Aroniathika

great village to walk around and see some wonderful old homes ,aronadika was a well populated village in days gone by , a large village with lovely homes , photo taken from the main road on a perfect october day ....

Bretos owned this theatre from approximately 1924 to 1929. He also owned the Butterfly Theatre in Fairfield. He and my Mother Theodora ran both both the theatres and, a shop at 617 George Street, Sydney, at the same time, during these years.

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta),but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard, so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1826.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well,and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town,Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross, and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikon and Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos (to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni, so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance. Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage, after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else, he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev. Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates, the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides) from Sydney, and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia, and ways and means that could be done to overcome them, and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community. The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room, which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for, was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis, at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

Back row, (left to right);

Evangelia Coroneos (slightly lower), Sam Coroneos, (unknown?), Jim Margetis (brother to groom), Anthony Lianos (brother to bride), (unknown but called" Buboula"), Menas Lianos, Peter Bernard.

Middle row, (left to right)

Theo Georgopoulos (small child), Panagotisa ("Bonnie") Georgopoulos, (unknown), Bretos Margetis ,Groom, Theodora Lianos Bride, George Lianos, father, Argapi Lianos, mother, Emanuel Lianos, brother to bride, Theodore Lianos, also brother to the bride.

Front Row, Left, (left to right):

Andrew Coroneos, Vassili Georgopoulos, George Georgopoulos on lap, (unknown), Socrates Lianos, seated on floor.

Front Row, Right, (left to right):

Aspacia Lianos, sister to the bride, Coralia Lianos, sister to the bride, Diana Lianos, sister to the bride, Constantine Lianos, brother to the bride. Diana and Constantine seated at the very front.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Upmarket restaurant.

...Church Bourke St Sydney.1925.

Wedding of Bretos Margetis & Theodora Lianos

Bretos was born on 24 Nov1889, landed in Australia on 5 Dec1903 per ‘Orizaba.’

Arrivals Australia, 1903

He features in the book Life in Australia, on page 201.

Download a .pdf of page 201, here:

LIA_English_p201.pdf

His name is spelt Vretos in Life in Australia but I have always spelt it Bretos.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Wedding party photograph, Wedding of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Even a near-fatal heart attack when he was in his mid-40s didn't stop Manuel Aroney from living a full life of work and family, as well as giving years of service to the ethnic communities in Australia and his church.

Manuel James Aroney was born in Sydney on August 31, 1932, the only child of Dimitrios (Jim) and Stamatina Aroney, who had migrated separately to Australia from the Greek island of Kythira. Jim and Stamatina met and married in Townsville, then set up the Central Cafe in Mackay. They moved to Sydney, then returned to Mackay in 1933.

Manuel did his schooling in Mackay and received a Queensland open scholarship, awarded to the top 25 students in the state, and a Commonwealth scholarship. He decided on the Commonwealth scholarship and enrolled at the University of Sydney, where he took a BSc with first class honours (1955), MSc (1956) and PhD (1961).

In 1960, he had married Anne Pascalis. By 1965, he was a senior lecturer at the university.

In 1977, he was appointed head of the school of chemistry but had to give it up not long after because of ill health.

In addition to his university duties, Aroney was deeply involved in community activities. By 1975, he was a foundation member of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW, from 1977 to 1981 he was a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council and from 1978 to 1981 he served on the first board of the Special Broadcasting Service, which made ethnic radio permanent across Australia. With Bruce Gyngell, he established the SBS television service. As well, he was a member of the Australia Institute of Multicultural Affairs from 1981 to 1983 and from 1981 to 1986 was a commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission.

In 1983, Aroney chaired a panel that selected the Australian National University to produce the bicentennial project The Australian People: An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins.

In 1980, Aroney was awarded an OBE for services to the university and to the community and in 1989 was made an AM. In 1991, he was awarded a DSc (Doctor of Science) by the University of Sydney in recognition of his research in atomic bonding and molecular structure. Aroney produced 140 research papers and reviews in top international scientific journals, as well as many conference papers and abstracts.

Further ill health led to Aroney's retirement in 1994. He continued at the university as an honorary staff member and was president of the Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry.

In 1982, Aroney was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens and in 1994 was made an honorary doctor of the University of Athens. Two years later, he organised for the rector of the university to lead a delegation to Australia to establish academic and cultural ties between Athens and the universities of Sydney and NSW. He was made a commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the president of the Hellenic Republic in 1998.

Aroney also went to Athens, representing the first Greek Australian Museum Foundation, in 1996. Within weeks, he was able to secure a written understanding that the ministry would send original antiquities to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics.

Along with his work and his voluntary service, Aroney was also involved with his church.

In 1972, he became an archon of the Oecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for services to the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia.

Aroney also served on the board of governors of St Spyridon Greek Orthodox College at Kingsford and Maroubra and from 1986 was on the student selection committee of St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College.

His contributions to Kythera were recognised in 2008 by the award of the Kytherian Medal of Honour.

Aroney was a fellow of the Royal Australia Chemical Institute, a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London), a member of the International Committee for Molecular Electro-Optics and a member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

He passed away peacefully at his home in South Coogee, on February 15, 2011.

Manuel Aroney is survived by Anne, sons Jim, Theodore and Stephen, daughters-in-law Evelyn, Felicia and Sophia and grandchildren James, Michael, Alannah, Emeil, William, Emmanuel, Anne-Marie and Demitra.

in its time aroniathika was a very large village, noth of the island near potamos, walk through this lovely classical village to see some beautiful old neo classicial homes..

aroniathika sits nearly in the heart of the island once a very large village in days gone by , take a walk throuh the nearly abandon laneways to view wonwderful neo classcal homes that were built many years ago ... potamos is in the top left of photo ...

AnthonyLitAnthonyLit

the fire look out at aroniathika has spectacular views of virtually all of the island , and when there is a full moon, its breathtaking ... 

the view from the aroniathika fire look out [ that was also burnt in the recent fires] the villages of aroniathika , friligianika , and  kastrianika that were in danger of fire, as you can see a large area of land that was destoyed by this summers fires . the fire started near the kythera hospital , but once again great work by firemen and locals that helped fight the fires ...

the local cafeneo at aroniathika , on the aroiathika corners on the main road of the island , how many times do we pass the cafeneo as we travel up and down the island

lovely church at aroniathika , agios soutiras on the side of the main road with potamos in the background ...vouthsas !

heavy mist sweeps across aroniathika on a dull April day .. photo taken from the aroniathika fire look out , when on a clear day , you can see virtually all of the island with magnificent views of the island ... but not today unfortunately ...

Sometimes the clouds and stars, silently know more than us mortals. The passing of the enigmatic Panayiotis (Peter) Magonezos seems surreal to all, both on Kythera and in Australia.   Born on Kythera, on the 23rd April 1957, he was the eldest of 3 children, born to George and Vassiliki. Panayiotis passion was the restoration and renovation of old buildings, his vision of renewing the old can be witnessed as you drive through the winding roads of Aroniadika. Indeed, he did over a hundred such projects on Kythera. Panayiotis met his beloved Australian-born Susan while she was holidaying in 1981. Panayiotis later came to Australia in 1983 and they were married at St David’s at Boggabilla. Sydney's Lugarno was home for 5 years before Panayiotis, Susan and family, which by then included George and Mario, returned to Kythera where their youngest son Allan was born. There guest house Rouga, still stands as a testament to his passion. Due to the state of the Greek economy Panayiotis building work began to dry up, so he moved into hospitality. 

It was a great fit as Panayiotis was a real people person. In 2012 the family returned to Australia, living for a time in Queensland before settling in Sydney. Several months ago Panayioti, Susan and the family purchased the business at Avalon. Peter was an avid fisherman, he was passionate about music and played the harmonica, and considered himself to be a master of backgammon. Panayiotis had a great sense of humour and was a friendly, popular man. Above all, Panayiotis had a huge heart… He was kind and generous and would help out anyone in need, who saw the magic in everyone and everything. Kythera Summer Edition team send their condolences to his wife Susan and his sons George, Marios and Allan, his parents Vassiliki and George, his siblings Toula and Manolis and his nieces and nephews.   [[picture:"10335825_759117384133491_541980127_n.jpg" ID:22281]]

please add a caption here

Sometimes the clouds and stars, silently know more than us mortals. The passing of the enigmatic Panayiotis (Peter) Magonezos seems surreal to all, both on Kythera and in Australia.   Born on Kythera, on the 23rd April 1957, he was the eldest of 3 children, born to George and Vassiliki. Panayiotis passion was the restoration and renovation of old buildings, his vision of renewing the old can be witnessed as you drive through the winding roads of Aroniadika. Indeed, he did over a hundred such projects on Kythera. Panayiotis met his beloved Australian-born Susan while she was holidaying in 1981. Panayiotis slater came to Australia in 1983 and they were married at St David’s at Boggabilla. Sydney's Lugarno was home for 5 years before Panayiotis, Susan and family, which by then included George and Mario, returned to Kythera where their youngest son Allan was born. There guest house Rouga, still stands as a testament to his passion. Due to the parlous state of the Greek Economy Panayiotis building work began to dry up, so he moved into hospitality. 
It was a great fit as Panayiotis was a real people person. In 2012 the family returned to Australia, living for a time in Queensland before settling in Sydney.  Several months ago Panayiotis, Susan and the family purchased the business at Avalon. Panayiotis was an avid fisherman, he was passionate about music and played the harmonica, and considered himself to be a master of backgammon. Panayiotis  had a great sense of humour and was a friendly, popular man. Above all, Panayiotis had a huge heart…... He was kind and generous and would help out anyone in need, who saw the magic in everyone and everything. My condolences to his wife Susan and his sons George, Marios and Allan, his parents Vassiliki and George, his siblings Toula and Manolis and his nieces and nephews.  

BBC Travel

4 January 2014
IN Greece History

by Katherine LaGrave

In 2004, Albert Blok closed his eyes and randomly pointed to a spot on a map, determined to spend his next holiday wherever his finger landed. He’d never heard of Cythera, a tiny Greek island northwest of Crete, but after visiting, he was smitten.

“It keeps revealing new secrets to us,” said Blok, who ended up emigrating to Cythera from the Netherlands in 2008, and now runs the traditional guesthouse Xenónas Fos kè Chóros in the village of Aroniadika with his partner Anita Snippe. “Places we have never been before, people we have never met before – its beauty keeps on surprising us. On the one hand, we want to share this beauty with everyone, but on the other hand, we want to keep it a secret.”

•Related slideshow: Discovering the Dodecanese Islands
Blok is not alone. Floating at the intersection of the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas, Cythera – with some 3,500 full-time residents – has thus far managed to remain one of Greece’s best-kept secrets. But with the country poised to see nearly 17 million visitors in 2013, the island’s 65 ancient villages and 30km of coastline will not remain blissfully unburdened by mass tourism for long.

Where history and legend meet
Mythologically speaking, Cythera has clout. Reputedly, it was in the waters off Cythera that Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, rose out of the aphrós – the Greek word for foam –after Uranus’s genitals were cast into the water. Other stories relate that Aphrodite, also known as Cytherea, then travelled to Cyprus, which also claims to be the goddess’s home – but tension is no stranger to these waters.

Since naval times, the island’s strategic location has made it somewhat of a cosmopolitan crossroads for sailors, merchants and, of course, pesky conquerors. Inhabited since the Neolithic Era, the island has changed hands many times: notable figures in Cythera’s history include Venetian Marchese Marco Venieri, who claimed to be a descendant of Aphrodite (and whose own descendants still live on the island); and the pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa, an Ottoman fleet admiral who ravaged the ancient Byzantine capital fortress of Paliochora in 1537, the ruins of which remain in the island’s northeast. As a result, Cythera displays hearty remnants of its cultural bouillabaisse, with Venetian, Ottoman, British and Ancient Greek influences coexisting on the island.

Perhaps the most intact example of prior rule is the Kastro, a castle on Spiridonos street in Chora, the island’s tiny modern-day capital. Built between the 12th and 13th Centuries during a period of Venetian occupation, the castle was once called “the eye of Crete”; views from the top allow visitors to see the Ionian, Aegean and Cretan seas simultaneously. Today, the castle – the former residence of the Venetian governor – houses the historical archives of Cythera. Also in sight is the town of Kapsali, which served as the capital’s port during Venetian times. Located just 2km south of Chora, Kapsali is characterised by a curved waterfront and sandy twin bays where sea turtles are known to swim.

Kapsali is just one of many villages that dot Cythera’s shoreline, with one of the most well known among locals being picturesque Avlemonas, a charming and historic hamlet situated some 18km northeast of Chora that you can reach by crossing Katouni Bridge. A reminder of British rule, the stone bridge –the largest of its kind in Greece at 110m long and 6m wide – was completed in 1826 as part of a project to ensure ease of travel between the seaside village and Chora – or so official records say. Legend has it that the construction was driven by desire: after Cythera’s British governor fell in love with a girl from a nearby village, he decided to build this bridge near her house in order to see her daily.

Another large relic backed by lore is the Panagia Myrtidiotissa monastery, the largest in Cythera. Situated on the western side of the island near the village of Kalokerines, the monastery – which translates to “The Most Holy Virgin Mary of the Myrtle Trees” – was built next to a myrtle tree where a shepherd, according to legend, found a holy icon of the Virgin Mary in the 14th Century. Pilgrims travel here to venerate the icon on 15 August’s Feast of the Dormition and on 24 September, the day of its finding. The icon is the patron saint of all Kytherians and is on display in the monastery save for Easter, when there is a religious procession to transfer it to Chora.

An island for nature lovers
Whittled away by wind and sea, Cythera is generously composed of steep, rocky cliffs and deep bays – and all of these elements are on display in the lush village of Mylopotamos, situated approximately 13km northwest of Chora. Meaning “mill on the river” in Greek, the village was once home to 22 watermills used for grinding wheat. Today, only one renovated mill remains, situated near the island’s notorious 20m waterfall, Neraida, which is a fount of folklore. Also known as Fonissa (“female killer”), the waterfall was reputedly the site of a murder: legend has it that two women were fighting atop the waterfall when one pushed the other over the edge.

Many hiking paths originate by the Neraida waterfall and loop through the village, incorporating a variety of cultural and scenic elements that illustrate Cythera’s combination of natural beauty and historical significance. Hikers can follow one such monopati (a one-person path often used for donkeys) – recently signposted with numbers and arrows – that loops 2.6km past ruins of old mills and back to the town, though the more intrepid can choose to break away from the path before it loops back up and descend 2.2km down steep rocks and through the gorge to Kalami Beach, which can only be reached on foot by climbing down the rocks or through the gorge. Another scenic hike starts in the cypress forests of Lourantianika, in the island’s southern region, and passes 4.6km through wild olive trees while affording spectacular views of Chora, the Kastro and the sea.

Such discoveries of isolated beauty remain standard on Cythera, said Fivos Tsaravopoulos, programme coordinator of the Kythera Hiking Project, an organization centred around the creation of trails and sustainable tourism on the island.

“Cythera is a small paradise for walking,” he said. “It combines incredible landscapes – forests, waterfalls, cliffs, gorges, beaches and a Mediterranean desert – and picturesque villages, beautiful churches on the top of mountains and an incredible amount of wildflowers.”

huge savings on opening day at the new super market at aroniathika

opening day of the new controversial huge super market at aroniathika, part of a large greek supermarket chain now in kythera, also plannned on the site is a bakery and pharmacy....

Delivered at the 11th Biennial Conference of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand .

It is with great pleasure that I participate in the 11th Biennial Conference of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand. I would like to express my thanks to the Conference organizing committee, and especially Professor Vrasidas Karalis, for inviting me to honour the memory of Manuel Aroney on the first day of the conference.

In addition, as an elected member of the Council of the Municipality of Kythera, I would like to express, on behalf of the Mayor of Kythera, the appreciation of all Kytherians for this event dedicated to the memory of Manuel Aroney. Moreover, as a member of the academic community of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the oldest university in Greece, I would like to express the same sentiments on behalf of the Rector of the University of Athens, Professor Theodosis Pelegrinis, since the late Professor Manuel Aroney was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Athens in 1994.

The late Professor Manuel Aronis, as a Diaspora Greek was aware of his social origins and his international ‘roots’, operating in this country as a cosmopolitan. For Manuel Aroney, cosmopolitanism as a way of life, as a sentiment with deep cultural layers, was dominant within him throughout the whole of his academic and wider social activity. This will be demonstrated below in the presentation of his life and work.

Australia, as the first ‘homeland’ of Manuel Aroney, gave him the opportunity to think, feel and act with the air of an internationalist. Greece, as the country of birth and origin of his parents, captivated his feelings throughout his life, and so did the island of Kythera, the place where his parents originated from. Professor Manuel James (Dimitrios) Aronis was born in North Queensland (Australia). He was the only child of Dimitrios James Aronis and Stamatina Aronis (Papadominakos). His father was born in Aroniadika, Kythera and came to Australia in 1908. In 1916, his father joined some of his brothers and sisters in Boston, USA, but returned to Sydney in 1919. In 1923, Stamatina Aroni also from Aroniadika came to Sydney. They married in 1926 in Townsville and opened up the Central Cafe in Mackay, North Queensland, in 1928.

