Page 776 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 February 2012
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like to congratulate her on and thank her for all the wonderful activities that she is involved with, including as president of the ACT Chinese Australian Association.
Another area that is very prominent is the business community. There are hundreds and hundreds of examples of multicultural contributions made in the business community, whether they be the many Greek, Italian, Croatian developers and builders or the various restaurants—Chinese, Indian, Thai, Italian, Greek. There are many of these.
The sporting culture of Canberra has also been much affected by the great multicultural influence. The old Croatia Deakin Soccer Club saw the emergence of many young Australians of Croatian background who went on to play for the Socceroos. Ned Zelic is perhaps one of the most prominent in this area, but Sebastian Giampaolo and Walter Valeri, both of Italian background, also made prominent contributions to soccer in Canberra. In fact, Walter’s son, Carl Valeri, has become one of the few Australian players to have made it in the prominent Italian soccer league.
In the education sector there is a very active and prominent ACT Ethnic Schools Association, whose president, Mr Javad Mehr, has been very prominent in getting better recognition for the valuable work that the 60-odd association member schools are performing within the ACT community.
One of the recent consolidations of an ethnic community in the ACT also needs to be recognised. This has seen the formation of FINACT, the Federation of Indian Associations of ACT Inc. The president of FINACT, and one of the architects of the amalgamation of some 21 Indian associations, is Mr Jacob Tharakan Vadakkedathu. Jacob has been living in Canberra since 1998 and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Canberra. He is actively involved in many community activities. He is also secretary of the Gungahlin Community Council, a board member of Maribyrnong primary school and treasurer of the Sahaya Charity Foundation Canberra Inc.
Amongst the many ACT restaurants that have become trademarks in Canberra and have become very much a part of Canberra are the Kochinos family’s restaurants. They are a Greek background family whose Belluci’s restaurants in Manuka and Woden have become a great example of the entrepreneurial flair that is coupled often with a great pride in their ethnic origins. They have made a significant contribution to the ACT business community.
I would also like to mention one of the pioneers in the restaurant industry, and that is the late Theo Moulis, whose Bacchus restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s was considered one of the best in Canberra. He then went on to run the Tower restaurant as well. He was considered one of the best restaurateurs in Canberra in that era, while his son, Danny Moulis, went on to make a great impact in the soccer fraternity and is now one of the fine young lawyers of Greek background practising in Canberra.
The Italian influence on the ACT is perhaps best personified by Guiseppe “Joe” Guigni. Joe came to Canberra in 1969 and has been trading for 40 years through the Fyshwick markets. After leaving school at the age of 15, and with support from his
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