Queensland Government and Community worked hard during Tsunami - Swan

By A.C De Silva

Swimming to Community work... Remember Anton Swan - the former schoolboy of St. Mary's College, Dehiwela and later member of the Old Thomians Swimming Club? Well, he has been doing a lot of community work ever since he migrated to Australia in February 1970.

Swan was a die-hard sportsman while at St. Mary's Dehiwela and also at Old Thomians' Swimming Club. While at St. Mary's, he represented the All-Island Schoolboy Rugby Team and then on the swimming, he represented Sri Lanka in waterpolo and also in the Palkstrait sea swim.

He also swam at the Two-Mile sea swim in Mount Lavinia and also at the Six-mile sea swim of Kinross for many years, winning one year in the late sixties.

Migrating to Australia in February 1970 brought Anton Swan into another sphere and got involved in Community Development work. But before that, he was involved in the metal trade in Brisbane and in 1979 he had the opportunity of buying a motel in Brisbane.

Anton Swan had the opportunity of meeting the then President of Sri Lanka Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa when Mr. Premadasa went to Australia for World Expo and Anton Swan was the co-ordinator for the Sri Lanka pavilion at World Expo '88. He was the Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in Queensland for 20 years and also President of the Sri Lanka Society of Queensland for many years.

His community development work in the latter part with the Tsunami problem brought about the high working qualities of Swan and his happy band of workers. Anton, with the help of the Queensland Government and the Queensland Community worked wonders and brought some solace to the grieving community - building 200 houses in Kalutara and Batticaloa. Then raising funds with the Brisbane Sri Lanka community they assisted in building a 200-bed accommodation for families of the cancer patients.

Swan and his happy band of helpers also helped Mrs. Premadasa's fund for children of the North Orphanages contributing around 20,000 Australian dollars. Then in Australia, they helped the flood victims of Queensland and also Jeremy Pritchard's Dream Team in building houses for needy in various places in Sri Lanka.

And on his present visit to Sri Lanka, along with Jeremy Pritchard opened houses for the needy with Fr. Dilan Fernando as the main organiser for various projects.

Sri Lanka has happy memories for Anton Swan and his wife Bronwen and it was one of the main reasons that they came over here to celebrate their 40th Wedding Anniversary with their family members and also for the trade Expo.

Earlier Anton Swan was the President of the Sri Lanka Society of Queensland for three years - 1986 to 1988 and has been on the Management Committee for 10 years.

Speaking about life in Sri Lanka, Anton and his wife said that they have noticed a great difference since their last visit four years ago. "Everywhere seems to have been cleaned up, and Colombo seems to be a vibrant place with many important events taking place."

He said that the cost of living seems to have gone up, but to offset that there is a lot of activity on the hotel front with many hotels doing brisk business.