Early Years
It was perhaps this British influence over the Ionian Island and Ithaca during the mid-19th century that influenced Marino and his brother to leave Greece for the young colony of Australia, at that time established for less than 100 years. After their arrival in Australia and no doubt a great amount of hard work and cultural adjustment, Marino and Anthony prospered. One inevitable byproduct of moving to what was an overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon nation, was the need to modify their surname. Consequently, Lekatsas became 'Lucas'.
The brothers became interested in both the building industry and the theater. As the following excerpt from the Victorian Government Immigration website details, some of the immigrants may have been undecided as to whether their new home was to be a permanent one:
Greeks had been establishing new lives in Australia since the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. Many Greeks were amongst the sailors who left their English ships in Australian waters when they heard the discovery of gold. Most intended to return home rich men, so few women came to join them. By 1871, there were still only 19 Greece-born women in Victoria, and 127 men. After the gold declined, those who stayed found work in restaurants, cafes and shops.
Read more about this topic: Marino Lucas
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.”
—Gerald Early (b. 1952)
“They will tell you tough stories of sharks all over the Cape, which I do not presume to doubt utterly,—how they will sometimes upset a boat, or tear it in pieces, to get at the man in it. I can easily believe in the undertow, but I have no doubt that one shark in a dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred miles long.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)