Person: Ameen Domine

Name:
Ameen Domine

Occupation:
Hawker

Religion:
Orthodox

Birthplace:
Zahle, Syria/Lebanon

Arrival In Australia:
1880s; 1922

Years Lived In Brisbane:
1890-93

Year Of Birth:
1854

Place Of Death:
Sydney, NSW.

Date Of Death:
1931

Spouse

  • Marriage Date: 1878
    Birthplace of spouse: Zahle, Syria/Lebanon
    Heritage of spouse: Syrian/Lebanese
    Place of marriage: Zahle

Children

  • Occupation: Hawker
    Arrival in Australia: 1880s
    Religion: Orthodox
    Place of Death: Sydney

Story

Ameen Domine (Doumany) was one of four brothers who came to Australia from Zahle, Syria/Lebanon in the last decades of the nineteenth century. All the brothers spent some time in Queensland particularly in Charters Towers.  The brothers changed their name to Dan. Ameen and his wife Mary worked as hawkers in the Charters Towers area and also other parts of Queensland. In August 1890, the Police Magistrate at the Maryborough Bench sent Ameen’s son, Elias, who was 11 years old to the Lytton Reformatory for two years as a neglected child. In a letter to the Colonial Secretary’s Office, 27 November 1890, Ameen described himself as a native of Syria currently a licensed hawker residing at Montague Road South Brisbane.  He requested the release of his son as the family was preparing to return to Lebanon and also because the separation was causing Ameen’s mother great ‘sorrow’.

Ameen’s wife, Mary died in a Brisbane hospital in 1893. Six year later, Ameen returned to Lebanon and remarried in 1899. After living and working in Salisbury, Rhodesia, San Francisco and Zahle, he returned to Australia, this time to Sydney, NSW.

References

Queensland State Archives, Series ID S5253
St George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, St George Cathedral and Its People: Past, Present and Future, Double Bay, NSW: Longueville Media, 2004, pp. 142-143 & 146.