Over 100 prominent women gathered in the Grand Ballroom of The Hotel Windsor on Spring Street on Friday 9 October 2026 for a High Tea raising funds and awareness for the Greek Community of Melbourne's Archives Digitisation Project.  

The funds raised will digitise and five of the 30 hard-copy volumes held in the GCM archives. It's the first step in a long-term digital transformation project to make these records accessible and available for public use.  

The afternoon was organised by a dedicated volunteer committee of Paula Konidaris, Maria Pirpiris and Spiz Demetriou and Simela Stamatopoulos, supported by Jenny Ziaras. The committee secured the guest speaker, sourced the raffle prizes and baked more than 400 biscuit gifts for guests. Sophia Siachos and Marinis Pirpiris presented the afternoon.  

The raffle was made possible thanks to the generous support of sponsors and donors, including contemporary artist Mary Di Carlo, Alex Brothers Jewellers, Caffe Greco, Albert Park Laser and Beauty Clinic, Gregio, Hellenic Museum, Greca Street, Kassandra Hair & Nails, Daniel Hair, Hellenic Wines and Thematikos. We extend our sincere thanks to all who contributed prizes and helped make the raffle a success. 

Guests heard from Dr Juliana Charpantidou, Historian and Archivist of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, who spoke about her work handling some of the community's most valuable records. These include the Community's first Minute Book from 1898 and the baptism, marriage and death registers of Evangelismos, which for more than half a century was the only Greek Orthodox church in Melbourne.  

"Many of these books are fragile, and some are now in very poor condition. Every time we open and handle them, we are conscious that we are handling something unique and irreplaceable," Dr Charpantidou said.  

"We are not simply preserving old books. We are preserving the handwriting, the names, the decisions, the family stories and the traces left behind by the people who came before us."  

The Consul General of Greece in Melbourne, Ms Dimitra Georgantzoglou, spoke about the power of women coming together for a common cause. 

In conversation with Marinis Pirpiris, guest speaker Helen Mantzis, a respected Melbourne business and marketing leader and Board Member of the Hellenic Museum, reflected on her identity as a Greek Australian woman, the privilege she felt giving back through philanthropy, and how a health scare led her to launch her podcast Loopels. 

GCM Board Member Simela Stamatopoulos said the High Tea marked a great start for the archives.  

"This is a wonderful start for our archives. The support we saw on the day went beyond anything we could have imagined, and it means work can now begin on conserving and digitising the first five volumes. It is the beginning of a long journey to protect these records and open them up to families, researchers and future generations, and we look forward to building on this momentum as the project grows," Ms Stamatopoulos said. 

 All funds raised are processed through the Antipodes Centre Trust, the Greek Community's Cultural Trust, which holds Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. Donations to the Archives Digitisation Project remain open, and gifts over $2 are tax deductible: https://donate.greekcommunity.com.au/archivesproject