Manuel James (Dimitrios) grew up in Mackay where he completed his primary and secondary education. In 1951, Manuel was awarded a Queensland Open Scholarship and a Commonwealth Scholarship. He attended the University of Sydney where he obtained a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Physical Organic Chemistry and in 1961 his Ph.D. He was made a Teaching Fellow in 1955 and in 1961 a permanent lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Sydney and later a Professor at the same University. He was a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London) and a Member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

His particular field of study had been research into forces that bind atoms together in molecules, the behaviour of electrons in molecular systems, studied by a range of techniques of physics. He published more than 140 research papers and reviews in prestigious international scientific journals as well as a large number of conference papers and abstracts. He was also elected President of the Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry within the University of Sydney.

During the 1970s, Aroney's involvement in the community increased greatly. As well as carrying out his University duties, he was appointed Head of the School of Chemistry in 1977, and took on multiple responsibilities, serving on non-government organizations and on four Federal Government commissions and boards. He was a founding member of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW. He was also appointed by the Federal Government as a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council. He was one of the eight members responsible for advising the Commonwealth Government on multilingual electronic media. He also served as one of the four members of the first Board of the Federal Government’s Special Broadcasting Service.

During the 80s, he continued to be called upon to take an active part in the formation of policies affecting the Greek community. He was a Member of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs and a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission. His primary function on the Commission was to act as a bridge between the ethnic communities of Australia at a top level. His contributions to society were recognised by a number of awards. In 1980, he was granted the honour O.B.E. (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to the University and to the community (awarded by the Queen), and in 1989, he was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) given for services to multiculturalism and the Greek community.

Throughout the 1990s, this remarkable man continued to add to his list of achievements. For his rich and diverse activities he was honoured with numerous rewards and accepted many distinctions from the Australian Government and the British Commonwealth. In 1991, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Sydney for outstanding contributions to international scientific research. This was the most prestigious degree given by the University for Research over a long period of time. The late Professor Aroney gained recognition for his achievements not only within Australia, but also within Greece as well as other foreign countries. In 1982, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens as a distinguished Professor of Science. In 1994, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Athens. In 1998, the President of the Hellenic Republic made him Commander of the Order of the Phoenix.

Manuel Aroney was one of the Greek community representatives flown to Canberra by the Government of Australia in 1995, for consultation and advice to prevent inter-communal conflict over “the Macedonian issue”. In October 1996, he went to Athens representing the First Greek-Australian Museum Foundation. He was able to secure an understanding in which the Ministry would send original classical antiquities from various museums in Greece to Sydney in the year 2000. This was an important achievement since most of these antiquities had never before been allowed to leave Greece. The exhibition proved to be the outstanding cultural event of the Sydney Olympics.

Throughout his life, the late Professor Aroney was also greatly involved in the work of the Church. In 1972, he was given the title Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for services to the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia. He was also strongly involved in the Greek community and was a member of many Greek-Australian associations over the years, such as the Kytherian Brotherhood, AHEPA, the Castellorizian Club, the Cyprus-Hellene Club, the Greek Australian Professionals Association of New South Wales, and the Hellenic Club where he served as a Director for fifteen years and the Nicholas Anthony Aroney Charitable Trust. He was also Vice-Chairman of the Parthenon Marbles Committee.

Manuel Aroney was married to Ann Pascalis and is survived by three sons, Dimitrios and Theodore, both doctors, and Stephen, a lawyer. I met Manuel and his family during my first visit to Australia in 2005 and was impressed by his kind personality and strong character. Since then, I had the opportunity to meet Manuel in Canberra and Sydney on several occasions and had many interesting discussions with him on various academic and cultural issues.

It was a great honour for me to be selected in April 2008 by the Council of the Municipality of Kythera to award him, here in Sydney, the Municipality’s Golden Medal (the highest patriotic honour from his birth-place) as a tribute of honour and gratitude for his lengthy, continuous and important contribution to the large Kytherian community of Australia. At the day of the Award, the response of the Australian-Kytherian community of Sydney was enormous, in a packed Hall and in the presence of the members of his family and relatives, a great event that moved him deeply.

I had the pleasure of seeing him again, for a last time, in Sydney in December 2010, just a short while before he passed away, where he expressed to me his worry that this would be the last time we would ever meet. Alas, he was right, but at least I had the opportunity to honour his memory this evening at the University of Sydney which he served for so long.

At the beginning, I touched upon the meaning of cosmopolitanism, as a sentiment shared by every migrant. A public confession once made by Manuel Aroney, a second-generation Diaspora Greek, is, I think, particularly noteworthy and I have chosen to close my speech on him by quoting his words:

(...) I have presented some personal thoughts and opinions regarding the culture of our forbears and how this may or should make an impact on us. I have not tried to talk of how good to be an Australian — I am sure everyone here already has that sense. The question I pose is ‘are we fully using our God-given opportunities — are we good Greek-¬Australians?’ Australian schooling, the media, everyday social and workplace interactions have ensured that we have a good knowledge of English, a familiarity with Australian institutions, attitudes, lifestyles. That is understandable; that is fine. But we should, as immigrants, retain some ‘Greekness’ in our individual arid collective psyche. In so doing, we honour our family, our background, ourselves. We open the way to passing on a dual cultural tradition to our children. In this way we contribute to the developing, rich cultural tapestry of the modern Australian nation.

The Life story of George and Agapi Lianos

The Lianos Comino Odyssey

My Grandparents were Agapi and George Lianos from Kythera,Greece. Papou was born on the 9th June1873 in the village of Liananika to Emmanuel and Relia, farm owners. He was the only son and had four sisters, Irene, Kerani, Marigo and Stavroula. Agapi's birth date was in 1867.

He worked on the farm with his parents and at the age of twenty four married Agapi the seventeen year old daughter of Anthony and Theodora Comino on the 15th February 1897.

My Grandparents Agapi and George Lianos c. 1900

His parents gave them some land with a two room house on it and it was there that their first child Stavroula was born on the 31st July 1898. But conditions were very hard in Kythera so they decided that Papou should go to Australia to try his luck. Also his wife's brothers, Dimitrios, Menas and Nicholas,and her Uncles Zacharias and Ioanis Comino, were already settled in Sydney, which would be a great help to him, he hoped.

He arrived in Pireaus on 16th September 1898 where he arranged his papers and passport and arranged for his passage to Sydney. On the 20th September 1898 he left on an Egyptian Steam boat for Port Said where he stayed for several days. Then on the 28th September 1898 he boarded a new German steamer called the Barbarossa, and set sail for his new life in Australia.

After a lovely and uneventful trip he arrived at Circular Quay Sydney on the 30th of October 1898 and was met by his brothers-in-law and taken to lodgings and instructed in what was to be his life for some time to come. A bad joke was played on him by his brothers-in-law, who had put him in a bug infested room on his first night in Australia, but then gave him a room in one of their homes.

And it was hard. From the 3rd November 1898 he had to get up at 3.a.m. to go to the markets to collect oysters and fish and bring the produce back to the cellar and clean the fish and open the oysters. He then had to go upstairs to scrub the floor, clean the tables and wash the cutlery in preparation for the evening work in the restaurant. Then he had to go back to the cellar to open more oysters. Then it was back to the pantry to wash up the cutlery and dishes from the restaurant after it closed. He went to bed at midnight, and then the routine started again. He had Sundays off but had to clean his room and wash his clothes. Then he dressed up in the best clothes he had and went for a walk in the Domain but he had to be home by 5p.m. to prepare himself for the next day. And so it went on.

My Grandparents Agapi and George Lianos, early in their married life, with Emmanuel and Stavroula

During the next four years he had a series of good and bad experiences in business and family dealings, but he was finally doing well enough to bring his wife and child to join him. In November 1900 they were a united family again. They worked very hard in the latest business they had purchased which was very successful. Their first child to be born in Australia was Emmanuel born on 3rd January 1903. Their next child was Theodora born on 29th January 1905, and on 20th March 1907 another daughter Aspacia was born. He then made the decision to return to Greece and on the16th April 1907 left on the Orient Liner Ormes.

However Theodora became very ill and they had to disembark at Colombo, a decision which saved her life. They stayed there for fifteen days and continued on their journey on the Ortona, and arrived in Pireaus on the 7th June 1907, where they stayed for fifteen days and then travelled to their intended destination Agia Pelagia where they were greeted with great joy by his father and sisters. From there they travelled to their village Liananika and were greeted with great enthusiam by the villagers.

They spent the next few years (3yrs and 10mths to be exact) having a happy time. During this time another son Anthony was born on the 28th January 1908 and Papou built a beautiful home and furnished it with the best furniture which he bought from a shop in Pireaus owned by an in.law J.Venathis. The house was started on the 15th May and completed on the 28th November 1908.

Lianos family home on Kythera, built by my grandfather, George Lianos

Unfortunately he was persuaded by some in-laws to lend them money for their business ventures and then refused to repay him. As he was not receiving the monies due to him from his investments in Australia from his in-laws whom he trusted, he was forced to return to Australia to investigate things. His intention was to return to Greece in a couple of years. So in October 1910, they left Cerigo (as it was called then) and arrived back in Australia on the 7th February 1911, and took over his shop from his brother-in-law Menas Comino and was shocked to see how little money there was for him. However he worked very hard and built the business up and started doing well again . During this time another son Menas, was born on the 1th April 1911 and business was really booming. But he was too trusting of his in-laws and was tricked by them once again and he had many business problems as a result of their actions. About this time another daughter Coralia was born on the 24th April 1913.

At the end of 1912, he intended to sell up everything and return to Greec but once again he was persuaded by his in-laws to do otherwise and made bad decisions which cost him dearly. He opened a lolly shop and milk bar in Elizabeth St. Sydney but again he had bad partners and lost a lot of money. Another son Theodore was born on the 13th December 1914.

Then war had started in Europe in 1914, and business plunged dramatically because the soldiers behaved like larrikins and refused to pay for food and drinks and threatened to smash the windows (which they did once) if he complained. It was a bad time for all shopkeepers. He then went into business at 661 George St,and it was from there that his first daughter Stella married John Aroney in the 1st August 1917, and the wedding reception was held at the George St business and the 100 guests sang and danced till 2.a.m. It was the first genuine Cerigotis wedding held in Australia.

Cosmopolitan Oyster Parlour in Pitt St, owned by the Comino brothers - my grandmothers uncles, c 1900

Business was improving and his landlord then offered to sell him the shop and the one next door but the price was too high and he refused. It was then sold to a Theo Marks and when the current lease expired, his terms for a new lease were excessive and not worth while considering. But he had bills to pay, the wine licence and fittings being a few things to pay. His brother-in-law Menas told him that if he walked away from everything, because the bills were so small no one would chase him for it. But it was bad advice. With his wife and family and new son Socrates born on the 20th January 1918 they left Sydney for Murwillimbah where his daughter Stella and her husband John were in business and John offered him a small shop next door to theirs to open a business. But Theo Marks in Sydney did not walk away from monies owing to him and sent a summons to Murwillumbah. The severe flu epidemic had hit Australia and Papou was ill and unable to go to Sydney to defend the summons so he was declared bankrupt.

But things were no better in Murwillumbah as John Aroney had sold the small shop to help his brother return to Greece, and would not give Papou a larger share of his shop as compensation for the money he had put in renovating the smaller shop. They returned to Sydney and settled in Palmer St. Papou was out of work for five months and only Emanuel was working. He worked in Uncle Mena's and Uncle Nicholas' shop making five to ten gallons of ice cream every morning and serving in the restaurant at night. This helped to pay off the bankruptcy so that his father would not dip into the little money he had left.

Papou then opened a shop in Oxford St and fitted it out but it was not a success and he had to close it. And that was the last of his money. Another daughter Diamantoula was born on the 4th August 1920. Then in October 1921, they decided to go to Gunnedah and bought a broken down shop which he renovated completely as a milk bar. He put in a soda fountain and the business started to build up. It was there that great plans were made for the future and Papou thought he was on his way again at last.

But as the saying goes "Man proposes and God disposes" and so it was with my Grandfather.

Another son Constantine was born on the 4th October 1922. There were eleven children born to Agapi and George Lianos.

My mother with her 10 brothers and sisters

Back row: Aspacia, Menas, Theodora and Stavroula. Seated: Theodore, Diamantoula, Emanuel, Anthony, Socrates, Coralia and Constantine sitting on stool.

My Grandparents Agapi and George Lianos later in life – in 1942

My grandmother died soon after this photograph was taken, at age 62, in July 1942.

My grandfather in 1960, surrounded by his eleven children

8 remaining children of George and Agapi Lianos, 1987, in Uncle Tony's home, in Killarney Heights

Gravesite of the Lianos family, Botany Cemetery, Sydney

Download the 5-pages of the Programme as a .pdf:

Metropolitan_Younger_Set_PROGRAMME_1941s.pdf

Life Story of one of the participants - my auntie, Diana Lianos (later Rudkin).

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos), in her prime, 1950

The Lianos sisters. Daughters of George and Agapi Lianos, with Diana as a very young girl

Diana (christened Diamantoula), was born in Sydney on the 4th August 1920,the youngest of five sisters and second youngest of the eleven children of George and Agapi Lianos from Kythera.

As can be seen in the photograph, she showed a flair for dressing at an early age and when she grew up went to the East Sydney Technical College to learn dress designing. But she soon found a job in a dress factory instead. It was nothing for her to take a length of material and drape it around herself, pin it into shape with large safety pins and with smart shoes and handbag was ready to go out and party with her friends.

She joined The Metropolitan Younger Set and organised a Ball and Mannequin Parade in aid of the Red Cross Society that was held in the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Australia on the 14th January 1941. Her brother Anthony was the Secretary and her sister Aspacia Sophios, a beautiful singer was on the programme. Diana was one of the mannequins.

Diana continued working in fashion and did charity work with the Metropolitan Younger Set, and was named Miss Australia Legion in the Miss Australia Contest in 1946. Previously in 1945 she had met an American George Rudkin doctor of marine biology, during his leave from Townsville where many Americans were stationed. They corresponded when he returned to America and proposed marriage. She accepted and prepared for a new life in another country. She left Sydney Australia in 1946 and many members of the family went to the boat to see her off.

Diana Lianos (later, Rudkin) leaving for America. 1946

Diana is standing third from the right, next to Papou.

On her arrival in America where she was met by George they immediately travelled to Philadelphia where arrangements were made for their marriage. It was a very small affair at the Registry Office with no family or friends available at such short notice. It was their day and they were very happy.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with husband George Rudkin

And so began her life in America.
Within six months of her arrival she had formed the Australasian Women's Club (originally the Australian Women's Club) and later became the State President of the Pennsylvania branch of the Daughters of the British Empire. It was a new world to the new war brides and many were frightened and anxious. Some suffered real hardship at first and were very disillusioned. The Members, mostly Australian and New Zealand war brides who had settled in well, helped in any way they could financially or with other problems. Over the years most were comfortably settled with their own homes and cars. Now days besides being a social group, the Club still works for various charities in America.

George became a scientist with the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and soon after their marriage he was invited by the Nobel Institute to further his research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Not to be idle,Diana opened the first International and Modelling School in Sweden. It was more a finishing than a modelling school where the girls were given lessons in hostessing,voice production and wardrobe planning. Diana made sure that the teachers were all experts in their field.

In 1960 she made her first trip home to Australia and spent many happy days catching up with members of her brothers and sisters and their families.

George Lianos surrounded by children and grandchildren, 1950

George in the meantime was is Paris where he was to be the guest speaker at the first international meeting of the Histo-Chemical Society. Before returning to the U.S.they visited Stockholm for the 12th anniversary of the school she founded,which was now under the direction of Count Olderman-Cronstadt. On returning to America she was asked by a travel agency to advise women on wardrobe planning for overseas travel and was offered a job at the agency.

During all these years Diana still managed to have four children,one girl and three boys. On her first trip home to Australia she took the two eldest Liana and Charles with her,and the other two boys Robert and Brian stayed at home with their father.

In 1965 she made another trip to Australia while doing a world trip this time with Robert and Brian.Her father had died suddenly in 1962 and she was unable to reach Australia in time. George continued his research into cancer at the Research Centre in Philadelphia, and Diana opened a small travel agency with a cardboard cut-out of a kangaroo in the window. The children had all completed their educations.Robert and Brian followed their father into research, Liana into finance, and Charles into the high tech field.

Children of George and Diana Rudkin (nee Lianos). Philadelphia. U.S.A

In 1985 George took Sabbatical leave and came to the C.S.I.R.O. in Sydney Australia. Diana came with him and spent time with members of the family remaining after the deaths of sister Stella and brothers Menas and Emanuel. They stayed with Anthony at his home in Killarney Heights,and she insisted that she come and help me at my pharmacy at Waverley. She certainly made her presence felt and fascinated the customers and my staff by her sometimes imperious stage manner (she would have made a great actress) but everyone laughed and loved it.

George and Diana celebrated their Ruby wedding anniversary at Uncle Tony's home and what a night it was. Everyone who was able to came -- aunts,uncles, nieces and nephews many who were married and had their own children.

8 remaining children of George and Agapi Lianos, 1987, in Uncle Tony's home, in Killarney Heights

This photograph taken at the Ruby Anniversary Party, at Uncle Tony's house in 1987.
Standing: Coralia and Diana. Seated: Socrates, Constantine, Anthony, Theodora, Theodore and Aspacia.

One evening George and Diana were invited to a formal dinner given by the C.S.I.R.O, so it was full dress for both of them. Towards the end of their trip a party was held at my mother Theodora's house at Rose Bay, and it was great for all to be together again. But this was to be their last trip to Australia.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with huband George Rudkin later in life,1987

This photograph was taken at the farewell party for Diana at Margetis family home, Rose Bay, Sydney.

