Alexandros Geor. Grivas

Member of the Advisory Council of the Greek Community of New South Wales

This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" :


Mr. Alexandros G. Grivas, who has been elected twice as member of the Advisory Council of the Greek Community of New South Wales, comes from Kollinai, in the region of Mantineia and was born in 1887.

After a period of about 8 years residence in Athens, he came to Sydney, in Australia, about the middle of 1911.

After a period of about 8 years’ residence in Athens, he came to Sydney, in Australia, about the middle of 1911.

He is the youngest advisor to the Greek Community of New South Wales. He always offers great help over whatever matters of national or community interest happen to arise in Sydney. In addition, he is one of the major founders of the recently established branch of the Panellinios Synaspismos.

Young, polished in his ways, upright, and a lover of sports, Mr. Grivas always looks towards bettering himself. In 1913, in partnership, he opened a shop, name Novelty Candy Co., which he very capably manages. Thus he quite rightly enjoys the particular esteem and affection of the Greek community there.


This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" published in 1916 by John Comino. It is an important book as it was one of the first Greek books published in Australia for the Greeks back in the homeland. If they needed any more convincing of the golden opportunities awaiting them in Australia, it probably helped create interest amongst young Kytherians and other Greeks. Each of the men portrayed in the book paid for the honour, which, considering their reputation for thriftiness, must have made the decision a hard one for many a Kytherian.

The Kythera-Family.net team, with the support of the Nicolaus Aroney Trust and other generous sponsors, has undertaken to transcribe the entire book for the website and to translate it into English for the non-greek-speaking diaspora community. We hope to also produce a printed version of the translation of Life in Australia sometime in 2005.

For valuable information about the historical background of the publication of Life in Australia, please read the entry by Hugh Gilchrist I ZOI EN AFSTRALLIA in the History, General History section.