Spiros Panaretos with his father Peter Panaretos circa 1908

Spiros came to Australia in the late 1890’s and built up the Peter’s stores in the New England District NSW. He regularly bicycled between them.

He returned to Greece in 1906 to marry Eleni Gengos. He was dissuaded by his family and his own personal experiences from returning to Australia to live permanently. Soon after his marriage he returned to Australia with his young nephew Peter Crithary so as to transfer his businesses to various members of his family and to friends. He set up Peter Crithary in the Glen-Innes store and himself returned to Kythera where he set up as a merchant and lived in Potamos in a fine house with his wife and seven children. Although several of his children (Maria, Peter, Phofo, Andy, and later George) migrated to Australia from the late 1930’s onwards he himself did not return to Australia except for a visit late in his life with his wife in the 1950’s. At that time he told his grandchildren that a major reason for quitting Australia in the early 1900's was because the locals refused to treat him as one of their own. This was not because of his Greek background but because he would not join them in weekend Aborigine shoots. He considered Australia to be a barbaric country.

Family name: Panaretos
Village of origin: Potamos
Photo taken: circa 1908
Peter Panaretos was born circa 1840-50
Spiros Panaretos was born 1880 and died 1964