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in 1915 from the island of Kastellorizo in the Dodacanese islands, which are very close to the Turkish mainland.
He got jobs where he could and in 1917 returned to Greece. January 1919 saw him back in Darwin accompanied by
his wife and infant son. Also with them were his mother’s two sisters and a brother. A valued family possession is
Andreas’ passport handwritten in French. Two months after Les was born his father died, on 24 December 1923.
The family first lived in a dirt-floored shack built of corrugated galvanised iron and bush timber at the corner of
Daly Street and the Esplanade, the area then being called ‘Greektown’. The first Greek Orthodox Church was then
opposite. Without a male breadwinner, life was difficult. Les at first went to the convent school with his cousins but
was only there for a week as his mother became concerned that ‘prayers’ played a large part of the daily routine.
He was then sent to the state school with his older brothers. In 1936, he won one of the two scholarships granted
each year for study at a Queensland secondary school. Because of his mother’s financial situation, and despite
offers of help from Reverend L Kentish of the Methodist Church, and the Police Association, the scholarship
had to be declined. As Les says of his mother, ‘she was as poor as a church mouse and proud as a peacock and she
just wouldn’t take charity’. Despite this, his mother had high aspirations for her son. Les recalled that although his
mother had a very tough life she had indomitable courage that included a great faith in the future, ‘one day my boys
will grow up’, she used to say. Eventually in the 1930s she bought a block of land at the corner of Mitchell Street
and McLachlan Street, then ‘a little out of town’, for 80 Pounds. A family home was built there; the National Bank
is now on this site. She died on 29 September 1966.
Les’ first job, at age 13, was with A S Drysdale’s service station and repair shop where in addition to some
bookwork he was general factotum at 15 shillings per week. After about three months Reginald Sylvester Leydin,
whom Les acknowledged as being very influential in his life, saw his mother and offered him a job in the Northern
Territory Administration. Leydin at that time was Chief Clerk (Administrative) and L H A Giles, Government
Secretary. Les told the story that having been interviewed by Giles he was told that he would hear from him in a
few days. But Administrator C L A Abbott overhearing this, said, ‘Tell the boy to start on Monday’. On Monday
21 June 1937 at a wage of 1 Pound per week, Les became a messenger along with Mickey, an adult Aborigine.
During his rounds, he was frequently told that he would never get promotion and he should be outside doing
manual work like his countrymen. After some months of this, and without realising the implications of the remarks,
Les told Leydin he wanted to leave. Leydin told him he should at least try to stay for six months, that he was sure
he would prove everyone wrong. He was then promoted to Junior Clerk (Stores), and then Junior Clerk in the Sub
Treasury Office, where at the age of 16, during a crisis after the Salaries Clerk had a breakdown, he and another
junior prepared the salaries for the 400 Northern Territory public servants. He never forgot Leydin’s dictum ‘you
are a servant of the public’.
When war broke out he was offered a position in Canberra but declined and was on leave in Sydney at the time
of the bombing of Darwin so he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). After his leave, he returned to
Adelaide Sub-Treasury Office and Alice Springs before he was called up in July 1942. He enlisted first as aircrew
but was then selected for further training as a wireless telegraphy operator and it was in that capacity that he was
posted to Port Moresby where he spent 22 months. During that time, there were about 14 Japanese raids over the
town. On returning to Australia, he was sent to Point Cook and completed a six months course on high frequency
direction finding. At its conclusion, a small number of his classmates were selected to be trained in interception
work on the Japanese KANA code. He was to have been posted back to Darwin but having expressed his reluctance
to return to Darwin in wartime conditions he was then posted, in April 1945, with the rank of Leading Aircraftsman,
to the 4 Wireless Unit in the Philippines. Under General MacArthur’s command was a group of 500 Australians,
their most northerly based unit, which would have gone with the American troops to Japan if an invasion had taken
place. According to Les, MacArthur said he would not go without the Australian intelligence men. He returned
to Australia in November 1945 and was de-mobbed in Sydney having first given a helping hand with the endless
inventories required, to the delight of the auditor who had known him in pre-war days.
Up until 1939 public servants in the Northern Territory were an entity on their own with no transfer to Canberra
then possible. After that date, they became members of the Commonwealth public service. They had their war-time
service credited to their superannuation entitlement, as effectively they had been on leave without pay, so Les
returned to Darwin to become a Junior Registry Clerk with the Department of the Interior (which then had the
management of the Northern Territory) in February 1946. He hitched a ride back with the RAAF so that he did
not have to spend any of his 200 Pounds deferred pay only to be told that the Commonwealth would have paid a
commercial fare and he could have travelled in comfort! Further promotion meant sitting for the fourth division
examinations but for some time, Les was very restless and unable to settle. Again RS Leydin encouraged him to
sit for the examinations. He did so, passed, and was promoted to Senior Clerk in the registry.
In 1949, a new position of Immigration Officer in Darwin was advertised. Previously the various immigration
functions had been handled by such departments as customs and police but now it was proposed to bring them all
together. Liveris was reluctant to apply but submitted an application after a friend stood over him while he wrote
it. On 8 September 1949, he became the first Immigration Officer in the Northern Territory; the position now
designated ‘Regional Director’.
Post-war Darwin, always cosmopolitan, was a very different place from its pre-war forebear. There were many,
many European migrants. Italians made up the largest group, but there were more Greeks, Dutch, Romanians,
Czechs and Yugoslavs and a significant number of Britons. At that time, all assisted migrants, regardless of their
qualifications, had to serve in directed employment for two years so people like surveyors and architects worked
as labourers and cleaners. Five years of residence were needed before citizenship was granted and in that time,
aliens could not obtain land. Liveris could see the harm this was doing to the post-war development of the town
and pushed for changes to the legislation. Eventually policies were changed but not before a large group of Dutch