A stone’s throw away from Port Melbourne, where thousands of Greek migrants would arrive in the ‘50s and ‘60s, local Yianni Fetekas has established a small olive grove.
The patch of land near his Middle Park residence is essentially a green public area, like a street garden, which Mr Fetekas recalls being left unused when he first came across it about 25 years ago.
“There was only a single plane tree. And being fond of live trees[…], upon seeing the empty space I thought I should plant some,” he tells SBS Greek.
And so he did, without encountering any council intervention back then in the mid ‘90s.
In fact, council officials had been made aware of his gardening action when they showed up at the grove one day tasked with replanting the plane tree which had dried.
“I told them ‘it needs water, it needs good care to help it settle in. And indeed it was left unattended and a year after the tree was no more,” Mr Fetekas explains.
The Greek Australian man, who arrived Down Under in 1968 hails from a village close to Katerini, in northern Greece.
He remembers the place he grew up filled with native olive trees with his grandparents cultivating them within their vineyards.
Today, he is the unofficial caretaker of the small grove he created at his new homeland, which has turned into an all-natural attraction.
“I give them water, natural fertilizer, I cut the grass, I am taking care of this patch of land[…] And I hear people passing by and saying ‘oh, such a beautiful place, it feels like being in a rural olive grove’”.
Press play on the main image to listen to the podcast in Greek.