In the early part of 1990 George died suddenly. Diana was heartbroken and could not be consoled and she too died suddenly on 6th of September in the same year 1990.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with huband George Rudkin later in life, 1987, in formal dress

The photograph depicts Diana and George Rudkin preparing for a night on the town, 1987.

My mother Theodora was the eldest, and Diana, the youngest in this photograph

Standing: Stella and Coralia. Seated:Theodora, Diana, and Aspacia, and
Diana (christened Diamantoula).

The Life Story of Diana Rudkin (nee, Lianos)

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos), in her prime, 1950

Diana (christened Diamantoula), was born in Sydney on the 4th August 1920,the youngest of five sisters and second youngest of the eleven children of George and Agapi Lianos from Kythera.

As can be seen in the photograph, above, she showed a flair for dressing at an early age and when she grew up went to the East Sydney Technical College to learn dress designing. But she soon found a job in a dress factory instead. It was nothing for her to take a length of material and drape it around herself, pin it into shape with large safety pins and with smart shoes and handbag was ready to go out and party with her friends.

She joined The Metropolitan Younger Set and organised a Ball and Mannequin Parade in aid of the Red Cross Society that was held in the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Australia on the 14th January 1941. Her brother Anthony was the Secretary and her sister Aspacia Sophios, a beautiful singer was on the programme. Diana was one of the mannequins.

Part of the programme of the Metropolitan Younger Set Ball and Mannequin Parade, 1941

Download the 5-pages of the Programme as a .pdf:

Metropolitan_Younger_Set_PROGRAMME_1941s.pdf

Diana continued working in fashion and did charity work with the Metropolitan Younger Set, and was named Miss Australia Legion in the Miss Australia Contest in 1946. Previously in 1945 she had met an American George Rudkin doctor of marine biology, during his leave from Townsville where many Americans were stationed. They corresponded when he returned to America and proposed marriage. She accepted and prepared for a new life in another country. She left Sydney Australia in 1946 and many members of the family went to the boat to see her off.

Diana Lianos (later, Rudkin) leaving for America. 1946

Diana is standing third from the right, next to Papou.

On her arrival in America where she was met by George they immediately travelled to Philadelphia where arrangements were made for their marriage. It was a very small affair at the Registry Office with no family or friends available at such short notice. It was their day and they were very happy.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with husband George Rudkin

And so began her life in America.
Within six months of her arrival she had formed the Australasian Women's Club (originally the Australian Women's Club) and later became the State President of the Pennsylvania branch of the Daughters of the British Empire. It was a new world to the new war brides and many were frightened and anxious. Some suffered real hardship at first and were very disillusioned. The Members, mostly Australian and New Zealand war brides who had settled in well, helped in any way they could financially or with other problems. Over the years most were comfortably settled with their own homes and cars. Now days besides being a social group, the Club still works for various charities in America.

George became a scientist with the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and soon after their marriage he was invited by the Nobel Institute to further his research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Not to be idle,Diana opened the first International and Modelling School in Sweden. It was more a finishing than a modelling school where the girls were given lessons in hostessing,voice production and wardrobe planning. Diana made sure that the teachers were all experts in their field.

In 1960 she made her first trip home to Australia and spent many happy days catching up with members of her brothers and sisters and their families.

George Lianos surrounded by children and grandchildren, 1950

George in the meantime was is Paris where he was to be the guest speaker at the first international meeting of the Histo-Chemical Society. Before returning to the U.S.they visited Stockholm for the 12th anniversary of the school she founded,which was now under the direction of Count Olderman-Cronstadt. On returning to America she was asked by a travel agency to advise women on wardrobe planning for overseas travel and was offered a job at the agency.

During all these years Diana still managed to have four children,one girl and three boys. On her first trip home to Australia she took the two eldest Liana and Charles with her,and the other two boys Robert and Brian stayed at home with their father.

In 1965 she made another trip to Australia while doing a world trip this time with Robert and Brian.Her father had died suddenly in 1962 and she was unable to reach Australia in time. George continued his research into cancer at the Research Centre in Philadelphia, and Diana opened a small travel agency with a cardboard cut-out of a kangaroo in the window. The children had all completed their educations.Robert and Brian followed their father into research, Liana into finance, and Charles into the high tech field.

Children of George and Diana Rudkin (nee Lianos). Philadelphia. U.S.A

In 1985 George took Sabbatical leave and came to the C.S.I.R.O. in Sydney Australia. Diana came with him and spent time with members of the family remaining after the deaths of sister Stella and brothers Menas and Emanuel. They stayed with Anthony at his home in Killarney Heights,and she insisted that she come and help me at my pharmacy at Waverley. She certainly made her presence felt and fascinated the customers and my staff by her sometimes imperious stage manner (she would have made a great actress) but everyone laughed and loved it.

George and Diana celebrated their Ruby wedding anniversary at Uncle Tony's home and what a night it was. Everyone who was able to came -- aunts,uncles, nieces and nephews many who were married and had their own children.

8 remaining children of George and Agapi Lianos, 1987, in Uncle Tony's home, in Killarney Heights

This photograph taken at the Ruby Anniversary Party, at Uncle Tony's house in 1987.
Standing: Coralia and Diana. Seated: Socrates, Constantine, Anthony, Theodora, Theodore and Aspacia.

One evening George and Diana were invited to a formal dinner given by the C.S.I.R.O, so it was full dress for both of them. Towards the end of their trip a party was held at my mother Theodora's house at Rose Bay, and it was great for all to be together again. But this was to be their last trip to Australia.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with huband George Rudkin later in life,1987

This photograph was taken at the farewell party for Diana at Margetis family home, Rose Bay, Sydney.

In the early part of 1990 George died suddenly. Diana was heartbroken and could not be consoled and she too died suddenly on 6th of September in the same year 1990.

Diana (Diamantoula) Rudkin (nee Lianos) with huband George Rudkin later in life, 1987, in formal dress

The photograph depicts Diana and George Rudkin preparing for a night on the town, 1987.

The pharmacy was owned by his son George.

Life Story of Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

[[picture:"00001G.jpg" ID:20330]]

Bretos Margetis as a young adullt, 1910's

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters, and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

[[picture:"sc0041B1.jpg" ID:20480]]

My great-grandfather, Bretos, (seated), with my grandfather, George Margetis, and two of his sisters c. 1830

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

[[picture:"00001B.jpg" ID:20323]]

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

[[picture:"00001D.jpg" ID:20326]]

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

[[picture:"00001C.jpg" ID:20324]]

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

[[picture:"00001H6.jpg" ID:20325]]

Bretos Margetis shop at 617 George Street, Sydney, 1920's

He developed a love for music, especially Opera, and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover, and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Extended wedding party photograph

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

[[picture:"00001G2.jpg" ID:20327]]

Crescent Theatre, Fairfield

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world, and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist, and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her. When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra, and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA. George read speeches about these days, and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

[[picture:"00001H 1.jpg" ID:20331]]

Theodora Margetis with by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides, at the concert after party. Theodora is far right, and Elena, fourth from right

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quest. Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook) and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence, Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams. (I like to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee, where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy, George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again, and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

[[picture:"sc0035D.jpg" ID:20329]]

Bretos Margetis relaxing in his new home at Rose Bay, 1961

Life Story of my father, Bretos Margetis.

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

[[picture:"00001G.jpg" ID:20330]]

Bretos Margetis as a young adullt, 1910's

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters, and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

[[picture:"00001B.jpg" ID:20323]]

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

[[picture:"00001D.jpg" ID:20326]]

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

[[picture:"00001C.jpg" ID:20324]]

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

[[picture:"00001H6.jpg" ID:20325]]

Bretos Margetis shop at 617 George Street, Sydney, 1920's

He developed a love for music, especially Opera, and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover, and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Extended wedding party photograph

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

[[picture:"00001G2.jpg" ID:20327]]

Crescent Theatre, Fairfield

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world, and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist, and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her. When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra, and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA. George read speeches about these days, and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

[[picture:"00001H 1.jpg" ID:20331]]

Theodora Margetis with by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides, at the concert after party. Theodora is far right, and Elena, fourth from right

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quest. Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook) and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence, Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams. (I like to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee, where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy, George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again, and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

[[picture:"sc0035D.jpg" ID:20329]]

Bretos Margetis relaxing in his new home at Rose Bay, 1961

[[picture:"001A.jpg" ID:20472]]

Diana Rudkin, (nee) Lianos in c. 1950.

Photograph, below. The Lianos sisters.
Standing: Stella and Coralia. Seated: Theodora, Diana, and Aspacia.
[[picture:"1006B.jpg" ID:20482]]

Diana (christened Diamantoula), was born in Sydney on the 4th August 1920,the youngest of five sisters and second youngest of the eleven children of George and Agapi Lianos from Kythera.

As can be seen in the photograph, she showed a flair for dressing at an early age and when she grew up went to the East Sydney Technical College to learn dress designing. But she soon found a job in a dress factory instead. It was nothing for her to take a length of material and drape it around herself, pin it into shape with large safety pins and with smart shoes and handbag was ready to go out and party with her friends.

She joined The Metropolitan Younger Set and organised a Ball and Mannequin Parade in aid of the Red Cross Society that was held in the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Australia on the 14th January 1941. Her brother Anthony was the Secretary and her sister Aspacia Sophios, a beautiful singer was on the programme. Diana was one of the mannequins.

[[picture:"sc0075Composite.jpg" ID:20483]]

Part of the programme of he Metropolitan Younger Set Ball and Mannequin Parade, 1941.

Download the 5-pages of the Programme as a .pdf:

Metropolitan_Younger_Set_PROGRAMME_1941s.pdf

Diana continued working in fashion and did charity work with the Metropolitan Younger Set, and was named Miss Australia Legion in the Miss Australia Contest in 1946. Previously in 1945 she had met an American George Rudkin doctor of marine biology, during his leave from Townsville where many Americans were stationed. They corresponded when he returned to America and proposed marriage. She accepted and prepared for a new life in another country. She left Sydney Australia in 1946 and many members of the family went to the boat to see her off.

[[picture:"sc0043J.jpg" ID:20474]]

Diana leaving for America. Diana is standing third from the right, next to Papou.

On her arrival in America where she was met by George they immediately travelled to Philadelphia where arrangements were made for their marriage. It was a very small affair at the Registry Office with no family or friends available at such short notice. It was their day and they were very happy.

[[picture:"Sc0043K.jpg" ID:20475]]

George and Diana on their wedding day

And so began her life in America.
Within six months of her arrival she had formed the Australasian Women's Club (originally the Australian Women's Club) and later became the State President of the Pennsylvania branch of the Daughters of the British Empire. It was a new world to the new war brides and many were frightened and anxious. Some suffered real hardship at first and were very disillusioned. The Members, mostly Australian and New Zealand war brides who had settled in well, helped in any way they could financially or with other problems. Over the years most were comfortably settled with their own homes and cars. Now days besides being a social group, the Club still works for various charities in America.

George became a scientist with the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and soon after their marriage he was invited by the Nobel Institute to further his research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Not to be idle,Diana opened the first International and Modelling School in Sweden. It was more a finishing than a modelling school where the girls were given lessons in hostessing,voice production and wardrobe planning. Diana made sure that the teachers were all experts in their field.

In 1960 she made her first trip home to Australia and spent many happy days catching up with members of her brothers and sisters and their families.

[[picture:"1001P3.jpg" ID:20476]]

Grandfather with most of his grandchildren during Diana's visit with Charles and Liana.1960.

George in the meantime was is Paris where he was to be the guest speaker at the first international meeting of the Histo-Chemical Society. Before returning to the U.S.they visited Stockholm for the 12th anniversary of the school she founded,which was now under the direction of Count Olderman-Cronstadt. On returning to America she was asked by a travel agency to advise women on wardrobe planning for overseas travel and was offered a job at the agency.

During all these years Diana still managed to have four children,one girl and three boys. On her first trip home to Australia she took the two eldest Liana and Charles with her,and the other two boys Robert and Brian stayed at home with their father.

In 1965 she made another trip to Australia while doing a world trip this time with Robert and Brian.Her father had died suddenly in 1962 and she was unable to reach Australia in time. George continued his research into cancer at the Research Centre in Philadelphia, and Diana opened a small travel agency with a cardboard cut-out of a kangaroo in the window. The children had all completed their educations.Robert and Brian followed their father into research,Liana into finance,and Charles into the high tech field.

[[picture:"sc0043K4.jpg" ID:20477]]

From left:Robert and wife Donna, Charles and bride Terri, Liana, & Brian and his wife Marie Jose.

In 1985 George took Sabbatical leave and came to the C.S.I.R.O. in Sydney Australia. Diana came with him and spent time with members of the family remaining after the deaths of sister Stella and brothers Menas and Emanuel. They stayed with Anthony at his home in Killarney Heights,and she insisted that she come and help me at my pharmacy at Waverley. She certainly made her presence felt and fascinated the customers and my staff by her sometimes imperious stage manner (she would have made a great actress) but everyone laughed and loved it.

George and Diana celebrated their Ruby wedding anniversary at Uncle Tony's home and what a night it was. Everyone who was able came --aunts,uncles, nieces and nephews many who were married and had their own children.

[[picture:"1008D.jpg" ID:20468]]

Photograph taken at the Ruby Anniversary Party, at Uncle Tony's house in 1987.
Standing: Coralia and Diana. Seated: Socrates, Constantine, Anthony, Theodora, Theodore and Aspacia.

One evening George and Diana were invited to a formal dinner given by the C.S.I.R.O,so it was full dress for both of them. Towards the end of their trip a party was held at my mother Theodora's house at Rose Bay, and it was great for all to be together again. But this was to be their last trip to Australia.

[[picture:"sc0043M.jpg" ID:20478]]

1987. At the farewell party for Diana at Margetis family home, Rose Bay, Sydney.

In the early part of 1990 George died suddenly. Diana was heartbroken and could not be consoled and she too died suddenly on 6th of September in the same year 1990.

[[picture:"sc0043L.jpg" ID:20479]]

Diana and George Rudkin preparing for a night on the town, 1987

in Canberra. Theodora is on the far right. Elena 4th from the right.
2nd from right: Mrs Harry Notaras
3rd from right: man unknown, (can you help identify him?)
Far right: Mrs Aspacia Sophios. (Alex Sophios's mother)

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section.

There I noted that "Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides".

My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria,Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

Registration of Alien Certificate of Bretos Margetis, 1915

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.

Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

Crescent Theatre, Fairfield

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum,George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence, Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams. (I like to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee, where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy, George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again, and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND, IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

Bretos Margetis in 1961 relaxing in his new home at Rose Bay

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria,Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

Registration of Alien Certificate of Bretos Margetis, 1915

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.

Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

Crescent Theatre, Fairfield

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum,George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence, Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams. (I like to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee, where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy, George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again, and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND, IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

Bretos Margetis in 1961 relaxing in his new home at Rose Bay

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria,Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.
Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum,George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros,
(who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A.
(Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).
In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for,as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter ,saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????,and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us .I still have that letter.
But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life,and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well rceived.
After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour,and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."
But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful.And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta),but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard, so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1826.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well,and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town,Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross, and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikon and Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos (to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni, so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance. Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage, after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else, he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev. Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates, the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides) from Sydney, and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia, and ways and means that could be done to overcome them, and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community. The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room, which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for, was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis, at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria,Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta),but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.
Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

[[picture:"00001B.jpg" ID:20323]]

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

[[picture:"00001C.jpg" ID:20324]]

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well,and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town,Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.
But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.
At that time Mum,George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros,
(who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A.
(Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel,who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).
In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for,as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter ,saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????,and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us .I still have that letter.
But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life,and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well rceived.
After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour,and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."
But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful.And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

Can you help, by identifying the person standing next to my father in these photographs?

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta),but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard, so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1826.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well,and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town,Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross, and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikon and Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos (to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni, so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance. Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage, after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else, he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev. Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates, the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides) from Sydney, and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia, and ways and means that could be done to overcome them, and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community. The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room, which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for, was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis, at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

Photograph taken in Greece, when my father Bretos was about 14 years of age (approx, 1902), just prior before Bretos's departure for Australia.

I have written the Life Story of my father, which features in the Notable Kytherians section. My father was a Founding Member of the Kytherian Association of Australia in 1922. He was also on the organising Committtee of Ayia Triatha church in Surry Hills.

Bretos Margetis

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters,and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta),but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801,but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis,came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.
Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their" Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school ,and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nineteen he had his first restaurant.

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien,under The War Precautions(Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association,and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary one year.
Two of his sisters,Panayiotitsa(Bonney) and Evangalia,and his two brothers,Dimitri(Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia,but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married,Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens,and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo(Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe south west in N.S.W.Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

He developed a love for music, especially Opera,and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover,and had learnt to play the piano quite well,and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town,Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.
But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world,and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist,and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.
At that time Mum,George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her .When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of Fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra,and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA .George read speeches about these days,and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quests .Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook)and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros,
(who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A.
(Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence,Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel,who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams.( Ilike to think that their prayers helped).
In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for,as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter ,saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????,and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us .I still have that letter.
But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life,and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well rceived.
After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee,where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seventeen cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy,George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again,and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour,and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."
But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful.And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND ,IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.
.

24th November, 1889 - 12th November, 1961.

 

[[picture:"00001G2.jpg" ID:20327]]

Bretos Margetis as a young adullt, 1910's

My father Bretos Margetis was named after his grandfather, who is pictured here with his daughters, and was probably born about 1850. His son George married Vasilia Galanis and they had three boys, Bretos, Dimitri and Minas, and three girls Maria, Panayiotitsa and Evangelia.

