First Greek & Kytherian dentist in Australia.
Australia’s first dentist of Greek family was George Gengos. His father, from Kythera, had operated a restaurant and an ice-works in Moree. George, born in Inverell in 1914, attended Sydney Grammar School, entered Sydney University, and after winning a scholarship in operative and prosthetic dentistry graduated BDS with honours in 1936, and later gained a doctorate in dental surgery in Toronto. An inaugural Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Dental Surgeons, he served during the war as a dental officer in RAAF hospitals in Sydney, Mildura and at Milne Bay in New Guinea, with the rank of Squadron-Leader. Later he practised in Moree and finally in Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Two later dentists were Victor and Theo Aroney. Their father, Nicholas Aroney, reached Sydney from Kythira about 1912 and established the New York Cafe in Nowra on the New South Wales south coast. Born in Nowra, they attended Nowra High School and graduated in dentistry together from Sydney University in 1950. From 1952 they had a partnership practice in suburban Chatswood for forty years.
They were followed by Nicholas Girdis, who graduated in dentistry from the University of Queensland in 1951.
From, High Gilchrist. Australians and Greeks. Vol. 3. The Later Years. p.349.
