Malta might be having a heat wave but winter has definitely arrived in Victoria.

A brisk wind and cloudy skies greeted the Maltese delegation in Melbourne, the climate getting decidedly colder as we travelled further east. “You get four seasons in one day here,” we were told repeatedly as it gets warm, then cold, followed by rain and then warm again.

This is a sprawling, cosmopolitan city and is considered the fashion, food, and cultural and financial capital of Australia.

Victoria is also home to over 20,000 Malta-born persons, and with at least another 40,000 of Maltese descent, it is the largest Maltese community outside Malta. Here one also finds several thousand Maltin ta’ l-Ixandra and Maltin ta’ Tripli (Maltese from Alexandria, Egypt and Tripoli) as they are known. In 1956, thousands of Egyptian-born Maltese arrived in Melbourne after being expelled from Egypt due to the nationalization of the Suez Canal.

It is no wonder then that the Maltese community in Melbourne has managed to create a “Malta away from Malta”, complete with passionate celebrations dedicated to the various patron saints of the villages from where they originally came from. According to the 2006 census, over 19,000 people still speak Maltese at home, although most of these tend to belong to the older generation, which is dwindling.

In this context, it was particularly apt for Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi to deliver a public lecture on Friday on the theme of “Being Maltese in a Globalised World” at Victoria University. Departing from his prepared speech, Dr Gonzi turned what could have been a dry academic lecture into a more personal presentation as he spoke animatedly and passionately about Malta’s achievements and aspirations for the future, spiced with the occasional humorous quip or anecdote, for much longer than his allotted 20 minutes. (In fact what was supposed to be question time ended up being three hurried questions from the floor, including a question from an elderly Egyptian-born Maltese gentleman who wanted to know whether he could apply for dual citizenship. The answer was yes).

At times Dr Gonzi’s speech was more reminiscent of someone gearing himself up for election mode, but the audience, a mixture of academics, diplomats, students and members of the more sophisticated Maltese-Australian community, appeared to lap it up. This Australian visit has been an opportunity to watch first-hand how Dr Gonzi “works a room”, adjusting his tone, vocabulary and even gestures according to his audience.

“Everywhere around Malta they’ve found oil, to the north, south, east and west... everywhere except near our blessed little island!” he said, immediately breaking the ice as laughter erupted. He pointed out that when Malta joined the EU together with other new members, he and the Prime Minister of Luxembourg (the two smallest member States) toasted each other: “of course, Luxembourg was toasting the fact that they were now no longer the smallest!”

With constant references to Malta’s tiny size when compared with the vastness of Australia, Dr Gonzi painted a picture of a minuscule David managing to hold its own against a gigantic Goliath as he outlined the country’s presence on not only the European, but a global scale. “If we were any bigger we would have conquered the world,” he added with a smile.

The Maltese Cultural Association Club Premises was the next stop, with the now familiar sight of elderly Maltese waiting eagerly to meet the Prime Minister, complete with band marches and pastizzi (the irony is not lost on us that we’ve come to Australia and all we’ve been offered is Maltese food).

Yesterday the Maltese delegation was taken to Parkville, where the Maltese Community Council of Victoria conducts Maltese language immersion classes for children from as young as six up to adults. The language is taught much in the same way as English is taught as a foreign language in Malta, with activities and practical exercises. Maltese culture is also kept alive through the teaching of childhood games like passju and other traditions.

Two young girls were busy making traditional costumes based on a photo. Alicia Farrugia, 11, whose parents are Australian-born, wants to be able to communicate with her grandparents... “because when I speak Maltese it makes them feel very proud. I really wish I could visit Malta.” She proudly counted the numbers for me and reeled off a few phrases, albeit with an Australian twang.

Emily Falzon, 12, whose father is Maltese, is also extremely proud of her cultural heritage and is eager to learn more about the country her grandparents came from. “I love the fact that they came from such a small place.”

The dedicated teachers here face a daunting task. Simone Cremona from Iklin, who came to Australia three years ago, is a post-graduate student of Psychology and teaches part-time at the school: “Some of these children have absolutely no knowledge of the language, so here they are exposed to it and are given the chance to practice Maltese. Once I moved here I wanted to do something with the Maltese community and I love working with children.”

Although enrolment for the Saturday morning classes is at maximum capacity, the Maltese language, unfortunately, is in danger of being axed from the Victorian School of Languages curriculum due to decreasing numbers of teachers and students.

“If we don’t have students across all levels, we’ll lose classes, and eventually we’ll lose the exam,” said Ms Cremona. “Without the exam, which is like an ‘A’ level, the students won’t see the point of coming. We’ve tried to promote the classes through the schools and even through radio stations. Unfortunately, some parents are apathetic and don’t make the effort to speak Maltese to their children. There is also the fear that the children won’t speak English well – they can’t seem to understand that being bi-lingual is possible and that it is an advantage. Sometimes their reasoning is that if they are going to teach them a foreign language, they are better off learning a Chinese language because Australia is more likely to do business with Asian countries.”

Ms Cremona, whose B. Psych. Hons thesis was on “The psychological adjustment of returned migrants from Australia”, explained that many Maltese-Australians have a romantic idea of the Malta they left behind. “Some of them continue to cling to the idea that Malta has not changed over the decades and that if they were to return everything will be as it had been. The culture shock when they return to the Malta of 2007 is not something they have prepared themselves for.”

A picture of what it was like for those first migrants comes from Joe Montebello who first left Malta for the UK in 1947 on a cadetship at the age of 17. In 1956 he came to Melbourne and worked for 42 years in the motor industry. Today he keeps busy shooting footage for the programme Waltzing Matilda. He described the arrival of those first Maltese in Melbourne, which was then just marshland.

“When the Australians saw Maltese and other ethnic groups arriving in their thousands they didn’t know what to make of them. Most of them came from rural villages, were extremely poor and had uneducated backgrounds – it wasn’t unusual to see them walking around barefoot and carrying sacks on their backs like they used to at home. Every time a ship came in at Port Melbourne with new migrants, there would be a huge celebration. The Australians used to call the Maltese “wogs”, and it took some time before the Maltese were accepted. It wasn’t easy for the Maltese to get used to this new land and culture, but eventually they settled in.”

Still rough around the edges, still speaking heavily accented English even after 50 years, and still clinging to their language and customs for as long as they can, it is these migrants who are showing up in droves to welcome Dr Gonzi. They describe themselves as being “more Maltese than the Maltese in Malta” and keep asking our media entourage why there aren’t more frequent news broadcasts from Malta. Although Dr Gonzi has often pointed out that they can hear radio and watch TV programmes streamed live from Malta on the Internet, somehow I don’t think that IT literacy is their forte.

The rest of the Prime Minister’s engagements for the day included a visit to SBS radio station and Radio 3ZZZ where he gave live interviews and answered phone-ins. This was followed by a visit to the Rosary Home run by Maltese Dominican nuns who have taken care of Maltese senior citizens for the last 21 years.