 

[[picture:"Margetis 8_0001B.bmp" ID:20481]]
[[picture:"sc0041B1.jpg" ID:20480]]

My great-grandfather, Bretos, (seated), with my grandfather, George Margetis, and two of his sisters c. 1830

Dad was born on the 24th November 1889 in Aroniathika and went to the village school with his brothers and sisters and was a keen student. (Of interest is the origin of the name. It appears to come from the baptismal name of the mother (Margeta or Marieta), but was used as a nickname in the beginning but appears for the first time in the parish register of Saint Mina in Logothetianika in 1801, but was still regarded as a nickname. Also it appears that three members Margetis, came from Koropi (on the coast going to Sounion) two of whom settled in Araniathika where they added the name Aroney in order to register their origin. A century later it made an appearance in Chora. It appears that the present day family name, Margetis was originally a nickname of one branch of the large family Aroney of Aroniathika, but it was decided by the Prefects of Argolidos and Corinthias, that the family name Aroney be replaced by Margetis.

Apart from Kythera the family name is mentioned in Crete, and in an earlier period 1536 it is mentioned in a catalogue of conscripts from Chania, and in 1678 there is reference in Kefallinia to a painter of icons Christodoulos Margetis. These cases show that the family name Margetis has connections outside the region and are linked directly with Kythera.)

 

[[picture:"00001G.jpg" ID:20330]]

Standing: Bretos(about four years old) and Dimitri. 

But to continue:
Judging by the photograph the men appear to be wearing their "Sunday Best", but life on the land was very hard,so their father decided that the boys had to seek a better life elsewhere, and chose Australia as they had relatives there already who would be able to help them.

[[picture:"00001B.jpg" ID:20323]]

George Margetis with his sons, from left to right, Minas, Bretos and Jim, taken in Greece, about 1902

Bretos was the first to go and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of December 1903 on the ship Orizaba.He stayed with an Uncle (name unknown) and went to school, and learnt English quickly by reading the local newspapers and having a dictionary beside him to look up words he didn't understand. He was a good student and did well,even with language difficulties. When he left school he helped his Uncle in his business and managed to save money to send home to his family in Kythera. He continued saving as much as he could and by the time he was nine he had his first restaurant.

[[picture:"00001D.jpg" ID:20326]]

In 1915 he had to register with the government,and received a Certificate of Registration of Alien, under The War Precautions (Aliens Registration)Regulations 1916 and was finaly registered at a Police Station in Sydney. He then became active in the Kytherian Association, and was one of the founding members of the commitee,and was the Secretary 1924-1926.
Two of his sisters, Panayiotitsa (Bonney) and Evangalia, and his two brothers, Dimitri ( Uncle Jim) and Minas came to Australia, but Mina later returned to Greece to his parents and sister Maria.The girls married, Bonney to Vasili Georgopoulos who had been a chef at the royal court in Athens, and later opened the Athenian Restaurant in Castlreagh St., and Evangalia to Spiro Coroneo (Uncle Sam) who opened a business in Greenthorpe, south west, N.S.W. Uncle Jim never married because he was short and worried that he would have short children.

[[picture:"00001C.jpg" ID:20324]]

Bretos Margetis with one of his good friends in 1904 and 1922

Bretos opened a restaurant at 617 George St Sydney with white tablecloths on the tables and red velvet covered chairs. It was an "up market" restaurant and served three course meals for two and sixpence,which was expensive for those times. It is interesting to note that the shop next door was a Chemist Shop which may have given Dad the idea for his future children to become Pharmacists (which they did).

[[picture:"00001H6.jpg" ID:20325]]

Bretos Margetis shop at 617 George Street, Sydney, 1920's

He developed a love for music, especially Opera, and took singing lessons with a Mrs Cresswell who taught him many songs from operas, but his favourite was La Donna Mobile wich he sang with great gusto at friends parties. Through this interest he met Theodora Lianos who was also a music lover, and had learnt to play the piano quite well, and soon there were wedding bells in the air and they married at the Agia Triatha in Surry Hills.

Extended wedding party photograph

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Dad had also bought two Picture Shows in Fairfield The Crescent and The Butterfly,and while he took care of the business in town, Mum travelled to Fairfield to manage the businesses out there.It was in Fairfield that Dad obtained his life long passion for cricket and in 1925 was asked by the Fairfield Cricket Club to be their Vice-President, which he accepted with pleasure.



Crescent Theatre, Fairfield

But the Depression was still here and things were not going well in Australia and the rest of the world, and Dad had to close the restaurant at first,and later the Picture Shows, and so lost everything. But he was the eternal optimist, and always believed that when one door closed another one opened. He took jobs wherever he could find them and went to Parkes at one time, and back to Bondi, and was a cook in his brother-in-laws restaurant. He even opened a cake shop in Double Bay, the Niagara Cake Shop, but the economy was still bad, so he had to close it too. Then Dad was offered a job in Canberra with Harry Notaras and went there to try his luck.

At that time Mum, George and I lived in a flat in Double Bay and went to the Double Bay Public School (which is still there). Mum took a part-time job in a sweet factory, folding the little cardboard boxes that the sweets went in. Mum always made sure that she was home before we walked home from school and greeted us dressed as if she was going out.

Mum also arranged for George and I to have music lessons with Mrs Cresswell and paid for them by sewing dresses for her. When Mrs Cresswell came to give us our piano lessons she often heard me singing, and even though I was about eight years old, apart from teaching me the piano she taught me a few little songs, a couple of which I still remember.

I went on to the Wollahra Opportunity School and George went to Randwick Boys High School. Then Dad was offered the opportunity to buy one of the Notaras shops in Kingston which he accepted and at last at the age of fifty-three he was on his way to start a new life at Victor's Rotary Cafe in Kingston Canberra, and he sent for his family to join him at last.

Once in Canberra Mum and Dad joined the Greek Community and became very active in promoting Greece by broadcasting and arranging programmes on special Greek Days, the 25th of March and the 28th 0f October on the radio station 2CA. George read speeches about these days, and I sang Greek Songs, and records of Greek music were also played. These were fairly well received by the general community there, but there was still a certain amount of xenophobia, even though Greece was fighting with the Allies.

Dad met many young men who were customers, who came to say goodbye to him when they leaving for the war in Europe and some kept in touch by letters. Some cadets from the nearby Duntroon Military College,would ring to say they were coming in the evening for a meal. Even though it was after hours in Canberra,Dad served them in the large kitchen at the shop,and the boys sat around the table and laughed and talked to Dad while he cooked them steak and eggs on the fuel stove there. This was about 1942-43.

Mum was also instrumental in encouraging the Musical Society of Canberra to write to the A.B.C. in Sydney asking them to bring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to Canberra which they did, and other cultural performances followed, including the concert given by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides.

[[picture:"00001H 1.jpg" ID:20331]]

Theodora Margetis with by the world famous Greek Soprano, Elena Nicholaides, at the concert after party. Theodora is far right, and Elena, fourth from right

George and I went to Canberra High School where we joined the choir and took up sport, hockey for me and athletics for George. I took the part of the leading soprano in the Opera Dido and Aeneas and George sang in the choir,and as a result of this performance was invited to perform in the same role at the Armidale University. Mum came with me and sat proudly in the audience, thinking of the interest and love of music that she and Dad had fostered in us. Mum and Dad then sent me to board at Frensham at Mittagong,where I became the head of the choir and represented the school at Singing School Festivals in Sydney. Mum or Dad always came to Mittagong if I was in any concert at the school.

George and I went to Sydney University to study pharmacy (George had given up studying Dentistry in Melbourne as he realized that it wasn't for him) so we were together. We had found our apprenticeships,George with our Uncle Theo Lianos who was managing Christians Pharmacy in Kings Cross,and I spent the first year of my apprenticeship with Fred Rolfe in Queanbeyan and the balance at Paul Kelly's Pharmacy at Brookvale which was a long way from Coogee especially by public transport,and I travelled three hours a day - (very few students had cars in those days).

We had joined the Olympic Club when we came back to Sydney to study, and met many members whose parents knew our parents previously so we felt quite at home.We took part in many of the club's activities,the parties and competitions and talent quest. Joan Varvaressos and I were keen but friendly adversaries. Some I remembered were Big Con and Little Con Mottee, Nick Marcels, Stan Georgiadis, Con Papalexion, Toti Stanley, Nina Aikonand Bill Psaltis, to name of few. They also staged a Greek Comedy "Sproxenia which "brought the house down" when it was performed.

We boarded with a family in Coogee, Mrs Parsonage (a great cook) and her husband, who were very good to us. They allowed us to have a party when they went on holidays, (they were very trusting)so we invited friends that we had made at the club and some from the university. Mum drove down with the local fruiterer Kyriacos Calligeros, (who was going to the markets) and brought some food for the party (and to join in the fun of course). A good time was had by all and we sang and danced and talked till late. I remember Con Mottee and Areanthe Simos and many more who were there that great night.

At Uni, George and I joined the S.U.P.A. (Sydney University Pharmacy Association), and helped organise the Pharmacy Ball one year, which was a great success mainly due to George's boundless enthusiam. I was also elected the Pharmacy representative on the S.R.C (the Student's Representative Council), and captained the Pharmacy Hockey Team (we never won a match).

Also about this time a group of Greek descent undergraduates were brought together by Manuel Aroney to form the Sigma Epsilon Phi Chapter and we met fairly regularly and arranged a dinner in honour of His Emminence, Archbishop Iezekiel. It was another great success. Manuel, who was head of the steering committee acted as M.C. and three toasts were proposed by Andrew Coroneo (to the University), fourth year Medical student George Papadopoulos(to Sigma Epsilon Phi), and final year Law student Helen Gleeson (to Hellenism), and Pharmacist George Margetis moved the vote of appreciation to His Emminence, in Greek.

At about this time George and I had moved from Coogee to Kings Cross to a boarding house, The Oriana, (which later became the Rex Hotel and is now units). The other residents in the house were mostly elderly ladies,who liked us very much, and fussed over us and said prayers and lit candles at St Canice's Church when we having our exams. (I like to think that their prayers helped).

In the meantime Mum and Dad were working very hard In Canberra,as there were very few scholarships to the Uni,so all fees and books had to be paid for, as well as our board,and as pharmacy apprentices we were not allowed travel passes either even though our wage was a mere pittance.Dad constantly urged us to work hard to get along and at one stage,after we had written letters about our social activities and nothng else,he sent a very stern letter, saying that he was pleased we were having a good time !!!!!!,but what about our studies???????, and not to forget that he and Mum were working very hard for us. I still have that letter.

But Mum and Dad were still active in the Canberra Greek Community,with Dad helping many new migrants in Canberra to translate any documents they had,and in 1951 the Very Rev.Archbishop Theophylactos was aproached by the organisers of the forthcoming Women's Jubilee Convention to be held in Canberra in October of that year, to send two delegates from the Ladies Welfare Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. Mum was approached to be one of two delegates,the other being Mrs.K.Hood (Melides)from Sydney,and Mum was greatly honoured and accepted. Her paper referred to the trials that Greek migrant women suffered on coming to Australia,and ways and means that could be done to overcome them,and for Australian women to do their part in helping them to learn the Australian way of life, and eventually to integrate into the general community.The papers of both delegates were well received.

After KIngs Cross we moved to a house in South Coogee, where we studied for our Finals and where a group of students met two or three times for coaching by a pharmacy lecturer. George and I supplied supper,(sandwiches) and served tea from a very large crockery teapot that George had found somewhere that held seven cups of tea( which was just enough). George and I found some permanent work in Pharmacy, George at Kings Cross again and I worked for a time at Stevens Pharmacy at Surry Hills which was near the Agia Triatha in Bourke St. I then went home to Canberra to do relieving work in the country, and George did likewise. We were never lonely on these jobs, as all we had to do was to enter any Greek Milk Bar and tell the owners we were young Greek pharmacists away from home, and they opened their arms to us.

After we had finished our various jobs in the country, we both returned to Sydney and lived in MacMahons Point, and we found permanent work, George at the Cross again, and I at Bradford's Pharmacy in Wynyard Station.

Then in 1956 Dad received from Coles an offer to buy the shop. We were all thrilled and looked forward once more to be a family together. Mum and Dad packed up and moved in with us at MacMahons Point until we found a lovely unit to move into at Neutral Bay.

In the meantime Dad financed George and I to purchase two pharmacies,one in Waverley, and the other in Redfern which had a large Greek population. We then opened a pharmacy in Caltex House in Kent Sydney, which at that time,1958 was the tallest building at that end of town. Mum went there to work with an employed pharmacist. Dad went to help George at Redfern because of so many Greek customers, and I employed a cousin, Elaine Theodore to help me.



Bretos Margetis serving in Redfern Pharmacy. The pharmacy was owned by his son George.

They were small businesses compared to those of to-day, but they did well although the shop at Waverley starting from scratch was slower but Dad was in his element. He had his family with him, and we went to concerts and parties together, and many of our friends included them in our invitations as well.

But he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had bought a house for us, which he did when he found one in Victory St. Rose Bay. We moved in July 1961 and each morning Dad got up early to go down and buy the daily paper, and go back home to read it in the front family room,which looked out to the beautiful Harbour, and he would say "I wouldn't call the King my Uncle."

But it wasn't to last and in November he went into hospital for an operation,and his pancreas burst and he passed away on the 12th November 1961. It was a dreadful shock to us and everyone. Mum, George and I were devastated too that Dad, having succeded at last in everything that he could wish for,was not allowed to enjoy it more. But at least he made it,and he was a great Dad, and we loved him very much and George and I were very grateful that we had those few happy years together as a family and I remember a comment made by one of Dad's cousins Jim Galanis,at the funeral, that he had never seen a man who was so happy with his family and proud of them too. For that remark we were thankful. And we put on his headstone:

TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND, IS NOT TO DIE.

And that's where Dad will
always be.

[[picture:"sc0035D.jpg" ID:20329]]

Bretos Margetis relaxing in his new home at Rose Bay, 1961

Full Wedding Party.

[Left to right]

Back row,men standing

Unknown (?)
Unknown (?)
Unknown (?)
Jim Margetis (brother of bride).
Bill Georgopoulos (brother-in-law to bride).
Bretos Margetis (brother of bride).

Front row

Unknown (?)
Boy seated, Theo Georgopoulos, (nephew of bride)
Young girl - Unknown (?)
Bridal Couple.
Panayotitsa (Bonnie) Georgopoulos (sister to bride)
Young boy seated at front, George Georgopoulos, nephew to bride.
Young girl unknown
Seated man, unknown.

Wedding party photo.

Young girl (left) - unknown(?)
Theo Georgopoulos, nephew of bride.
Man standing - unknown(?)
Bridal couple
Young girl (right) - unknown(?)
George Georgopoulos - younger nephew of bride

Taken on their wedding day.

Bretos Margetis, was featured in Life in Australia, and was a founding member of the Kytherian Association of Australia.

Evangelia later married Sam Coroneo and moved to Grenfell.

From left to right:
Bretos holding son George, standing next to his wife Theodora (nee Lianos).
In front Diana and Socrates, younger siblings of Theodora.

Taken in Sydney in 1920's.

Taken in Sydney, in a natural enviroment.

From Left to Right:

Minas Margetis, Bretos Margetis, George Margetis (father), and Dimitri (Jim) Margetis.

Photograph c. 1903.

Lilian Gish starring in The White Sister.

In 1924, a year before his marriage to Theodora Lianos, Bretos had acquired two cinemas in the outer Sydney suburb of Fairfield. These were called the The Crescent and The Butterfly. While Bretos looked after his restaurant in George Street, Sydney, Theodora used to travel to Fairfield to supervise the running of the cinemas. This lasted until 1928 when Margetis left cinema exhibition.

The projectionist at the cinema took a movie of the wedding of Bretos' sister Evenagelia and her husband Sam Coroneo and developed it and showed it at the reception that night. This was an unusual achievement for those times.

When Kevin Cork was doing his Ph.D thesis on Greek cinema ownership in Australia, I was interviewed by him. I showed him the cinema photographs and gave him information about Dad's involvement in the cinema industry.

Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera is being promoted.

In 1924, a year before his marriage to Theodora Lianos, Bretos had acquired two cinemas in the outer Sydney suburb of Fairfield. These were called the The Crescent and The Butterfly. While Bretos looked after his restaurant in George Street, Sydney, Theodora used to travel to Fairfield to supervise the running of the cinemas. This lasted until 1928 when Margetis left cinema exhibition.

The projectionist at the cinema took a movie of the wedding of Bretos' sister Evenagelia and her husband Sam Coroneo and developed it and showed it at the reception that night. This was an unusual achievement for those times.

When Kevin Cork was doing his Ph.D thesis on Greek cinema ownership in Australia, I was interviewed by him. I showed him the cinema photographs and gave him information about Dad's involvement in the cinema industry.

In 1924, a year before his marriage to Theodora Lianos, Bretos had acquired two cinemas in the outer Sydney suburb of Fairfield. These were called the The Crescent and The Butterfly. While Bretos looked after his restaurant in George Street, Sydney, Theodora used to travel to Fairfield to supervise the running of the cinemas. This lasted until 1928 when Margetis left cinema exhibition.

The projectionist at the cinema took a movie of the wedding of Bretos' sister Evenagelia and her husband Sam Coroneo and developed it and showed it at the reception that night. This was an unusual achievement for those times.

When Kevin Cork was doing his Ph.D thesis on Greek cinema ownership in Australia, I was interviewed by him. I showed him the cinema photographs and gave him information about Dad's involvement in the cinema industry.

