Tzortzopoulos Brothers with unknown young men

Hugh Gilchrist
on 22.04.2005

Another Kythiran family was that of Kritharis. Emmanouil Kritharis, reputed to have arrived in 1854, was a solitary man who is said to have died in Sydney in 1912 after making a large donation to the Greek war effort. Kharalambos Kritharis, after a stay in Athens, reached Sydney in 1907 and acquired a fruit shop at Ballina, and Georgios Kritharis set up shop in Katoomba in 1911. The brothers Theodoros and Panayiotis Kritharis, who came in 1909, opened two shops in Glen Innes in partnership with their cousins Minas and Theodoros Tzortzopoulos, and also ran a motor-transport service between Glen Innes and Inverell. Theo Crithary, as he became known, was 15 when he landed in Sydney. Later he established a food-supply firm named Embros (“Forward”). He claimed to be the first importer of ouzo into Australia, selling it to several hotels; he also sold Greek olives to Woolworths. Another Kritharis, Spyridon, who arrived in 1913, bought a shop in Murrurundi; and yet another, Vretos, who was 19 when he landed in the same year, acquired an oyster-saloon in Stroud, partnered with an Athenian, Konstantinos Kanelis. Australians and Greeks. Vol 1. The Early Years. Halstead Press. 1992.

George Poulos
on 22.04.2005

My father, George Con Poulos Hlihlis from Karavas was related to Kapitan Mina. They were second cousins, but my father, now almost 90, always referred to him as burrba. My father treated all Kytherians with absolute civility - but reserved a deep and abiding respect for a select few - of which Mina was one. In running his fruit shop from Gilgandra he had reason to venture to Bathurst and Orange to negotiate purchases of oranges and apples directly from growers. He always drove the extra miles from Orange to visit Mina. Both men delighted in each others company. When our family ventured to Goulburn on holidays, my father also always insisted on making a detour to visit Kapitan. My father and I were saddened in 2004, when we visited Molong to see that the Molong Refreshment Rooms, and later the Pantheon Cafe. See entry in this section for a photograph of the Molong Cafe, 2004.

Marian Brace
on 25.10.2022

The men standing in this photo are L-R George and Harry Faros brothers. They owned the Gregoria, later named the Olympia Cafe at Bigga NSW. Theodoros Tzortzopoulos owned the Niagara Cafe in Crookwell NSW.