WORDS Judy Redeker

Two migrant stories, one work of art, and an interesting snippet of Australian history.

The carved, wooden Stations of the Cross in Christ the Priest Church in Blackman’s Bay in Tasmania have a long story to tell.

It begins with Karoly Komaromy, a Hungarian migrant who arrived in Australia with his wife Maja and his two daughters after the Second World War.

Karoly was a skilled artisan. After fleeing the Russians and settling in Bavaria, he’d supported his family by making decorated wooden trinket boxes and other wooden items. His skills became well-known, and the commissions came flooding in. One of them was a pokerwork portrait of Cardinal Mincenti, after which he received a letter of thanks signed by the Papal Secretary who later became Pope Pius XII.

But Karoly’s most treasured work was a set of Stations of the Cross, commissioned by the Archbishop of Passau, which are now hanging in the Regensburg Cathedral. The originals of this work accompanied Karoly and his family to Australia.

‘It was one of his most treasured possessions’, says his daughter Maria. ‘They were the first he ever made, and all his others were based on them.’

The carved Stations of the Cross were part of a life that Karoly was forced to leave behind when he came to Australia. Determined to assimilate into his new home, he found work where he could, labouring, splitting scallops and cleaning septic tanks. The tools he’d used for his woodcraft were lost in transit, and while he still tried to pursue his pokerwork here, he never found the appropriate softwood.

In 1979, he donated the carvings to be hung in the newly-built Church of Christ the Priest. For more than 20 years, they graced the walls of the Church. But sadly, Karoly’s small wooden pictures, etched with pokerwork, didn’t stand the test of time.

‘They had faded so badly and the colour blended so perfectly with the brick walls that they had become unnoticed’, says Maria.

Parish Priest Father Chris Hope approached local artist Carol Prichard with the job of restoring the works of art.

‘I knew nothing about Karoly before’, says Carol, ‘but immediately felt a bond with him.’

Like Karoly, Carol knew what it is like being a stranger in a new country. She and her husband Tony had had lived in Kenya during the years of the Mau Mau tribal terror and subsequent savage crackdown by the British. When Kenya gained independence and Europeans were required to relinquish their passports and become Kenyan citizens, they decided to leave with their young family.

‘Tony knew Australia from being in the Merchant Navy. He said “that’s where we’re going. A little island at the end of the earth—with no politics!”’

Settling in their new home was difficult, and she found it difficult to adjust to the new culture and take part in community activities. Worse was when their eldest son was killed in an accident, and their second youngest son contracted leukaemia. But, she says, ‘after suffering came good’.

‘We were astonished at the goodness of the average Australian, not just in the Church, everyone was wonderful to us—bringing in my washing, babysitting while we were at the hospital, so many little things’, she says.

‘When Stephen died someone—a stranger—saw that his grave needed attention and went and tidied it up. It was really beautiful, wonderful. That’s how Australians are.’

Carol went to Art School and got a Fine Arts Degree, eventually finding work at St Mary’s College and finally coming to feel part of the community.

Carol says she took on the restoration as a labour of love. She followed the lines as faithfully as possible and beautifully coloured the depictions in oils. A gold inner frame and a baroque style outer plaster frame added a size the works had lacked. The glorious colours make them eye-catching and striking, a tribute to Karoly, who created them, and to Carol, who recreated an historical work of art and beauty.

‘It was like those books we used to have as children—a blank page and when you scribble over it the picture comes through’, says Carol. ‘This restoration became a spiritual exercise for me. I loved doing it.’

Karoly Komaromy retired in 1980 and was able to pursue his passions for coin collecting and gardening for six years before his death. His wife, two daughters, one son and five grandchildren survive him. Carol Prichard and her husband Tony are still living in Blackmans Bay.

‘These days I get asked to restore things. Things just crop up, and I do them. Not for money, but for pleasure and the love of it’, she says.

To sing one’s song in a strange land has never been easy, as the Israelites in exile discovered thousands of years ago. Karoly Komaromy’s song, orchestrated and rearranged through Carol Prichard’s artistic talent, now resounds within the walls of Christ the Priest.

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