Dimitrios Panag. Melitas
This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" :
Mr. Dimitrios Panag. Melitas, who comes from Melitianika, on Kythera, came to Australia at the age of only 17, in 1903.
Employed by fellow Greeks settled in the country town of Gunnedah, he worked with zeal and dedication in the duties assigned. He thus succeeded in attracting the good will of his superiors and before long he had become a partner in a shop.
Together with his brother, Emmanouil, Mr. Melitas has erected, at his own expense, three splendid establishments in the same country town. One of these, the most splendid, is managed by Mr. Melitas himself.
These three buildings, which are owned by the Melitas brothers, are the largest in Gunneda, this wealthiest of country towns. Together with the establishments in the villages of Coola and Cootamandra, which the Melitas brothers opened in partnership with fellow Greeks, they do great honour to the name of the Melitas brothers, sons of Panayiotis Melitas.
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.