In 1924, a year before his marriage to Theodora Lianos, Bretos had acquired two cinemas in the outer Sydney suburb of Fairfield. These were called the The Crescent and The Butterfly. While Bretos looked after his restaurant in George Street, Sydney, Theodora used to travel to Fairfield to supervise the running of the cinemas. This lasted until 1928 when Margetis left the cinemas due to the looming depression.

The projectionist at the cinema took a movie of the wedding of Bretos' sister Evenagelia and her husband Sam Coroneo and developed it and and showed it at the reception that night. This was an unusual achievement for those times.

When Kevin Cork was doing his Ph.D thesis on Greek cinema ownership in Australia, I was interviewed by him. I showed him the cinema photographs and gave him information about Dad's involvement in the cinema industry.

Mirror image. Photograph taken before her marriage to Bretos Margetis, Agia Triatha Church, Surry Hills.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Wedding party photograph, Wedding of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

She married Bretos Margetis at Agia Triatha Bourke St Surry Hills.

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Second marriage photograph. Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Wedding party photograph, Wedding of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Back row, (left to right):

Theodore Lianos, Vi Bernard. Peter Bernard, Anthony Lianos, Jack
Theodore, Menas Lianos,( unknown? but called "Buboulus"), Emanuel Lianos

Middle row, (left to right):

Socrates Lianos, Bretos Margetis, Maria (sister to groom?) (unknown), Groom, Nicholas Sophios, Bride, Aspacia Lianos, Coralie Lianos, Agarpi Lianos, (nee Comino), & George Lianos, (parents of the bride).

Seated (left):

George Margetis, Theodora Margetis (nee Lianos), Vasilia Margetis (Seated on Mother's knee), Diana Lianos, Constantine Lianos, (seated on floor).

Seated (right):

Lovey Aroney, George Aroney, Stella Aroney, Kosma Aroney, (seated on floor). Lovey, George & Kosma are the children of Stella, and Jack Theodore.

beautiful church at ARONIADIKA, can be seen on the main road and you pass it on the way to airport and the ferry at DIAKOFTI...

Entry from Life in Australia, published in 1916, page 201.

Mr Vretos G. Margetis, who hails from Kythera, is extremely young,
but capable and full of drive. He is today owner and manager of two splendid and profitable shops standing in the most central locations in the great city of Sydney. These shops afford work to many fellow Greeks.

Bretos Margetis as a 12 year old with his father and brothers in Greece

Mr Margetis came to Australia in 1903 and, after working hard for a few years, bought the first of his shops. The second he bought shortly afterwards, in partnership with his brother, Minas.

Shop of Bretos Margetis at 615 George St Sydney

As his commercial career has developed, Mr Margetis has indeed
been revealed as a young man of worth. Thanks to his polite behaviour, he has always earned the goodwill of those who have come to know him personally.

Download a .pdf of page 201, here:

LIA_English_p201.pdf

His name is spelt Vretos in Life in Australia but I have always spelt it Bretos.

Bretos was born on 24 Nov 1889, He landed in Australia on 5 Dec 1903 per ‘Orizaba.’

Arrivals Australia, 1903

He was married in 1925 at the Agia Triatha Church Bourke St Sydney.

Wedding Photographs

Studio portrait of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Wedding party photograph, Wedding of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Bretos Margetis at the wedding of Nicholas Sophios to Aspacia Lianos c, 1927

He was a Foundation member of the Kytherian Association of Australia, 1922 -1924, along with Cosmas J. Cassimatis, President, Peter Minoukos, Vice President, Bill Feros, Secretary, Nick Marcello, Treasurer, Theodore E. Kritharis, John Psaltis, and Cosmas Andronicos.

He rejoined the Committee from 1926 - 1928, when he fulfilled the role of Secretary.

In 1924, a year before his marriage to Theodora Lianos, Bretos had acquired two cinemas in the outer Sydney suburb of Fairfield. These were called the The Crescent and The Butterfly. While Bretos looked after his restaurant in George Street, Sydney, Theodora used to travel to Fairfield to supervise the running of the cinemas. This lasted until 1928 when Margetis left cinema exhibition.

He lost everything in the Depression of 1929, but undeterred, and with a wife and two children to provide for, he took various jobs around the country, finally settling on employment with Harry Notaras in Canberra, in 1940. He brought his family to live in Canberra. Mr Notaras had two cafes,and sold one to Bretos, which he called Victor's Rotary cafe. He and Theodora worked there, and put their children George and Vasilia through University. Both graduated in Pharmacy.

In 1956 the Cafe was sold to Coles, and he and Theodora moved to Sydney, where he bought a shop for George in Redfern, and opened a shop for Vasilia in Waverley, and another in Caltex House in Kent Street, City. His happiness was complete when they moved into their own home in Rose Bay in 1961, but he did not live to enjoy it, as he died suddenly, after an operation in hospital on November 12 1961.

Bretos Margetis lived his life as the eternal optimist, whereby the glass was always half full.

Married in 1925 at the Agia Triatha Church Bourke St Sydney.

Bretos was born on 24 Nov 1889, landed in Australia on 5 Dec 1903 per ‘Orizaba.’

He features in the book Life in Australia, on page 201.

Download a .pdf of page 201, here:

LIA_English_p201.pdf

His name is spelt Vretos in Life in Australia but I have always spelt it Bretos.

View a second marriage photograph:

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney


Bretos was born on 24 Nov 1889, He landed in Australia on 5 Dec 1903 per ‘Orizaba.’

Arrivals Australia, 1903

Wedding photographs

Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos outside Agia Triatha, Sydney

Wedding party photograph, Wedding of Bretos Margetis and Theodora Lianos

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day

Studio portrait of Theodora Lianos on her wedding day, with mirror image

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 Year Anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 Year Anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 Year Anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 year anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 year anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 year anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika: 100 year anniversary

Sotiras Church Aroniadika - 100 Year Anniversary

by Yiannis Mavrommatis

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyQHMHmfWxo

On August 7th 2011 the 100 anniversary of Sotiras Church - Aroniadika celebrated. Metropolitan Serafim of Kythera leaded with the Sotiras committee organized the ceremony. In front of hundreds of faithful at the “Paraklisis” the Byzantine Choir of Kythera performing inside the historical Church producing a great harmony of hymns and Byzantine music.The Metropolitan outlined these historical moments.

[[picture:"DSC04614.JPG" ID:19339]]

Key speaker, professor and researcher of Kytherian Archives, Mrs Eleni Xarou reported at the Church grounds about the building history process. The Potamos Brass Band, “ Filarmoniki”, played Greek folk music under the ageless maestro Stratis Theodorakakis- Tsabiras, who also conductd the Potamos Choir.

[[picture:"DSC04603.JPG" ID:19340]]

Christos Yiannaras, well known ex University professor, referred to the power of cooperation, and congratulated Fr Sampson, Dean of Sotiras, for his substantial restoration building works.

[[picture:"DSC04609.JPG" ID:19341]]

I pointed out the importance of Sotiras, an architectural jewel of Aroniadika, as the focal point of Faith and inspiration that protects and blesses us. In addition, I thanked our forfathers who built this Church, and the Kytherians of Diaspora, mainly from Australia, the Nickolas Aronis Foundation and all other donors, who under the encouragement of Nick Stamatakos, repeatedly funded the maintenance and the recent restoration of Sotiras.

[[picture:"DSC04601.JPG" ID:19344]]

Finally, I also stressed the great contribution of Fr Sampson, to the restoration of the Church and the arrangements of the new frescoes in the church walls. Fr Sampson for many recent years worked tirelessly voluntarily as a professional builder, “μάστορας “, refusing however, to get a penny for his work.
Moreover, on behalf of all Aroniades, I thanked the Metropolitan, the visitors and every contributor who in various ways assisted to the success of the ceremony, emphasising the importance of unity, coordination and cooperation to successfully carry out such projects.

[[picture:"DSC04601.JPG" ID:19342]]

Thodoros Magonezos, from the oldest residents of Aroniadika, recalled moments of earlier church restorations. Mayor Koukoulis congratulated everyone on the anniversary and the Metropolitan closed the ceremony, thanking all for their contribution and attendance. A reception followed with sweets and soft drinks offered by the ladies of Aroniadika . I was lucky to be at that anniversary for the 100 years of Sotiras. Xronia Polla.

Yiannis Mavrommatis
Pitsinades Kythera

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyQHMHmfWxo

[[picture:"DSC04612.JPG" ID:19345]]

[[picture:"DSC04585.JPG" ID:19346]]

Old house along the road.

Professor Manuel Aroney has his own WIKI entry, largely it would seem on the back of the entries in www.kythera-family.net

Accessed Dec, 2010

Manuel James Aroney AM, OBE , is an Australian academic and human rights advocate.

Aroney is the only child of Dimitrios and Stamatina Aronis (Aroney) who both were born in Aroniadika, Kythera, Greece. They met up again in Sydney, married in 1926 in Townsville and then opened the Central Cafe in Mackay, north Queensland, in 1928.

Aroney grew up in Mackay and in 1951 was awarded a Queensland Open Scholarship, given to the top 25 students in the state, a Commonwealth Scholarship. He then went to the University of Sydney where he gained a B.Sc. with 1st Class Honours in Physical Organic Chemistry. He completed a higher degree, M.Sc., and in 1961 a further degree, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), in Polarity, Polarisability and Molecular Structure. He was made a Teaching Fellow in 1955 and in 1961 a tenured lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Sydney.

In 1960 he married Ann Pascalis and has three sons, Dimitrios (Jim) and Theodore Aroney, both doctors, and Stephen Aroney, a lawyer, who are married in turn to Evelyn, Felicia and Sophia.

Professor Aroney is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London). He is also a Member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

In 1975 he was foundation member of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW. From 1977-81 he was appointed by the Federal Government as a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council, charged with advising the Commonwealth Government on multilingual electronic media. From 1978-81 he served as one of four members of the first Board of the Federal Governments Special Broadcasting Service, which made ethnic radio permanent across Australia and, with Bruce Gyngell, established the SBS television service. From 1981-83 he was a member of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. From 1981-86 he was a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission. Its functions included: the review of legislation, investigation of complaints, and the undertaking of research and educational programmes affecting human rights (according to the Human Rights Commission Act 1981).

In 1980 he was granted the honour O.B.E. (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to the University and to the community (awarded by the Queen), and in 1989 he was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) given for services to multiculturalism and the Greek community.[1]

References

http://www.kythera-family.net/index.php?nav=3-10&cid=21&did=842&pageflip=4

SIgns entering Aroniadika.

a lovely sight a full moon in august, at the height of the summer, the island lights up from the moon light , the glow on the ocean is magnificent,and in this photo we see the villages of aroniadika, frilingianika and kastrisianika, with agia moni in the background , just at dusk.... how pretty......

Wall along the road near the church.

Was born in 1896 in Aroniathika and migrated to Morea & then Brisbane

I am from Kythera and very proud to be Kytherian

The "Tent Project" is the most exciting Kytherian Project since the advent of www.kythera-family.net. If it is realized, it will have equally powerful positive ramifications for unifying Kytherians around the world. Particularly Kytherian youth. It is a mega-project of great quality.

This can be ascertained immediately by perusing the Plans for Σκηνια:

002 St Theodoros Camp PLANS.pdf

A double-sided colour print-out on 140gsm (or greater gsm) high quality paper provides a beautiful document.

To view a brief video simulation of a walk through the Σκηνια Project space, go to:

/download/l33dB.avi

The purpose of Σκηνια is to create an accommodation and recreation facility for children and young adults from the island of Kythera, Greece, and the rest of the world. There they will engage in sports, ecological, heritage and cultural activities. The purpose of providing the accommodation under tents is to appeal to children’s and young adults sense of adventure. All the rest of the facilities (See 1-7 on the Plan) are fixed and enclosed structures.

The plan includes at (10) a Sports field – one of the facilities desperately required by children and young adults on Kythera.

The facility will be located on (separate) Church land 68.25 metres from the border that surrounds the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros.

Download a vector format .pdf copy here:

/download/002LocationofSkinia(1).pdf

The area of the land is 14305,05 sq.m. (ie 14 stremmata)
The land on which Σκηνια will be built is unencumbered by mortgage.
The building is 153 m2.

The Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, is located on the main central road between the towns of Potamos & Aroniathika.

Colour map of the geoographical location of Ayios Theothoros

There are many photographs of Ayios Theothoros on kythera-family.

See

Ayios Theothoros, Entrance building

Ayios Theothoros, wide angle view

The concept is the brain-child of Father Petros Mariatos. Father Petros is the resident priest of the church oft the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Ilariotissa in Potamos. It is good that you become better acquainted with him. See photo’s of him at:

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

The title Doctor Priest, indicates that Father Petros was formally a surgeon at the Hospital of Potamos. He received a “religious calling” later in life. To this day he ministers to his congregation’s physical, as well as their metaphysical needs.

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++30 2736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869

The superb concept called Σκηνια was designed by Father Petros’s son, Andreas Mariatos, and his design team.

Andreas and his young associates, have a large and booming Architecture practice in Athens.

NOTARA 51 EXARHEIA
10683 ATHENS

TEL 210 8820665

Email, Andreas Mariatos

They work from a large well appointed office, located just a few blocks south of the offices of the Triffyleio Foundation, the Kytherian Society of Athens, and the Society of Kytherian Studies.

Andreas Mariatos (right), and his young associate Theothori

Andreas and his associates have revolutionised the way architecture is practiced both in Athens, and on the island of Kythera. See many photo’s of the brilliant Gerakari Accomodation development at, and around

Mariatos designed Gerakari Project

This design features in the Kytherian Development Agency’s photograph montage pages 12-15, as do other Mariatos designs. You will receive a colour copy of the Kytherian Development Agency’s brochure shortly.

All architectural and engineering work on the Σκηνια project has been donated free of charge.

Free building material and labour has also been promised by many builders and building suppliers on the island.

The timing of construction has been set out in Stages. No stage will proceed without the finance in place.

This is a sophisticated development plan, as per the Gerakari development, and numerous other developments managed by the Mariatos team.

The total cost of the construction is 170,000 €’s.

As of mid September the Σκηνια project had attracted about 67,000 €’s of donations. I am unsure what the December total is.

Most of these donations have been collected on the island. The residents of Kythera have obviously embraced the concept wholeheartedly. It is now time for the eksoteriki to become involved.

You can donate by attending any Bank and quoting the IBAN number below, for the National Bank of Greece.

IBAN: GR95011038000000380/605180-40

The Kytherian World Heritage Fund assessment:

This is a mega-project that most of us, who understand Kythera, have previously only dared to dream about. Soon that dream will become a reality.

The "Tent Project" is the most exciting Kytherian Project since the advent of www.kythera-family.net. If it is realized, it will have equally powerful positive ramifications for unifying Kytherians around the world. Particularly Kytherian youth. It is a mega-project of great quality.

This can be ascertained immediately by perusing the Plans for Σκηνια:

002 St Theodoros Camp PLANS.pdf

A double-sided colour print-out on 140gsm (or greater gsm) high quality paper provides a beautiful document.

[[picture:"002 Skinia Project Plans page 1.jpg" ID:16285]]

Skinia Σκηνια (Tent) Project. Exterior Plans

[[picture:"002 Skinia Project Plans page 2.jpg" ID:16286]]

Skinia Σκηνια (Tent) Project. Floor & Ground Plans

The purpose of Σκηνια is to create an accommodation and recreation facility for children and young adults from the island of Kythera, Greece, and the rest of the world. There they will engage in sports, ecological, heritage and cultural activities. The purpose of providing the accommodation under tents is to appeal to children’s and young adults sense of adventure. All the rest of the facilities (See 1-7 on the Plan) are fixed and enclosed structures.

The plan includes at (10) a Sports field – one of the facilities desperately required by children and young adults on Kythera.

The facility will be located on (separate) Church land 68.25 metres from the border that surrounds the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros. (See Document, 002 Location of Skinia (1).pdf).

The area of the land is 14305,05 sq.m. (ie 14 stremmata)
The land on which Σκηνια will be built is unencumbered by mortgage.
The building is 153 m2.

The Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, is located on the main central road between the towns of Potamos & Aroniathika. (See detailed colour map on Document 002 Ayios Theothoros Colour Map Location.jpg).

There are many photographs of Ayios Theothoros on kythera-family.

See

Ayios Theothoros, Entrance building

Ayios Theothoros, wide angle view

The concept is the brain-child of Father Petros Mariatos. Father Petros is the resident priest of the church oft the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Ilariotissa in Potamos. It is good that you become better acquainted with him. See photo’s of him at:

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

The title Doctor Priest, indicates that Father Petros was formally a surgeon at the Hospital of Potamos. He received a “religious calling” later in life. To this day he ministers to his congregation’s physical, as well as their metaphysical needs.

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++302736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869

The superb concept called Σκηνια was designed by Father Petros’s son, Andreas Mariatos, and his design team.

Andreas and his young associates, have a large and booming Architecture practice in Athens.

NOTARA 51 EXARHEIA
10683 ATHENS

TEL 210 8820665

Email, Andreas Mariatos

They work from a large well appointed office, located just a few blocks south of the offices of the Triffyleio Foundation, the Kytherian Society of Athens, and the Society of Kytherian Studies.

