Vretos G. Margetis

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


Mr. Vretos G. Margetis, who hails from Kythera, is extremely young, but capable and full of drive. He is today owner and manager of two splendid and profitable shops standing the most central locations in the great city of Sydney. These shops afford work to many fellow Greeks.

Mr. Margetis came to Australia in 1903 and, after working hard for a few years, bought the first of his shops. The second he bought shortly afterwards, in partnership with his brother, Minas.

As his commercial career has developed, Mr. Margetis has indeed been revealed as a young man or worth. Thanks to his polite behaviour, he has always earned the goodwill of those who have come to know him personally.


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.

Hugh Gilchrist's historical background of the publication of Life in Australia,