Highlights
- The Sleba family emigrated from Lebanon to Toowoomba in 1924, and went from working in wood-cutting to now owning one of the most important farms in the area.
- The family shares the experiences of more than 100 years of migration, after arriving in Toowoomba before there were even sealed roads.
- Tony Sleba emigrated with his parents Asaad and Hassana to Australia at the age of 13 where he later met and married Josephine.
Without a penny in his pocket to begin with as well as illiterate, Assaad became Arthur and went on to establish one of Toowoomba's largest and most important farming operations.
Migration is an all-too-familiar tale for Kfarsgab, with an earlier exodus occurring in 1890.
The Sleba family story reveals the contributions of some of the oldest Lebanese families in Queensland’s regional areas, highlighting their roles in the development of farming during the past century.
The couple settled in the rural town of Toowoomba, 125 km from Brisbane, and there memories began to be made with the births of their three children, Rodney, Mervyn and Mary.
Mervyn, now 82, says: “My grandfather and father worked in wood-cutting for the United States Army during the war, and they went every morning to get firewood to prepare food for the army.”
Despite not speaking any English, he said his grandfather and father were very hard workers such that the US Army gave them a truck which was the beginning of their professional lives, transporting fresh milk daily from Toowoomba to Brisbane, Mervyn said.
My parents arrived in Sydney and walked from Sydney to Toowoomba, picking bananas and sweet potatoes on farms along the way.
Reflecting on the family’s journey, Mervyn had some advice for new migrants to Australia: “Leave the city that is the worst choice for your children and go to the countryside that needs you, Australia is a great country that enables you to realise your dreams.”
Rodney said despite not speaking Lebanese and never having visited the country, his cultural roots had a special place in his memory, passion and sense of identity.
Rodney said his grandparents Asaad and Hassana emigrated from Kfarsgab in the early 1920s to escape Turkish oppression and famine, arriving in Sydney with their children, Tony and Mary.
They then headed for Toowoomba where older members of the family had already settled in the late 1800s, he said.
Australia had provided fertile and abundant ground for the hard and productive work of his grandparents who worked seven days a week for up to 12 hours a day, he said.
Mervyn said he believed the key to his father’s success had been his openness to the new Australian culture, flexibility and love of learning.
Mervyn and Joan Sleba, John Hanna and Collin Steven along with SBS Arabic24 journalist Petra Toak in Towoomba. Source: Petra Taok
“My father only learned his trade of farming for six months, but he was smart and a lover of Australian culture, and while he was selling pigs, he met someone who wanted to sell his farm, so it was the family’s first farm,” he said.
The next farm, a 121-hectare enterprise, had grown barley and remains one of the most important in the region, exporting its produce overseas.
Mervyn’s wife, Joan, hails from the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane but says she enjoys farm life and preparing Lebanese dishes for the family.
The new crop silos on the Sleba farm Source: Petra Taok
“I learned that the Lebanese love their traditional food,” she said.
As for son Tony, he said he was able to realise his father’s dream in 2000 when he visited Lebanon for the first time, a pilgrimage which proved very moving.
Mervyn and Joan Sleba Source: Petra Taok
“I value Lebanese Christian values because I grew up on them and enjoy the richness of this culture and the interdependence and proximity of the people,” he said.
His wife Myrna, who also hails from a Lebanese background, said it had been very emotional to return to the house her ancestors had left more than a century ago.
Tony and Myrna Sleba with their children in Toowoomba. Source: Myrna Sleba
We live in Australia, but Lebanon lives in us.
“I don’t forget Lebanon and I would like to convey my pride in my Lebanese ancestry to my children and to my community in Toowoomba," she said.
“My husband’s family lost its connection to Lebanon after 100 years of immigration, but with my marriage to Tony, I felt like I had re-established this connection and belonging to the family.”
The Sleba family of Toowoomba still celebrate the food and traditions of its Lebanese heritage. Source: Rodney Sleba
