The Brothers Ioannis and Dimitrios K. Vrahna
This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" :
Among the Greeks who have shown that they are infused by a spirit of commercial enterprise are the brothers Ioannis and Dimitrios K. Vrahnas, from Fournoi, on Samos. After previously engaging in various commercial activities in Western Australia, they have been settled in Sydney since 1913, where they have a large, electrically-powered laundrette. It was originally Dimitrios, the younger of the two brothers, who first engaged in what is for the Greeks the first business of its type, but the older brother Yiannis certainly contributed to the consolidation of the business.
The Vrahna brothers are an example of family live and they deserve great praise for the conspicuous position to which they have raised their business.
Their commercial name is Athens Steam Laundry, Vrahnas Bros., 390 Oxford St., Paddington.
Note: In Australia, electrically-powered laundrettes are extremely profitable businesses, but extremely arduous. They are run mostly by companies and the value of the machines alone accounts for a considerable sum in Stirling.
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.
