Copyright (0000) George Poulos

On the left hand side as you are approaching the town.

A little way down the road is the railway crossing opposite the large silo's, which indicate that you do not have far to go before you are in the town centre.

The lower lighter green strip of trees, in front of the taller darker strip - are all olive trees - planted in very neat rows. The strip extends for hundreds of metres.

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra.

Elsewhere I have spoken about the olive-ization of Australia. This is part of that same phenomenon.

Olive-ization. Hot off the press

Olive-ization of Australia. Swan Valley, Western Australia

My father and I were both stunned when we saw the size of the crop of olives that Don Kennaugh, a former Telecom manager, had planted.

We stopped the car immediately, and walked onto the paddock to explore the crop.

The olive trees look to be about 7 years old - and hence ready to fruit - probably in the next season.

When my father first came to Australia in 1949, Australians, and particularly Gilgandrians did not "understand" olives. Nor could they understand how the Kytherian Gilgandrians could embrace them as part of their cuisine.

Now, a half century later, an Aussie had planted an olive grove in Gilgandra, that any self-respecting farmer on Kythera would be very proud of.