Lebanese
1919 The life of George Saleeba-Thornbury
Darebin’s Australians: Immigrants to Citizens
LEBANON’S MODERN HISTORY
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War 1,
The League of Nations mandated the 5 provinces that compromise present
day Lebanon to France. Modern Lebanon’s constitution, drawn
up in 1926, specified a balance of political power between the various
religious groups. The country gained independence in 1943, with
French troops withdrawing in 1946. Lebanon’s history from
independence has been marked by periods of political turmoil mixed
with prosperity built on Beirut’s position as a regional center
for finance and trade. One phase of instability broke out during
the last months of President Camille Chamouns term in the 1950s.
Through the 1960s Lebanon enjoyed a period of relative calm and
Beirut prospered with a strong banking sector and tourism. The south,
north and Bekaa Valley remained agrarian and poorer.
The 1967 Arab-Israeli war and ‘Black September’ 1970
hostilities in Jordan led many Palestinians to seek refuge in Lebanon.
Full scale civil war broke out in April 1975 and continued until
1989-91. It is estimated that a quarter of a million emigrated permanently
with many any coming to Australian and Darebin.
LEBANESE IN AUSTRALIA
The first wave of Lebanese immigrants came to Australia in the late
1880’s, early 1890s, working mainly as hawkers, shopkeepers
& clothing manufacturers. They came at a time when a combination
of drought, economic depression, popular feelings of Nationalism
and a ‘White Australia’ dominated. The Immigration Restriction
Act of 1901 was introduced to preserve racial purity and protect
labour conditions. With the passing of the Commonwealth Naturalisation
Act in 1903 which denied Asians and other non-Europeans the right
to apply for Naturalisation, Lebanese were classified with Asians
although at the same time recognised as ‘indistinguishable
from southern Europeans’.
During World War 1 the Lebanese were classified as Turkish subjects
by the Australian Government and had to register as enemy aliens
at local police stations and report regularly during the war.
LEBANESE WRITE TO PRIME MINISTER DEAKIN
The Lebanese strongly rejected their classification as Asians. In
1911 a community leader wrote to Alfred Deakin: “Syrians-Lebanese
are Caucasians and they are as white as the English. Their looks,
habits, customs, religion and blood etc are those of Europeans”.
Lebanese applied unsuccesfully for citizenship until the passing
of the Nationality Act 1920 which allowed people who had been resident
in Australia for five years or more to become naturalised. However,
they were not permitted to vote in elections. Despite the fact that
their parents were regarded as enemy aliens, in 1914 an estimated
60 young Lebanese Australians joined the Australian Imperial Army
during the First World War and an estimated 600 enlisted during
the Second World War. During the White Australia Policy period the
Lebanese revealed a strong committment to settle and contribute
to Australia, with the small Lebanese communities in Sydney and
Melbourne keen to demonstrate their public spiritedness and loyalty.
This they did through the war effort, working for hospitals and
charities. At the same time the White Australia Policy left a legacy
of defensiveness and shame as some Lebanese families denied their
nationality, religion and culture.
GEORGE SALEEBA - THORNBURY
George Saleeba was a unique figure amongst the first wave Lebanese
who settled in Melbourne from the late 1800s to the 1920s. This
derived from the fact that his was the first Lebanese family to
settle in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Hence his name ‘George Saleeba, Thornbury’ to distinguish
him from another George Saleeba who lived in Kew.
George Saleeba was born in Rashaya, Lebanon in 1882 and came to
Australia with his father Essa at the age of 10 years in 1892.
George did not attend school in Melbourne but was thrust into earning
a living at an early age to enable the rest of the family in Lebanon
to join them. In common with all other first wave immigrants, Essa
and George became hawkers of clothing and softgoods in country areas
outside of Melbourne. Until his marriage at the age of 29 years,
George travelled by horse and cart selling his goods in the country
areas of Whittlesea, Epping and surrounding parts. Every few weeks
he would return to Melbourne to stock up at one of the Lebanese
or Jewish owned warehouses. It was on these journeys through the
main roads of High Street and St Georges Road that George must have
noticed large blocks of land in Harold Street, Thornbury.
AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP & MARRIAGE
During the First World War George like others born in Lebanon, which
was then part of the Ottoman Empire, were branded enemy aliens and
had to report regularly at police stations for surveillance. Although
George originally applied for citizenship as early as 1916, in common
with other Lebanese, he had to wait until 1925 to become an Australian
citizen. It is little wonder that in this environment almost all
Lebanese men chose wives from within their own community. George
broke the mould, marrying in 1911 the beautiful Elsie Hansen, who
was born in Australia of German, English and Danish descent. Interestingly,
although George and Elsie were married at St Peter’s Church,
Melbourne, they were married by an Orthodox preist according to
the rites of the Orthodox Church. They were to have seven children,
three girls and four boys.
