Copyright (2004) George C Poulos

In another entry about the Monterey Cafe in Gilgandra, I revealed that "...I was born in Gilgandra, in 1952, and left after completing my schooling in 1969.

From about the end of WWII, until mid-1975 - Gilgandra, population, 2,900 - was a very Kytherian town.

5 families - the Pentes, Sklavos, Kelly (Yannokellies), Psaltis (Protopsaltis), and Poulos (Tzortzopoulos) - lived in close proximity to each other - culturally, residentially, and commercially.

In the main, Kytherians embraced Kytherians - Gilgandra embraced Kytherians - and Kytherians embraced Gilgandra".

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. And only one family of Greek origin lives there.

I found of course, all the buildings, where the Kytherians had conducted their businesses; but all of these - with the exception of the Gilgandra Fruit Shop (my father's old shop), had substantially changed their usage.

This supermarket is in the location were the ABC Cafe used to be.
The ABC Cafe was owned in the post WWII era by Paul and Chris Yanno(Kelly). Chris, now 94, and living in Dubbo, was a "Grand matriarch" for not only Kytherians, but for all residents of the town of Gilgandra. She became the most "beloved" person in Gilgandra's history.

With the decline of Cafes in New South Wales and Australia, Chris and her daughter Stella, with husband David Aird, (a Scotsman originally), converted the cafe into a supermarket in the 1980's.

In another sign of social change, the building next door to the "ABC Cafe" - the mighty Western Monarch (Picture) Theatre, has become a Christian Outreach Centre.
[For more about Cinemas in Gilgandra see
ISSUE 27 · February 2000, CinemaRecord, magazine of the Cinema And Theatre Historical Society.
*Film Theatres of Gilgandra NSW · by, Gerry Kennedy:
Coronation Hall; first Australian Hall; Crystal Palace Hall, & Open Air;
second Australian Hall & Australian Pictures (Open Air); Western Monarch Theatre & Open Air

http://www.caths.org.au/arccinerecd.htm ]