Andreas Mariatos (right), and his young associate Theothori

Andreas and his associates have revolutionised the way architecture is practiced both in Athens, and on the island of Kythera. See many photo’s of the brilliant Gerakari Accomodation development at, and around

Mariatos designed Gerakari Project

This design features in the Kytherian Development Agency’s photograph montage pages 12-15, as do other Mariatos designs. You will receive a colour copy of the Kytherian Development Agency’s brochure shortly.

All architectural and engineering work on the Σκηνια project has been donated free of charge.

Free building material and labour has also been promised by many builders and building suppliers on the island.

The timing of construction has been set out in Stages. No stage will proceed without the finance in place.

This is a sophisticated development plan, as per the Gerakari development, and numerous other developments managed by the Mariatos team.

The total cost of the construction is 170,000 €’s.

As of mid September the Σκηνια project had attracted about 67,000 €’s of donations. I am unsure what the December total is.

Most of these donations have been collected on the island. The residents of Kythera have obviously embraced the concept wholeheartedly. It is now time for the eksoteriki to become involved.

You can donate by attending any Bank and quoting the IBAN number below, for the National Bank of Greece.

IBAN: GR95011038000000380/605180-40

The Kytherian World Heritage Fund assessment:

This is a mega-project that most of us, who understand Kythera, have previously only dared to dream about. Soon that dream will become a reality.

The "Tent Project" is the most exciting Kytherian Project since the advent of www.kythera-family.net. If it is realized, it will have equally powerful positive ramifications for unifying Kytherians around the world. Particularly Kytherian youth. It is a mega-project of great quality.

This can be ascertained immediately by perusing the Plans for Σκηνια:

002 St Theodoros Camp PLANS.pdf

A double-sided colour print-out on 140gsm (or greater gsm) high quality paper provides a beautiful document.

The purpose of Σκηνια is to create an accommodation and recreation facility for children and young adults from the island of Kythera, Greece, and the rest of the world. There they will engage in sports, ecological, heritage and cultural activities. The purpose of providing the accommodation under tents is to appeal to children’s and young adults sense of adventure. All the rest of the facilities (See 1-7 on the Plan) are fixed and enclosed structures.

The plan includes at (10) a Sports field – one of the facilities desperately required by children and young adults on Kythera.

The facility will be located on (separate) Church land 68.25 metres from the border that surrounds the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros. (See Document, 002 Location of Skinia (1).pdf).

The area of the land is 14305,05 sq.m. (ie 14 stremmata)
The land on which Σκηνια will be built is unencumbered by mortgage.
The building is 153 m2.

The Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, is located on the main central road between the towns of Potamos & Aroniathika. (See detailed colour map on Document 002 Ayios Theothoros Colour Map Location.jpg).

There are many photographs of Ayios Theothoros on kythera-family.

See

Ayios Theothoros, Entrance building

Ayios Theothoros, wide angle view

The concept is the brain-child of Father Petros Mariatos. Father Petros is the resident priest of the church oft the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Ilariotissa in Potamos. It is good that you become better acquainted with him. See photo’s of him at:

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

The title Doctor Priest, indicates that Father Petros was formally a surgeon at the Hospital of Potamos. He received a “religious calling” later in life. To this day he ministers to his congregation’s physical, as well as their metaphysical needs.

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++302736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869

The superb concept called Σκηνια was designed by Father Petros’s son, Andreas Mariatos, and his design team.

Andreas and his young associates, have a large and booming Architecture practice in Athens.

NOTARA 51 EXARHEIA
10683 ATHENS

TEL 210 8820665

Email, Andreas Mariatos

They work from a large well appointed office, located just a few blocks south of the offices of the Triffyleio Foundation, the Kytherian Society of Athens, and the Society of Kytherian Studies.

Andreas Mariatos (right), and his young associate Theothori

Andreas and his associates have revolutionised the way architecture is practiced both in Athens, and on the island of Kythera. See many photo’s of the brilliant Gerakari Accomodation development at, and around

Mariatos designed Gerakari Project

This design features in the Kytherian Development Agency’s photograph montage pages 12-15, as do other Mariatos designs. You will receive a colour copy of the Kytherian Development Agency’s brochure shortly.

All architectural and engineering work on the Σκηνια project has been donated free of charge.

Free building material and labour has also been promised by many builders and building suppliers on the island.

The timing of construction has been set out in Stages. No stage will proceed without the finance in place.

This is a sophisticated development plan, as per the Gerakari development, and numerous other developments managed by the Mariatos team.

The total cost of the construction is 170,000 €’s.

As of mid September the Σκηνια project had attracted about 67,000 €’s of donations. I am unsure what the December total is.

Most of these donations have been collected on the island. The residents of Kythera have obviously embraced the concept wholeheartedly. It is now time for the eksoteriki to become involved.

You can donate by attending any Bank and quoting the IBAN number below, for the National Bank of Greece.

IBAN: GR95011038000000380/605180-40

The Kytherian World Heritage Fund assessment:

This is a mega-project that most of us, who understand Kythera, have previously only dared to dream about. Soon that dream will become a reality.

The "Tent Project" is the most exciting Kytherian Project since the advent of www.kythera-family.net. If it is realized, it will have equally powerful positive ramifications for unifying Kytherians around the world. Particularly Kytherian youth. It is a mega-project of great quality.

This can be ascertained immediately by perusing the Plans for Σκηνια:

002 St Theodoros Camp PLANS.pdf

A double-sided colour print-out on 140gsm (or greater gsm) high quality paper provides a beautiful document.

The purpose of Σκηνια is to create an accommodation and recreation facility for children and young adults from the island of Kythera, Greece, and the rest of the world. There they will engage in sports, ecological, heritage and cultural activities. The purpose of providing the accommodation under tents is to appeal to children’s and young adults sense of adventure. All the rest of the facilities (See 1-7 on the Plan) are fixed and enclosed structures.

The plan includes at (10) a Sports field – one of the facilities desperately required by children and young adults on Kythera.

The facility will be located on (separate) Church land 68.25 metres from the border that surrounds the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros. (See Document, 002 Location of Skinia (1).pdf).

The area of the land is 14305,05 sq.m. (ie 14 stremmata)
The land on which Σκηνια will be built is unencumbered by mortgage.
The building is 153 m2.

The Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, is located on the main central road between the towns of Potamos & Aroniathika. (See detailed colour map on Document 002 Ayios Theothoros Colour Map Location.jpg).

There are many photographs of Ayios Theothoros on kythera-family.

See

Ayios Theothoros, Entrance building

Ayios Theothoros, wide angle view

The concept is the brain-child of Father Petros Mariatos. Father Petros is the resident priest of the church oft the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Ilariotissa in Potamos. It is good that you become better acquainted with him. See photo’s of him at:

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

The title Doctor Priest, indicates that Father Petros was formally a surgeon at the Hospital of Potamos. He received a “religious calling” later in life. To this day he ministers to his congregation’s physical, as well as their metaphysical needs.

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++302736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869

The superb concept called Σκηνια was designed by Father Petros’s son, Andreas Mariatos, and his design team.

Andreas and his young associates, have a large and booming Architecture practice in Athens.

NOTARA 51 EXARHEIA
10683 ATHENS

TEL 210 8820665

Email, Andreas Mariatos

They work from a large well appointed office, located just a few blocks south of the offices of the Triffyleio Foundation, the Kytherian Society of Athens, and the Society of Kytherian Studies.

Andreas Mariatos (right), and his young associate Theothori

Andreas and his associates have revolutionised the way architecture is practiced both in Athens, and on the island of Kythera. See many photo’s of the brilliant Gerakari Accomodation development at, and around

Mariatos designed Gerakari Project

This design features in the Kytherian Development Agency’s photograph montage pages 12-15, as do other Mariatos designs. You will receive a colour copy of the Kytherian Development Agency’s brochure shortly.

All architectural and engineering work on the Σκηνια project has been donated free of charge.

Free building material and labour has also been promised by many builders and building suppliers on the island.

The timing of construction has been set out in Stages. No stage will proceed without the finance in place.

This is a sophisticated development plan, as per the Gerakari development, and numerous other developments managed by the Mariatos team.

The total cost of the construction is 170,000 €’s.

As of mid September the Σκηνια project had attracted about 67,000 €’s of donations. I am unsure what the December total is.

Most of these donations have been collected on the island. The residents of Kythera have obviously embraced the concept wholeheartedly. It is now time for the eksoteriki to become involved.

You can donate by attending any Bank and quoting the IBAN number below, for the National Bank of Greece.

IBAN: GR95011038000000380/605180-40

The Kytherian World Heritage Fund assessment:

This is a mega-project that most of us, who understand Kythera, have previously only dared to dream about. Soon that dream will become a reality.

The "Tent Project" is the most exciting Kytherian Project since the advent of www.kythera-family.net. If it is realized, it will have equally powerful positive ramifications for unifying Kytherians around the world. Particularly Kytherian youth. It is a mega-project of great quality.

This can be ascertained immediately by perusing the Plans for Σκηνια:

002 St Theodoros Camp PLANS.pdf

A double-sided colour print-out on 140gsm (or greater gsm) high quality paper provides a beautiful document.

[[picture:"002 Skinia Project Plans page 1.jpg" ID:16285]]

Skinia Σκηνια (Tent) Project. Exterior Plans

[[picture:"002 Skinia Project Plans page 2.jpg" ID:16286]]

Skinia Σκηνια (Tent) Project. Floor & Ground Plans

To view a brief video simulation of a walk through the Σκηνια Project space, go to:

/download/l33dB.avi

The purpose of Σκηνια is to create an accommodation and recreation facility for children and young adults from the island of Kythera, Greece, and the rest of the world. There they will engage in sports, ecological, heritage and cultural activities. The purpose of providing the accommodation under tents is to appeal to children’s and young adults sense of adventure. All the rest of the facilities (See 1-7 on the Plan) are fixed and enclosed structures.

The plan includes at (10) a Sports field – one of the facilities desperately required by children and young adults on Kythera.

The facility will be located on (separate) Church land 68.25 metres from the border that surrounds the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros.

[[picture:"002 Location of Skinia.jpg" ID:16288]]

Location of the Skinia Σκηνια (Tent) Project in relationship to Ayios Theothoros

Download a vector format .pdf copy here:

/download/002LocationofSkinia(1).pdf

The area of the land is 14305,05 sq.m. (ie 14 stremmata)
The land on which Σκηνια will be built is unencumbered by mortgage.
The building is 153 m2.

The Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, is located on the main central road between the towns of Potamos & Aroniathika.

[[picture:"002 Ayios Theothoros Colour Map Location.jpg" ID:16287]]

Colour map of the geoographical location of Ayios Theothoros

There are many photographs of Ayios Theothoros on kythera-family.

See

Ayios Theothoros, Entrance building

Ayios Theothoros, wide angle view

The concept is the brain-child of Father Petros Mariatos. Father Petros is the resident priest of the church oft the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Ilariotissa in Potamos. It is good that you become better acquainted with him. See photo’s of him at:

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

The title Doctor Priest, indicates that Father Petros was formally a surgeon at the Hospital of Potamos. He received a “religious calling” later in life. To this day he ministers to his congregation’s physical, as well as their metaphysical needs.

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++30 2736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869

The superb concept called Σκηνια was designed by Father Petros’s son, Andreas Mariatos, and his design team.

Andreas and his young associates, have a large and booming Architecture practice in Athens.

NOTARA 51 EXARHEIA
10683 ATHENS

TEL 210 8820665

Email, Andreas Mariatos

They work from a large well appointed office, located just a few blocks south of the offices of the Triffyleio Foundation, the Kytherian Society of Athens, and the Society of Kytherian Studies.

Andreas Mariatos (right), and his young associate Theothori

Andreas and his associates have revolutionised the way architecture is practiced both in Athens, and on the island of Kythera. See many photo’s of the brilliant Gerakari Accomodation development at, and around

Mariatos designed Gerakari Project

This design features in the Kytherian Development Agency’s photograph montage pages 12-15, as do other Mariatos designs. You will receive a colour copy of the Kytherian Development Agency’s brochure shortly.

All architectural and engineering work on the Σκηνια project has been donated free of charge.

Free building material and labour has also been promised by many builders and building suppliers on the island.

The timing of construction has been set out in Stages. No stage will proceed without the finance in place.

This is a sophisticated development plan, as per the Gerakari development, and numerous other developments managed by the Mariatos team.

The total cost of the construction is 170,000 €’s.

As of mid September the Σκηνια project had attracted about 67,000 €’s of donations. I am unsure what the December total is.

Most of these donations have been collected on the island. The residents of Kythera have obviously embraced the concept wholeheartedly. It is now time for the eksoteriki to become involved.

You can donate by attending any Bank and quoting the IBAN number below, for the National Bank of Greece.

IBAN: GR95011038000000380/605180-40

The Kytherian World Heritage Fund assessment:

This is a mega-project that most of us, who understand Kythera, have previously only dared to dream about. Soon that dream will become a reality.

The force of nature shapes & wears down both life forms, and the built environment on Kythera.

View from the road leading from Hora to Potamos. Near Arononiathika

this boy from aroniathika gets ready for a day of fishing, sitting on the door step of his house which is on the main road of the island.

a walk to collect the bread for this lady at aroniathika, which keeps her fit and healthy

Home 65sqm.courtyard 30sqm.Old home restored.For sale furnished 150,000 euro Aroniadika

Aroniadika. Home 65sqm.,courtyard 30sqm.
Old home restored.
For sale furnished 150,000 euro

For Sale at Axion Real Estate
Adress: P. Magonezos – D. Skevofylax Aroniadika, 80200 Kythira 
Tel.: +30 2736039002
Fax: +30 2736039003
Mobile: +30 6974127003
E-mail: axion3@otenet.gr [[picture:"Kotezi.Home 65sqm.courtyard 30sqm.Old home restored.For sale furnished 150,000 euro Aroniadika.JPG" ID:15644]]

Without the love and care of her immediate family and a network of aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles and their children, the transition that Chris had to make when she migrated to Australia at the age of fourteen would have been very hard indeed to accomplish. Towards the end of her last year at primary school her aunt and uncle, Frosso (Efrosine) and Paul Satouris who lived in the New South Wales country town of Cowra, invited Chris to live with them. They were able to offer her a home, employment as well as an opportunity to further her education. The decision to accept their invitation was not difficult to make, especially when Chris considered her only other option - that of remaining on the Island to work beside her mother in the fields. Chris had already seen first hand how hard her mother, a widow had to work to support the family.

Chris’s maternal grandfather, Nicholas Galanis* saw to her travel arrangements. In those days if someone returned to Kythera from Australia the news got around quickly and everyone on the Island knew about it. When Mr. Nick Mendes from the village of Karava, brought his wife and three children to Kythera to see his father before he died, Chris’s grandfather got in touch with him. He wanted his granddaughter to travel to Australia with someone who had a good command of English. When the Mendes family left the Island, Chris accompanied them. Their ship the “Himalaya” docked in Sydney on the 3rd April 1954. Chris was met by several relatives, her great-aunt Anthea Cordato who was her grandmother’s sister, and Peter and Lena Galanis, her mother’s brother and his wife. Her uncle Paul Satouris, had a business partner, Arthur Simmons a Greek from the Pelopponese who happened to be in Sydney on holidays and he drove Chris and her great-aunt to Cowra. With the exception of a few close family members who remained on the Island most of Chris’s relatives lived in Australia.

Chris was born in the family home at Aroniathika on the 21st May 1939 which is celebrated in the Orthodox calendar as St. Constantine and St. Helen’s day. She was christened Chrisanthe Aroney (nick-name Papadopoulos) and was the first child born to George and Kaliope Aroney* (formerly Galanis) both from Aroniathika. As the first grandchild born on her mother’s side and the second grandchild born to her father’s parents she became the centre of attention. Her young teenage aunties and uncles often played with her while her mother prepared dinner and when they didn’t pay her enough attention she would cry. Chris was a healthy and lively child and started to talk at a young age. She has one sibling, her sister Anna who was born in 1943.

Her father George Aroney* served in the Greek Army during the war and returned home towards the end of 1942. Chris can remember her father saying when he put her to bed each night, “Close your eyes now because I am going to turn out the light and you won’t be able to see!” The saddest event during her childhood was his untimely death which cast a shroud of sadness over the whole family. He passed away in 1945 when Chris was six years old. The years of the Second World War were difficult enough economically but became much harder without his presence. Her mother Kali who was thirty-six years old was bereft at the loss of her husband. That year they had one of their heaviest snow falls and it is the only time Chris can recall that a thick blanket of snow covered the whole island. Everything was white.

The family home where Chris was born belonged to her great-grandmother, Efrosini Minucos. At the front of the house was inscribed “1888,” the year the house was built. Their house was a two-story plaster rendered building, and back then the living quarters were upstairs while their animals were housed below in the cellar at night. When she was old enough it was Chris’s job to bring the animals in from the fields in the afternoon and feed the chickens. They kept goats, sheep and two donkeys.

As it was one of the larger towns on the Island, Aroniathika had a primary school. Chris recalls they had a good teacher but there were only about twenty children in the whole school. By the time she reached sixth grade, not long before she left the Island, the enrollment had decreased to thirteen children. At school Chris enjoyed reading and loved stories about mythology. The two friends she remembers most from her school days were Aphrodite Kastrisios who also migrated to Australia, and Rita Fatseas. As there was no organized sport for girls they mainly played active outdoor games such as chasing and hide and seek. One Sunday afternoon Chris and a group of children were playing a potentially dangerous game, jumping from roof to roof. The houses which were built close together had flat roofs, and were very old. During the night there was heavy rain and the roof of one of the derelict houses collapsed. They had no toys as children and had to be inventive and use their imagination when they played together. Chris used to make her own dolls out of rags. Another of their games was to walk in the snow on their verandah to make footprints.