THE SALEEBA’S IN COLLINGWOOD
For most first wave Lebanese immigrants hawking was a stepping stone
to a more settled buisiness such as shop keeping or a clothing factory.
In 1916 George described his occupation as a draper. The Saleebas
established a small business at 324 Smith Street, Collingwood, consisting
of a small factory, a shop front where the goods were sold and rooms
upstairs where the family lived. In this respect too, George differed
from many other Lebanese families whose businesses were in and around
Lonsdale and Exhibition Streets in the city and later Carlton. However
after the birth of their third child, the Collingwood premises had
become too small for George and Elsie’s growing family.
LIFE IN THORNBURY - THE MINI FARM
Their next move was to 59 Harold St Thornbury. Harold Street at
the time consisted mainly of vacant blocks and only four or five
houses. George and Elsie purchased one of these in 1919. Now there
was the space, not only for the growing Saleeba family, but also
for George to
employ his ingenuity in small-scale farming, including growing all
sorts of vegetables and fruit trees as well as keeping chooks, all
watered by his own homemade and improvised irrigation system. The
Harold Street house consisted of three bedrooms, lounge and dining
rooms, a large kitchen, a bungalow and an alcove containing bunks
for some of the children. Beyond the bungalow, next to the washout
at the rear was the ‘Onion Shed’ - a small food store
reminiscent of those in the old country. Behind that again was the
toilet, serviced by the ‘Pan Man’ in the days before
sewerage. At the rear of the property was the garage, originally
a stable and a back fence which was lined with chook sheds.
George’s backyard was a hive of productivity and George was
a
strict disciplinarian. The Saleeba children, often unwillingly,
were made to plant vegetables, weed, clean out the chook sheds and
top
up the water in the homemade irrigation system. A special task was
the grinding of wheat. Another of his engineering activities was
the construction of a machine to grind the boiled and dried wheat
into finely ground wheat or ‘burghul’ used by Lebanese
families in their national dishes such as ‘tabooli’
and ‘kibbee’. During the 1940s and ‘50s Lebanese
families from all over Melbourne, would make
their way to Harold Street Thornbury, to have their wheat ground
by George and his children. People would be given a tour of the
backyard at Harold Street and would marvel at the ingenious use
of space and machinery that George had employed. Not only were they
given some produce from the ‘farm’ but for a while they
felt
that they were back in their own farms in the Lebanese village that
they left over a generation ago.
During the 1930s depression George gave people ‘down on their
luck’ money, food and odd jobs on the farm.
THE GEORGE SALEEBA CLOTHING & TEXTILES FACTORY
During this time George also ran a clothing factory in Northcote,
making nightwear and children’s sleepwear. Friend and neighbour
Pastor Doug Nicholls brought Aboriginal girls to George for employment
and George would give them a job. He also gave Pastor Nicholls fabrics
for the Aboriginal community.
Both George and Elsie died in 1967 and, in the following year, the
Saleeba family home was sold.
Although the George Saleeba family was the first to settle in the
area now known as Darebin, other Lebanese families were to follow
from the 1920s to the ‘40s. These included the Rawady, Mansour,
Batrouney, Carey, Malouley, Beshara, Facoory, Bosaid and Antees
families, amongst others. Second wave Lebanese immigrants after
the Second World War also favoured the same area, partly because
of its proximity to good transport, and to the post-war industries
that grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. The life of George
Saleeba, Thornbury was, in many ways, unique among the Lebanese
of his time not least because he led the way for other Lebanese
to live in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
A YOUNG TREVOR BATROUNEY FROM NORTHCOTE - 1949
Another of the Lebanese families from the Northcote area were the
Batrouney’s. In 1949 a young Trevor is 13 years of age and
living in an Australian-Lebanese family in the suburb of Northcote.
His family life is an amalgam of Lebanese and Australian cultures.
They eat Lebanese as well as Australian food, they attend their
Orthodox Church as well as an Anglican Church, they speak some words
of Arabic, especially with their grandparents, but are most fluent
in English and so on. The young lad travels by tram to school on
St Georges Rd to Collins St and then along St Kilda Rd to his secondary
school. It is a long distance both geographically and socially.
At school he learns British history, English literature, worships
in an Anglican chapel and is taught by masters, many of whom had
gained their qualifications in England. It was in fact an ethnic
school. The school was Melbourne Church of England Boys’ Grammar
School. In 1949, the lad is left in no doubt that the Lebanese culture
of his family is an inferior one and can only be enjoyed in the
privacy of his family and the community.
The articles were prepared for Darebins Australians
by Dr Trevor Batrouney Adjunct Professor RMIT University
Notes:
1. Much of the above is taken from ‘The Business of Life’:
Bubs and Victor Batrouney and the Merlvic Story by Kay Ansell.
2. I acknowledge with thanks the information on the Saleeba
family made available to me by Gwen Saleeba.
3. Thanks also go to Bubs Batrouney (nee Saleeba)
