The Kritharis and Tzortzopoulos Brothers

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


Two splendid and extremely profitable shops, located in the city of Glenn Innes, in New South Wales, do worthy honour to the Greek name. The shops, both of which stand on the central streets of the city, are run by the young and ambitious brothers Messrs. Theodoros and Panayiotis Kritharis, sons of Evangelos Kritharis, and their cousins, Messrs. Minas and Theodoros Tzortzopoulos, all of whom hail from the island of Kythera. All of them belong to the small group of Greeks who, within a short period since their arrival in Australia, have achieved sudden and remarkable progress. Moreover, these distinguished members of the Greek race are shareholders in the motor transport company operating between Inverell and Glen Innes. Working, as they do, in an extraordinary spirit of harmony and love, they have managed, within a short time, to gain a place among the most well-established Greeks in Australia. Mr. Theodoros Kritharis also happens to have made donations to the hospitals of Glenn Innes.


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.