Besides rearing her children, Chris’s widowed mother Kaliope also cared for her grandmother, Efrosine Minucos who lived with them. When she was not attending to household duties she worked in the fields on land owned by the family and often for other people. They grew wheat, vegetables, produced olive oil, wine and were more or less self-sufficient. When Chris was older she used to prepare the evening meal so that it was ready when her mother came home at night, and if she went out to play or the food was not to her mother’s liking she was reprimanded with a smack. Although life was hard and they did not have a lot, Chris considers they were some of the luckier ones because they had family in Australia who used to help them out.

During the three month summer holiday period their paternal grandmother Chris Aroney took young Chris and her sister Anna to her holiday house at Diakofti, which was right on the beach. They either walked or rode on donkeys along an old track, a short cut through the mountains which took about three hours. The track hasn’t been used for years and is no longer there. Next door to her grandmother’s house at Diakofti lived an old man who had spent quite a few years in Australia and must have been in his late seventies or early eighties. The best place for kids to swim was in front of his house. He used to sit on the step outside his house with his watch, “Five minutes – no more,” he would say. If they remained in the water any longer he would wade in with a stick and chase them out. It was his belief that children shouldn’t stay in the water any more than five minutes!

Throughout the year there were many events in the community for them to attend. Everyone learned to dance on Kythera and Chris was no exception. The highlight of Christmas was going to church and eating special food. There would always be a very nice soup and a meat dish which sustained them in the cold winter weather. This was followed by a community dance at night and people would come from other villages. Usually it was held in the Kafeneon or in the lounge room of someone’s house if it was large enough. Other times there might be a dance on New Years Eve. On New Years Day they went to St. Basil’s church at Aloizianika, not far from Aroniathika because St. Basil is the Patron Saint for the New Year and had a celebratory lunch afterwards. About six weeks before Lent there was the Apocries at which time it was customary to dress in masks and fancy dress costumes. Those taking part went from door to door in the neighbourhood and you would have to guess who they were. Then at Easter they took red dyed eggs to church where they would crack them. In Australia they have the Spaletto festival in September. The Spaletto is the Kytherian National Costume.

Although life in Australia in the beginning had its challenges there was nothing that an adventurous fourteen year old could not overcome. When Chris entered first year at Cowra High School she could not even say “yes” or “no” in English. By the end of the year she had topped her class in Maths. She explained that she just saw the numbers on the board and worked out the problems, never thinking that this was anything special. Several factors helped her adjust to life in Cowra. Next door to her aunt lived an Australian family by the name of the Stevenson. They were a lovely family she recalls, who had three children. Their daughter Dorothy was the same age as Chris and they became best friends. Also, because at least half the students at her school were immigrants from the migrant camp at Cowra Chris was able to blend in and felt more accepted. Chris attended Cowra High for one year.

The café that her uncle owned in partnership with Arthur Simmons was called the “The Garden of Roses” and Chris worked there as a waitress for four years. With her earnings she was able to send money back home to help her mother and have enough left over for entertainment and to buy things. Country and Western music was very popular then, and she really enjoyed performers like Reg Lindsay and Slim Dusty when they came to town. They put on a show once or twice a year and of course they had to eat somewhere! They came to the “Garden of Roses” for their meals. A company called Solleys brought a traveling Tivoli show to Cowra. Many of the performers who came into the café for meals later went on to appear on television when it started. Other than the occasional traveling show, there was not all that much to do in a country town. When she had time off work Chris and her friend Dorothy used to go to the pictures at the local theatre. She always liked sewing and made her own clothes with the help of her aunt who cut the patterns. Her aunt and uncle had three children all younger than Chris and when she had free time she used to play with them.

After five years at Cowra Chris went to live in Sydney with her great-aunt, Anthea Cordato who had a house at Bondi just across the road from the water. Chris spent a lot of her spare time on the beach and recalls the occasions when she returned home sunburned from too much sun. Although Bondi was a nice place to live during the week it became very crowded on the weekends, especially in summer. At first Chris worked in a dressmaking factory at Railway Square but after a year left to work for a clothing manufacturer called Freedmans that made fashion clothes. When their factory was at Bondi Chris could walk to work but then they relocated to East Sydney. Chris found the work varied and interesting but she was glad she did not have to deal with customers. She referred to herself as a “jack of all trades” and mainly worked in dispatch, on the machines, did finishing off and prepping.

In 1961 when she was twenty-two, Chris was invited to be a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding in Brisbane. It was on this occasion that she met her future husband George Nicholas Comino (read George’s biography in Oral History). From the description she was given of Brisbane she expected to see a large city and was surprised and a little disappointed when it turned out more like a large country town. She and George were married in 1963 at St. George Church, West End in Brisbane two weeks before her twenty-fourth birthday. After a two week honeymoon in Tasmania they returned to begin their life together at Laidley a country town in South East Queensland where George had already established a Drapery business.

Looking back over the years Chris reflected on the highlights of her life as getting married, having children, seeing her children grow up and marry and then produce grandchildren. If there had been more opportunities in her era she would have liked to have furthered her education and gone to University but in some respects feels satisfied that her children have had access to higher education and extra curricular opportunities. Raising a family in a country town had many benefits. She didn’t have to take them anywhere because they could walk to most things. They went to school by themselves, to music lessons, swimming, dancing classes, sport - whatever they wanted to do they could do it by themselves and were never restricted. Her three children are Vikki, Kay and Nicholas. When they were pre-school age they were always with her in the Drapery shop as there was no Day Care then. She spent twenty years in Laidley before moving to Brisbane with her children in order to give them better access to tertiary education. Running a business was probably the most challenging aspect of her life. After selling up their Drapery business in Laidley, she and her husband George settled in Wishart a suburb of Brisbane. George was the last of his family to leave Laidley. Chris has traveled abroad several times returning to Greece twice and on one occasion toured Disneyland with her grandchildren.

Chris’s mother Kaliope migrated to Australia when she was sixty-nine after her mother had passed away in 1974 at the age of ninety-four. Because all of her close relatives had left the Island there was nobody there for her so the family decided to bring her out. She lived a few months with Chris and a few months with her other daughter Anna who lived at Warialda, New South Wales and later at Wishart, but she was never really happy in Australia. The house in Aroniathika that belonged to Chris’s maternal grandfather Nicholas Galanis, was willed to all of his children and grandchildren so they would always have somewhere to stay when they went back to Kythera for a holiday. The house was to be for everybody, but one of her Australian born cousins lives there now and maintains it, otherwise it would have just fallen down.

Socially Chris’s life centers around the family, many of whom now live close by, and attending church and church functions at the different Orthodox Churches in Brisbane. Because her husband George came from a large family, her sister-in-laws who used to live in Laidley became her girlfriends. Her sister Anna lives just around the corner at Wishart. Anna is also married to a Comino though not related to George’s family. They are all very close.

The family traditions they maintain such as food, church and dances help to perpetuate their links with their Island heritage. Usually the dances correspond with special events on the religious calendar. Among the Kytherians here in Australia there has always been a tradition of hard work with the whole family working together. Chris emphasized that they came to Austalia for better opportunities and to make sure that their kids had a better chance than they did. She believes education is the key. Her aunt, Anthea Cordato used to say “learn what you can even is you don’t use it. Knowledge is never too heavy to carry.” She places education and security above everything believing that everyone should have some qualifications they can fall back on.

*Galanis: In regard to their nick-name, a long distant ancestor must have had fair hair, the real surname way back was also Aroney as were the Papdopoulos family. Most people from the village had the surname Aroney since the name is derived from the name of the village

*The names and birth year of George Aroney’s brothers and sisters are: Anaryiro (Andy) born 1901, Panayoti (Peter) 1903, Fotini 1905, George 1906, Dimitri (Jim) 1910, Kosma (Charlie) 1912, Adoni (Tony) 1914, Kosta 1916/17, Botitsa 1920 and Andrea 1922.

*The names of Kaliope Aroney’s (Galanis) siblings are: Peter born 1907, and Efrosine born 1922.

16th April 2007 - driving back to Sydney with Manuel Aroney from a Kytherian event in Brisbane, we took the back roads so that Manuel [and Dr Archie Kalokerinos who was travelling with George Poulos] could visit the Roxy Theatre in Bingara NSW, part of the story in "Katsehamos and the Great Idea".

from the fire look out at aroniadika you can get a great view of the island,and also a high view of aroniadika,with agios sortiris church standing out.

one of the villages we all visit often as the airport and sea port of diakofti are on route, the main road of the island passes through the mountain at the back, the area is known as ''sklere'' one of the highest parts of the island.

just before the main road turn off is this lovely restored home one of the many great homes in aroniathika.

agios dimitris aroniadika,from the back of the fire lookout, for great views of the island and to the west is this very old church.

agios sortiris is crowned by a august full moon.

two locals from aroniathika sitting on a berzola having a good old chat about village news

Professor Manuel Aroney & Jim Raptis get into the act...

At the greatest of Kytherian-Brisbane events, which was held on Sunday the 15th April, 2007, from 11:30 - 5:00pm.

The venue was the Cyprus Club, also known as the
West End Club,
2 Vulture Street,
West End 4101
(07) 3844 7965
Fax(07) 3844 7757

westendc@bigpond.net.au

The event was held for 3 reasons:
1. to mark the official Queensland launch of www.kythera-family.net
2. to mark the official Queensland launch of Katsehamos and the Great Idea
3. to forge a new and inviolable union between the Kytherian Association of Queensland Inc, and the Kytherian Association of Australia, (ostensibly the Kytherian Association of NSW).

The occasion became known as the Brisbane panayiri and mega-event.

Ultimately, demand for seats was so high, that the event had to be moved from Kapsali Restaurant to the Cyprus Club.

Attendance was c. 500

Introduction

In the first half of the 20th century, the largest group within the Greek community in Queensland were the Kytherians. They played a vital role in the formation and leadership of Greek communities in Brisbane and provincial centres throughout the state, the securing of a priest for Brisbane and the erection of the first Greek church in Brisbane. From 1919 until his death in 1957, the Greek Consul in Brisbane was the Kytherian, Christy Freeleagus. Most of the enterprising pioneers who first ventured into the outback areas of the state to lay the foundations for the Greek Café phenomenon in the state were Kytherians.

One of the most notable Kytherian figures in Queensland in the first half of the twentieth century was Peter Aroney ( Panagiotis Nicolaou Koumesopoulos). After his return to Queensland in 1920 following his discharge from the Greek army, he became deeply involved in Greek Community affairs in Brisbane.

From then on, he was in the forefront of almost every important event that occurred in the Greek Community of Brisbane until after the Second World War. He was one of the leaders of the Stratigakis/Aroney party in the political arena. In 1931, he became the editor of the first weekly journal to be produced in Queensland. In 1934, he was the principal founder of the Kytherian Association of Queensland. In the same year, he was also the principal founder of the first viable chapter of AHEPA in Australia – the Ellas chapter in Brisbane.

In 1980, Peter Aroney was interviewed by Denis Arthur Conomos (Dionysios Anargerou Megaloconomos), son of Anargeros and Elenie Megaloconomos from Kapsali, Kythera. In a series of meetings, he told his remarkable story. What follows are extracts from that story, told in this great man’s own words. (The parts in brackets are taken from Denis Conomos’ book ‘The Greeks in Queensland – A History from 1859 to 1945’ published in 2002.)

The childhood years in Kythera

I was born in Aroniadika, Kythera on 1st January, 1886. Life in Greece when we were children can never be forgotten. It is always in my heart. We were happy in our family life. My father was Nicholas Panagiotis Koumesopoulos and my mother Chrisanthi Koumesopoulos (nee Anastasopoulos). My father was a farmer.

I had a brother Anthony and two sisters, Irene and Maria. My father had a lot of property. He didn’t want to hear of my migrating. He wanted to make me a lawyer and my brother Anthony a doctor. He arranged for us to board in a house in Hora so we could go to school there. We attended the Elliniko School. Every fortnight, my father would visit us and bring plenty of provisions.

We enjoyed our childhood. My teacher in the Primary School was Panagiotis Aronis. Every Sunday, he would take us to the church at Aroniadika. He taught us the hymns of the church. Very early on Sunday mornings, we went to school and sang hymns and then went to church. There we would help the chantors. The priest at the time was father Sotiras.

When we finished our schooling, we went back home. Three men had come back from Australia and spoken well of it. One of them was from Aroniadika. I got the idea to go to Australia.

When we received our leaving certificates from school, my father said to me, ‘I will send you to your cousin in Piraeus, a business man. You can go to the gymnasio and study to become a lawyer.’ At the time he and I were repairing a stone wall. I said, ‘Father, I want to go to Australia.’ He almost fainted. I told him what our teacher had said when he was handing us our leaving certificates. ‘You will all be leaving and going into different jobs. I advise you not to go into higher studies and in particular, not to become a teacher. Look at me. My classmates who went into business are now well off. I am very poor.’ When my father heard this, he said, ‘All right, my son. I will give you the fare to go to Australia.’

Arrival in Australia in 1900

I came to Australia in 1900 at the age of fifteen. I disembarked at Sydney and went to my cousins, Aroney Brothers. They gave me a job in a fish shop in North Sydney for two shillings and six pence a week.

I worked from morning till 12-1.00am six days a week. On Sunday, we would get up early to scrub the floor and clean the tables and chairs. We’d work till 2:30-3.00pm. Then we would have lunch. After that, we would be so tired, we would go to sleep. We would get up about 7.00 to 8.00pm, have some dinner and then go to sleep again.

At the time, John Comino, known as the “Oyster King’ was selling oysters. His nephew Nicholas Comino had a shop in King Street. Another nephew, Mina Comino, had a fish shop in Oxford Street. John Comino’s brother, Zaharias, had a big shop in Pitt Street. Opposite the Railway was one Nicholas Strategos.

I regretted coming to Australia, but I didn’t say anything to my parents. I was too proud. However, they had heard about it, and my father wrote offering to send the fare for my return, but I decided to stay.

I remained in Aroneys brothers’ shop for a year. I then worked for a few months in King Street with Nicholas Comino. After that, I went to work for a fellow-villager in Chatswood in North Sydney. There wasn’t much work and the shop closed. I went to work for a cousin, George Kokineas, at Parramatta. I managed his shop till 1905 when I left to go to Greece.

Trip to Greece in 1905 and return to Australia in 1906

I went to volunteer as a guerilla fighter in Macedonia to fight against the Bulgarians. They had committed many atrocities against Greek Macedonians. I got sick on the way and didn’t end up fighting, returning to Sydney in 1906. I found work as a waiter at Aroneys Café at Circular Quay for 30 shillings a week. I then went to work for my cousins Dimitri and George Kokineas.

Peter Aroney goes to Brisbane

In 1910, I came to Brisbane and opened a fish shop in George Street. I lived above the shop. My brother Anthony, who had come to Australia in 1909, joined me in the business. At the time, there was no Greek Community in Brisbane and no church. No functions were being held by the Greeks.

Peter Aroney goes to fight in the First Balkan War in 1912 and remains in the army until 1919

When the First Balkan War started in 1912, Theo Comino, Christy Freeleagus and I telegraphed Venizelos and asked if we could help with funds and volunteers. Lockhart Spence, the Greek Consul in Brisbane, received a telegram from Coromilas, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Greece, stating: ‘We do not accept volunteers. Funds gratefully accepted.’

I decided to go to Greece and serve in the Greek Army. I left my brother, Anthony, in charge of the business. I went first to Kythera to see my family and then to Athens to enlist.

For one and a half months we trained in civilian clothes. They didn’t have army clothes to give us. Then they gave us rags to wear. I regretted my mistake in joining but it was too late.

Then the authorities wrote to me and said that because I hadn’t been in Greece to serve at the proper time, I would have to serve the usual two years of national service plus an extra fifteen months as a penalty. I could buy off three or fifteen months.

When I finished my training, they appointed me paymaster at Navplion . I learned the job working alongside the old paymaster and then took his place. The fighting was going on in Macedonia chiefly against the Bulgarians and the Turks. I asked to be sent to the front line but the officer in charge of the regiment said I was serving as well where I was.

After I had been in the army for a year, I fell ill from malaria. I spent two months in hospital and then went to Kythera. I spent two months there with my family while on leave.

I rejoined the army at Navplion. In 1916, when King Constantine was refusing to enter the war on the side of the Allies, the latter demanded that the Greek army be disbanded. We were sent home to await further orders. I spent this time working on our property.

(In June 1917 the pro-German King Constantine, in response to a demand from the Allies, abdicated and Venizelos returned to power as Premier of Greece. On 29 June 1917, Greece formally declared war on Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria.)

When Greece entered the war on the side of the Allies, we were called up again. I went back to Navplion with Dimitrios Strategos, whose son is a brilliant doctor on the staff of the University of Greece.

Life in the army was very bad. We received one pentara a day as salary. The soldiers were hungry. We would have exercises and then come back to eat a bit of cheese and a slice of bread. That would have to last us for two days. Breakfast was a cup of tea. For lunch we would have beans. We would have meat only once a fortnight. I had a bit of money and would go out to eat if I was hungry

I remained in the army till 1919. In that year, I fell ill with Spanish Influenza. Sixty to seventy were dying a day. I was living in a room outside the camp. I was nursed by the wife of a major. I had been previously living in a room full of bugs.

