Over the last three-and-a-half-years, approximately 3,500 Australian born Greeks have returned to Darwin from Greece, due to the financial crisis in their homeland, according to John Anictomatis, Honorary Consul for Greece in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Mr. Anictomatis told the ABC that the Greeks who have returned to Australia are mainly from Kalymnos and underlined that the ties between Darwin and its sister city in Kalymnos remained strong.

A successful Greek Australian politician, Mr. Anictomatis accompanied last year Northern Territory Government representatives to the island of Kalymnos, in order to establish a training program than would allow Greek workers to help fill Darwin’s labor shortage.

More specifically, the program involves Darwin businesses that are willing to sponsor workers from Kalymnos and it is still on a trial stage.

Based on recently released data, although Northern Territory has the strongest job market in Australia, fewer people are moving there due to the tropical climate, which is obviously not a problem for Kalymnians.

It is reminded that Darwin has a large Greek community, which boomed in the 1950s when immigrants arrived to work as sponge divers.

The majority of Greek immigrants arrived from Kalymnos island and nowadays, almost 80 per cent of the Greek community in the city is descended from them.