Apostolos Valsamis

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


Mr. Apostolos Valsamis is an extremely promising young man from Samos, who is to be numbered among the youngest and most sympathetic of Greek shopkeepers from Melbourne.

Born in 1891 in Palaio Karlovasio, on Samos, he was a brilliant school student. He gradually engaged in various forms of commercial activity in his birthplace. His tendency, however, for betterment and the cultivation of his future compelled him to turn his gaze to the shores of the great Australian continent, whither he came on 29 July 1912. Being far from unafraid of hard work, he engaged upon the realization and creation of his future, full of will power. This he achieved in 1915, when he became the owner in partnership of the well-known establishment at 39 Burke St.,

Charming in his manners, noble in his feeling, Mr. Valsamis enjoys the widespread affection and honour of the whole Greek community of Melbourne.


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.