Life Story of Stavroula Theodorakakis (Cordato)
Stavroula (Violet) was born on January 13, 1928, in Potamos, Kythera. My father's name was Dionysius Theodorakakis and my mother's name was Marigo Mazaraki. I was the youngest of five, with four older brothers, Kiriakos (Kerry), Ioannis (John), Gerasimos and Manuel. Manual died as an infant at 6 months and Gerasimos at 20 years.
My father (also known as Denny) spent many years in Australia, working with his nephews in cafes throughout country NSW. In Australia, they took on their family nickname as their surname, Cordato, and the Cordato Brothers had cafes in many towns including Dubbo, Casino, Glen Innes, Armidale and Hillston. My father returned to Greece to retire by 1927.
My brothers were sent to Australia to join the family business: John in 1936 and Kerry in 1938. I remained in Kythera with my parents, virtually an only child. As the war was finishing in 1945 my parents fell ill. My father passed away on February 8, 1945 and my mother on October 6, 1945.
Orphaned at 17, I locked the house, packing all its contents into one room, and travelled to Pireus to live with my mother's first cousin and her family. My father had accumulated reasonable wealth after years of hard work in Australia, and I was a good prospect for marriage in Greece considering my sizeable dowry. However, my dream was to join my brothers in Australia and so my brothers began organising the paperwork for my passage. In May 1946 I returned to Kythera for six months, arranging our family home to be rented. I returned to Pireus that October, whereupon all my paperwork came through approved for my trip to Australia.
In February 1947 I sailed to Egypt, staying in Port Said for 17 days. I then embarked on my forty-day journey to Australia on the SS MISR. Other Kytherian families opted to remain in Port Said to wait for another boat, but I was keen to join my brothers. There were 18 Kytherians on the MISR, including my cousin Irene Steliou.
As the MISR left the Suez Canal the refrigeration broke down and all the fresh produce was thrown overboard. We lived on a minimal diet of pasta, rice, grapefruit and rotten eggs.
The MISR being a military boat, we were confined to sleeping in the galleys below. Bunk stacked on top of bunk in dormitory style. My cousin Irene slept on the bunk above me. When the heat became unbearable we slept on deck, not far from the Egyptian shipworkers. A close family friend, "uncle" Kiriakos Trifilis would often stay close by on these occasions, keeping a watchful eye. One girlfriend refused to sleep downstairs at first because of the stench, and slept on the deckchairs above. She quickly changed her mind one evening when she was nearly swept overboard during a storm.
Many days were spent lying on our canvas beds downstairs as the ship battled monster swells. It was impossible to venture upstairs to the dining area, and one could hear crockery and furniture being tossed from one side of the ship to the other.
We showered with cold seawater, and were soon lice-infected. Even our "clean" sheets had lice on them. There were some memorable moments on our adventure. In Mombasa we saw monkeys hanging from the trees as we walked from the port to the town. In Durban, we ate at a "posh" restaurant, confused by the different cutlery to be used to eat each course.
Upon reaching Fremantle, Irene and I came up on dock to see the harbour, but we did not venture out as we had no friends or family to meet. Some of our travelling companions returned with servings of food and shared these with us.
When we reached Melbourne we were met by my brother John and cousin Archie. There were no trains due to a strike, and transport by private bus was arranged to Sydney, after a few days stay at cousin Archie's house at Enfield (Archie was married to Irene's sister, Poppy). I continued my journey with John to Hillston, where I would be living with Kerry and John for the next 18 months, working at our family cafe (Called the Real Cafe). I was to learn English then in 6 months, visiting the local convents to have English tutoring by the Catholic Nuns. My brother and I moved to Campsie, Sydney to open a new cafe, and I worked there for the next 7 years, until meeting my husband, Harry Dimitratos and opening our fish and chip shops on Victoria Rd, West Ryde. We remained there for 14 years until our retirement and raised our three daughters there - Katherine, Maria and Anna.
On arrival in Australia the whole family legally adopted the surname Cordato, which had been the family nickname, as it was much easier to use in a new country. In Greece the surname remains as Theodorakakis and this is what I was registered as when I travelled.
Submitted by Stavroula Theodorakakis (now Violet Dimitatos) 
