A BOOK highlighting the humanitarian work of old collegian George Devine Treloar has been launched at St Patrick’s College.<\/p>\n
Co-authored by Professor David Treloar and Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, Genocide to Regeneration: The Photographs of George Devine Treloar follows the journey of Treloar from Ballarat to the battlefields of World War One.<\/p>\n
The book also details his experience undertaking humanitarian work in Thrace and Macedonia, where Treloar helped more than 100,000 refugees displaced by war and genocide.<\/p>\n
“He was the League of Nations commissioner for refugees in the north part of the country, and he was responsible for resettling tens of thousands of people who had survived genocide in their home,” Dr Diamadis said.<\/p>\n
“This was his personal collection; these photographs were never meant to be published, which is why it took over a century to be published.”<\/p>\n
Dr Diamadis said the book reveals both Australia’s connections to the world in the 1920s and the process of resettlement.<\/p>\n
“They show from the arrival of the refugees to the first tents housing them to the first fields being ploughed\u2026 they show the entire sweep of the reconstruction process in chronological order,” he said.<\/p>\n
“His ideas were essentially what we now consider standard practice\u2026 but this was a century ago and he was basically the one who laid the framework.<\/p>\n
“It also shows just how into the world Australia was at this time, for example he set up a carpet weaving industry.<\/p>\n
“The country did not have enough wool to weave carpets, so what did he do, he wrote to his friends back in Victoria and there was a relief effort set up here in Australia.”<\/p>\n
There have been several launches for the book held around Australia, and the Greek version is expected to be released in January, however, Dr Diamadis said it was special to launch the book in Treloar’s hometown.<\/p>\n
“It’s to go to the place where it all started, where he actually learnt what it meant to be a human being, what community service meant,” Dr Diamadis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A BOOK highlighting the humanitarian work of old collegian George Devine Treloar has been launched at St Patrick’s College. Co-authored by Professor David Treloar and Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, Genocide to Regeneration: The Photographs of George Devine Treloar follows the journey of Treloar from Ballarat to the battlefields of World War One. The book also details […]<\/p>\n