has created a very informative webpage detailing each of the streets, their battlefield connections and details on the first residents, with brief military biographies of the veterans. For example that for Imbros Street can be viewed here.
The project will see the provision of large, full-width bronze footpath plaques being installed in each street of the estate to tell the story of the First World War locations identified, and a large interpretive sign will be erected at the Castlefield Reserve. In addition, a new Castlefield Estate Audio Walking Tour is being produced, which will be part of the Bayside Walks local tourism app.
The projects Robert Curtain states that in recognition of this connection more than 200 remaining weatherboard and terracotta tile Californian bungalow homes on the Estate were declared a heritage precinct in 1989. In addition, he points out that the Australian war connection of the Estate is reflected in the fact that the original veteran residents of the Estate built a Memorial Hall and later the sale of that building went to support the establishment of the nearby Hampton RSL. “The estate is a living memorial to those who served, as well as an architecturally significant slice of our community’s history”, Mr Curtain said.
It is extremely significant that Imbros was selected for inclusion in the Estate street names. Clearly this is evidence that the role of Imbros in the Gallipoli campaign was more appreciated than we might have expected. Indeed it would appear that a number of the first residents of Imbros Street on the Estate appear to have had military connections to Imbros through their war service.
Three possibilities are that of the 5th Battalion’s Corporal James Law, the 6th Battalion’s Private John Nathan and the 10th Battalion’s Signaller John Masterson. Both the 5th and 6th Battalions were anchored in Imbros’ Kephalos Bay in November 1915. The 10th Battalion came to Imbros for a short period of rest from the front at Gallipoli in June and July 1915. James Law would take up residence at 27 Imbros Street and John Nathan at number 14, while John Masterson’s widow would make her home at number 10. Was the memory of Kephalos Bay and its rest camps in the minds of these new residents of Imbros Street as they moved in?
Veterans like these experienced Imbros as it was transformed by the Gallipoli campaign. As I have recounted in my book From Imbros Over The Sea, Imbros played a crucial role in the Gallipoli campaign as an advanced base. It was here that the Allied headquarters for the campaign were located. As a major roadstead for shipping, the great harbour at Kephalos was transformed into a major military shipping base as hundreds of ships plied the waters between the Gallipoli Peninsula and nearby Lemnos and beyond.
Imbros was also a major aircraft base for the campaign, with airplanes, seaplanes, balloons and airships based around the harbour. It was home to the world’s first purpose built aircraft carrier. The island was also the site of medical facilities, large rest camps, a military cemetery and a supply base. Imbros was where the Australian bakeries were based, supplying huge supplies of fresh bread to the troops on the Peninsula. The famous Australian war correspondent and future official historian of the campaign, Charles Bean, was based here too.
And most importantly the presence of so many Allied military personnel on the Island resulted in major social interaction with its then overwhelmingly Hellenic population. Troops sent to recuperate for short periods of rest would traverse the Island on hired local donkeys with their local guides taking them to the major villages and towns that lay beyond the Allied camps. These soldiers wrote home and in their diaries of swimming in the Island’s waters, of visiting its churches and enjoying the hospitality of the locals.
Over recent years it has been my pleasure to assist our own local Hellenic diaspora from Imbros in promoting greater awareness of the Island’s role in the campaign and Australia’s Anzac story. Last year I was able to create a photographic exhibition re-telling this story. The exhibition has been shown in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with other locations planned. The accompanying book – From Imbros Over The Sea – was launched by the Imbrian Society of Melbourne at the local Greek Orthodox Church in nearby Parkdale.
Mr George Xinos of the Imvrian Society of Melbourne said that the community was overjoyed that the Estate and the project honoured Imbros. “How appropriate that one of Melbourne’s bayside suburbs should have honoured the role of Imbros in Australia’s Anzac story, an area of Melbourne were many residents of Imbros would later settle and begin their new life in Australia. By honouring the role of Imbros, this project has also honoured this important aspect of the Hellenic role in Anzac”, he said
Harry Pavlou is one local Hellene who has lived on Imbros Street for a number of years. “Being of Hellenic heritage and living in Imbros Street I feel so proud of the significance the island of Imbros played in WW1”, he said.
The centenary event to be held at Castlefield Estate on Sunday 23 March 2025 will be attended by various dignitaries including representatives of the Australian military, of service organisations and Federal and State politicians. These dignitaries include Her Excellency the Hon Professor Margaret Gardner AC Governor of Victoria, the Hon Natalie Suleyman Victorian Minister for Veterans, Cr Hanna El Mousallem Mayor of Bayside and Ms Zoe Daniel Federal MP for Goldstein.
The official proceedings will commence at noon and will include the unveiling of one of the memorial plaques in the presence of the Governor of Victoria. The Royal Australian Navy Band will perform. A lone piper from Haileybury College will perform, RAAF cadets will raise the flag and children from Hampton Primary School and St Mary’s Primary School will also perform.
There will be food vans and a BBQ as well as a number of information tents at the reserve representing the Sandringham & District Historical Society, local schools and the Imvrian Society of Melbourne. The Imvrian Society tent will include displays from its recent pictorial exhibition as well as offering copies of From Imbros Over The Sea for sale.
Mr Xinos said that the Society was proud to take part in this important celebration and congratulated the project initiators and supporters for all their hard work in bringing it to a reality.
Jim Claven is a trained historian, freelance writer and published author. He has conducted historical research on the Island of Imbros and worked with the local Imvrian Society of Melbourne to create a major photographic exhibition on Imbros and Gallipoli as well as writing the accompanying book. Most recently he was Associate Producer of the new 1941 Greek campaign documentary Anzac The Greek Chapter that was launched at the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne and Sydney last year. He can be contact via email – jimclaven@yahoo.com.au.
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