Discharge from the army, marriage and return to Australia

In October 1919, I was discharged from the army and went to Athens. At the time, there was staying in Athens a Kytherian girl whom I knew well because our villages were close. She was Irene Mavromatis, daughter of Mihali and Zaphiro Mavromatis from the village of Pitsinades. Her father was an architect in Athens. The family lived in Kythera and Mihali would go home twice a year. One of Irene’s sisters had gone to Athens to train as a dressmaker and had married one Malanos.

At the time I was discharged from the army, Irene was staying with her sister in Athens. A friend of mine, Dimitri Comino, said to me, ‘I want to crown you (in marriage)’. I replied,’ Now is the time.’ We went to Irene’s father’s home. On the way we met another friend who joined us.

When we got there, there was a lot of conversation. I couldn’t get to speak to Irene’s father. I said to Dimitri, ‘I have to go.’ So the three of us left. As we were walking back, I said to the other two that I had forgotten to say something to Irene’s father.

I returned to his house. I said to him, ‘I have come to ask for your daughter’s hand.’ He said, ‘For whom?’ I said, ‘Me.’ He almost fell down. He decided that we should go to see Irene and ask her what she thought. Irene agreed to marry me and we were married shortly afterwards. I was in a hurry to get back to Australia as they had written to me saying that my brother Anthony was very sick from consumption. We returned in 1920 and my brother died four months after our arrival.

Queensland Messenger

(On 16 December 1931, there appeared the first issue of the Queensland Messenger, the first locally produced newspaper to be published in Queensland. It was an eight page weekly journal containing religious, social and literary material. The founders of the paper were John Stratigakis, Stratis Christofidis and Peter Aroney working in conjunction with the Brisbane priest, Father Elias Kotiadis.

The paper was started at the height of a factional war going on in Brisbane in the 1920s and 1930s between two parties – the Freeleagus party and the Stratigakis/Aroney party. There were already two widely circulating Greek-Australian newspapers available to the Greeks of Queensland – Hellenic Herald and National Tribune. The former was allied to the Stratigakis/Aroney party and the latter to the Freeleagus party. Queensland Messenger was printed by Hellenic Herald in Sydney and generally favoured the Stratigakis/Aroney party. Apart from a small number of correspondents, the paper had an effective editorial staff of one – Peter Aroney.)

My party wanted us to bring out a paper to fight our cause. George Marcellos (manager of Hellenic Herald) came up and we held a meeting at Stratigakis’ place. They wanted me to edit the new paper. I didn’t want to but eventually gave in.

I agonised over the paper. I had to write out not only my own material but also that submitted by others. I used to work late at night. My eyes were sore from working on it. Marcellos was printing the paper. I would send down all the copy to him in Sydney. The paper lasted only four months.

Kytherian Association

(The Kytherian Association was formed in Brisbane on 4 November 1934.)

In about October 1934, Manolis Vlandis and John Freeleagus came and saw me at Cabaret Café in Queen Street. ‘We want you to form a Kytherian Association,’ they said. I called a meeting and invited Milton Samios, Manuel Vlandis, John Freeleagus, George Venery, George Faros and a number of others. We met above Con Adonaras’ shop in Albert Street. We voted to form the Association.

We called a general meeting in St. Luke’s Hall in Charlotte Street on 4 November 1934. Most of the Kytherians in Brisbane and surrounding district attended the meeting. It was agreed to form a Kytherian Association. Peter Freeleagus nominated me as President but I declined, instead nominating Theo Comino, wanting to involve him more in the Community. He was elected President and I was elected Treasurer. (John Freeleagus was elected Vice-President and George Faros Secretary).

(The first meeting of the committee was held on 7 November 1934 and was attended by the above office-bearers as well as Th. Freeleagus, E. Vlandis, E. Andronicos, M. Tsikleas, G. Vlahogianis, K. Fardoulis, A. Samios and A. Sourry. The meeting appointed a sub-committee to draw up a draft constitution. Shortly afterwards, P. Karapatis (Patty) and M. Samios were also added to the Executive Committee. One of the early matters considered by the Association was the giving of financial help for the construction of a pier at the Kytherian coastal village of Agia Pelagia.

At a General Meeting of the Association held on 4 May 1935, a draft constitution was discussed but not adopted. There followed a period of inactivity with no meetings being held until 11 October 1936.)

Months passed without anything being done. The Association was dead. One day I was passing the Club. I saw Vasili Cassimatis and Christos Gavrilis. They said, ‘The Kytherian Association is gone.’ I said, ‘It is dead. Let us have another election. I elect George Veneris President, you, Christo, Vice-President, you, Vasili, Treasurer. On a nearby table was George Kalligeros, an educated boy. I said to him, ‘We’ve just elected you Secretary. Write to Venery and tell him what’s happened.’ And from that day on the Association came back to life.

AHEPA

(At a meeting of Greeks from North West NSW towns held at Werris Creek near Tamworth on 15 August 1934, the decision was made to form AHEPA in Australia modelled on the American AHEPA. The lodge was officially founded in Armidale on 10 October 1934.)

A Kytherian, Nicholas Haralambou Andronicos, who had been in America, had a small business in Scone, NSW. In America, he had been an Ahepan. When the Greeks of North-West NSW learnt this, they approached him and asked him if they could form AHEPA in Australia. As a result, an Australian AHEPA was formed with the first chapter based at Scone.

Greeks from Tamworth, Armidale, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Moree, Inverell and Narrabri became members of AHEPA. Nicholas Andronicos was elected President and Chris Sourris Secretary.

However, as they couldn’t get together every month over such long distances, they couldn’t keep going. Chris Sourris came and found me in Brisbane and explained the situation. He said to me, ’Is it possible for you to take action to found an AHEPA chapter here in Brisbane? We can’t keep going in Scone. We will hand over to you whatever we have, including our funds – everything: regalia, rituals, ledgers, and minutes, so that AHEPA won’t be lost.’ I promised to do what I could.

After about a month, I informed Chris Sourris that I had found a number of people who were agreeable to our forming a chapter of AHEPA in Brisbane. He came with a few others from the Scone chapter to Brisbane and handed over all the material belonging to the lodge. We founded Ellas chapter and they closed their chapter. We wrote to the Supreme Lodge of AHEPA in America and they sent us many papers.

After two or three years, we decided to try to procure our own AHEPA building. We were at that time meeting in a school. We conducted an appeal and raised one thousand pounds amongst the Ahepans in Brisbane. We proceeded to buy two wooden shops in West End. We waited a few years and then, borrowing from the bank, bit by bit we built AHEPA Hall,

One day I met Vince Hellen whom I had known for many years. He had come to Brisbane to buy stock for his shop at Goomeri. I said, ‘Valery, how many Greeks are there in your district? Are there enough to form an AHEPA chapter there?’ He said, ‘We have quite a few.’ I said, ‘I will help you to become an Ahepan here in Ellas. Then you can find people who are interested in the Kingaroy area. When you are ready, let us know and we will come and found a chapter of AHEPA there.’

He came to Brisbane and we made him an Ahepan. Then he asked me if I could go to Kingaroy and explain the objects of AHEPA to as many as he could get together. I went up and on a Sunday afternoon. I spoke to the people who had been brought together by Vince. There were about twenty all told. I explained AHEPA to them. They agreed to form a chapter in Kingaroy. I said to them, ‘You need to elect a President, Vice-President and all the office-bearers. Then let us know when you are ready for us to come here to found the lodge.’

They contacted us shortly afterwards and early one Sunday morning in 1944, many Ahepans from Brisbane with their families travelled by car to Kingaroy. It was as if we were going to a panegyri. At Kingaroy, they had booked the Masonic Hall for the meeting. We held the meeting in the afternoon We swore them in and founded the lodge. At night, Jim Prineas closed his shop and we had an Ahepan dinner. We stayed till midnight before returning to Brisbane, arriving at daybreak, very tired. Thus was founded the second chapter of the lodge.

(Peter Aroney died in 1986 at the age of 102. His wife Irene died in 2004 at the age of 107.)

(The above has been edited by Denis A. Conomos BA, LLB, BD., author of The Greeks in Queensland – A History from 1859 to 1945. Published in Brisbane in 2002 by Copyright Publishing. The book may be purchased either from the author or the publisher for the cost of $49.50 (postage free). The following are contact details:

1. Author: Denis. A. Conomos, 28 Sherley St, Moorooka, Brisbane, Q’ld 4105. Ph 07 3392 9009.

Email: denisjenny@iprimus.com.au

2. Publisher (credit facilities available):
Copyright Publishing Company Pty Ltd,
GPO Box 2927,
Brisbane,
Q’ld 4001.

Ph 07 3229 6366.

Fax: 07 3229 8782.

Web site: http://www.copyright.net.au

This is a long shot of the actual cafeneon

These photos were taken by his niece Rose at my grandfather's cafenion in New Bedford, MA

the village of aroniadika, with '' cavo malea'' and mainland greece.

Melonas James
b. 19 Sep 1895 Aroniadika Cerigo Greece
arrived Australia 1907
d. 17 Oct 1943 aged 45

Buried Bingara Cemetery

Greek/Kytherian grave-sites Bingara Cemetery.

Jim Melonas CEN Row A Plot 59

Jim Loulias Bingara Row Grk Plot Ort

Philip Feros CEN Row D Plot 71

Harry Vangis NG Row 04 Plot 09

Neldaleen Vangis NG Row 04 Plot 09

As recorded by Mr and Mrs Kirk, Bingara, and maintained on record by Gwydir Shire Council.

its not always blue skies and sunny days in august, on occasions these sort of days happen which gives the island a winter. the village is aroniathika.

you will always see this little van everyday on the road potamos to aroniathika with these lovely people on their way to the''horafia''

This photograph appears in the preface of Peter Vanges' Kythera - A History. Many thanks to Peter and the Kytherian Association of Australia for permission to reproduce it here.


Nicholas Anthony Aroney (Anastasopoulos) was born in Aroniathika, Kythera, on 14th February 1899. An only child, his mother died very early in his life; his father was far away in America. For some years Nick was in the care of his grandmother in Kythera; but it was a life of poverty. In 1914, at just fifteen years of age, he boarded a German ship bound for Australia. War intervened and they were to go no further than Batavia in Java. Nick was forced to find another ship to take him to Sydney. The long and tortuous trip was to end in 1914 in the small country town of Warren in New South Wales where he took up employment working for an uncle. Times were difficult; wages were very low, but through hard work and frugality, Nick was able to accumulate some capital. In 1919, he bought, together with his first cousin Nicholas Aroney (Papadominakos), the "New York Cafe" in the town of Nowra, 161 kilometres south of Sydney. Years later, in 1936, they were to move to Wollongong, 80 kilometres further north, as proprietors of the "Spot Cafe". This, in turn, was sold in 1940 and Nick Aroney moved to Sydney where for some years during the war he was employed in the famous "Hotel Australia". He became the senior partner in a number of businesses in Sydney, notably the "Coronet Restaurant", the "Chicken Grill", and "St James Milk Bar"; he acquired as well substantial real estate interests.

Somewhat late in life, in 1962, Nick married Natasha, a lady of beauty, style and culture who had grown up in Vienna. Together they ran a small clothing manufacturing enterprise. It was a very happy marriage. They built a fine home in the prestigious suburb of Pymble and they made several trips to Greece, visiting on each occasion the beloved island of his childhood. Nick Aroney died in Sydney in 1986 at the age of eighty-seven.

Nicholas Aroney left behind a trust fund, which since his death has funded dozens of important projects related to Kythera and Greece. Without his generous legacy this website would not have been possible..

This photograph appears in the preface of Peter Vanges' Kythera - A History. Many thanks to Peter and the Kytherian Association of Australia for permission to reproduce it here.


Nicholas Anthony Aroney (Anastasopoulos) was born in Aroniathika, Kythera, on 14th February 1899. An only child, his mother died very early in his life; his father was far away in America. For some years Nick was in the care of his grandmother in Kythera; but it was a life of poverty. In 1914, at just fifteen years of age, he boarded a German ship bound for Australia. War intervened and they were to go no further than Batavia in Java. Nick was forced to find another ship to take him to Sydney. The long and tortuous trip was to end in 1914 in the small country town of Warren in New South Wales where he took up employment working for an uncle. Times were difficult; wages were very low, but through hard work and frugality, Nick was able to accumulate some capital. In 1919, he bought, together with his first cousin Nicholas Aroney (Papadominakos), the "New York Cafe" in the town of Nowra, 161 kilometres south of Sydney. Years later, in 1936, they were to move to Wollongong, 80 kilometres further north, as proprietors of the "Spot Cafe". This, in turn, was sold in 1940 and Nick Aroney moved to Sydney where for some years during the war he was employed in the famous "Hotel Australia". He became the senior partner in a number of businesses in Sydney, notably the "Coronet Restaurant", the "Chicken Grill", and "St James Milk Bar"; he acquired as well substantial real estate interests.

Somewhat late in life, in 1962, Nick married Natasha, a lady of beauty, style and culture who had grown up in Vienna. Together they ran a small clothing manufacturing enterprise. It was a very happy marriage. They built a fine home in the prestigious suburb of Pymble and they made several trips to Greece, visiting on each occasion the beloved island of his childhood. Nick Aroney died in Sydney in 1986 at the age of eighty-seven.

Nicholas Aroney left behind a trust fund, which since his death has funded dozens of important projects related to Kythera and Greece. Without his generous legacy this website would not have been possible.

I am the daughter of one of the oringal Aroney's that came to Austraila at the turn of the 20th century. My grandfather went by the Australian name of Nicholas Aroney and my father was Peter Nicholas and my grandmother was Eleni Kamari who remained in Kythera. They lived at Harden and Mooree in NSW. My father then lived at Kings Cross and he was very well known in our NSW community. He died at Bondi in 1966 and that is when I left Sydney. I believe there might only been a couple of us living in Adelaide. I am looking for relatives that I believe to be living in the Gold Coast or Brisbane area that would be cousins to my father. Not sure which side of the family. If you have any information I can be contacted on my Australian mobile 0417 837 504 or my email.
Also my father's cousin went to America (Califoria) and started a milk run there at the turn of the 20th century. We lost contact back in the 1960's.

This photo of my grandparents was taken about 1920. Sam (Spiridon Levoune) was born on Aroniathika in 1898 and came to Australia on the Polynesian in 1911. He met my grandmother in West Wyalong and then worked for his brother George Levoune in Balmain.

My mothers family (my grandparents)originated from Aroniadika. My grandfather Dimitri (James)Aroney was married to Stamatia & they came from Aroniathika - immigrating to Australia. They had Kos, Maria, Efracini, & Steven - living on the eastern coast of Australia. Look forward to piecing together more of my family history, Thanks for the great site and opportunity to investigate my origins.

As notified in a previous entry, and reiterated in less detail at the conclusion of this entry - in the year 2000, the Greek -Australian Sports Hall of Fame was inaugurated.

Many athletes of the original 166 are obviously of Kytherian origin - Psaltis's, Samios, Zantiotis, Andronicus: but the place of origin in Greece of many others - particularly those born in Australia - has not been indicated in the biographies outlined in the original list. Determining how many Kytherians were inducted in the original list remains a matter for future research. To further complicate matters, some of the athletes may have had a parent, or grandparent of Kytherian origin. (A good example is Stephen Girdis, inducted for sailing prowess, whose mother is Kytherian.)

A Roll of Honour category exists for Greek-Australians who excell in their
a. services to Sport
b. as Coaches
c. in the Media (minimum 30 years service).

There are also categories in the Juniors/Youth and Masters/Veterans categories.

Cosmas Aroney has been inducted in the latter category.

From Pinax, The Greek Australian Sports Hall of Fame, Volume 1, reproduced with the permission of the editor, Steve Georgakis.

Cosmas Aroney is a life member of the NSW Veteran Rifleshooters. He has participated in the NSW Queen's Open Prize meeting, at the Anzac Rifle Range on four occasions (1992, 1993, 1995, and 2000).

Since his first championship in 1972, he has competed in 29 major championships and has amased 16 badges, 14 gold, 27 silver and 16 bronze medals and 4 spoons.

These awards were won at the 1987 Australian Masters Games (gold medal; Tasmania); the 1988 Bi-Centenary Open Prize Meet (Anzac Rifle Range); the 1991 Australian Masters Games (silver medal); the 1992 Australian Veterans Games (gold medal); the 1993 Australian Veterans Games (gold medal); the 1994 World Masters Games (Queensland); the 1995 Australian Veterans Games (4th Western Australia), and the 2000 Australian Veterans Games (9th, Sydney, NSW).


Background, Greek Australian Sports Hall of Fame

In September 2000, through the initiative of the Millenium Heritage Council, the Church established the Greek Australian Sports Hall of Fame in order to record the sporting achievements attained by Australians of Greek heritage who have distinguished themselves at either a National or International level.

The First Inductees

As a result, 166 sportspeople were inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame, in the presence of the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos, and the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. John Howard, during the unforgettable Millenium Ball held on Saturday, 2nd September, 2000, at the Westin Hotel in Sydney.

The evening was a historic milestone that revealed how vast and truly astonishing the contribution to Australian and world sport by citizens of Helllenic descent is, in an amazing variety of disciplines. Sportspeople travelled from all over Australia to attend the memorable event and felt enormous pride and honour at their Induction.

The Commemorative Book

A thouroughly researched book entitled The Greek Australian Sports Hall of Fame - Pinax, Volume I, coordinated by the Millenium Heritage Sports Committee and edited by academic, Dr Steve Georgakis, was also launched on the evening with the most fascinating details about each Inductee's accomplishments.

Pinax is the Greek word for list. It was used in ancient times when referring to the record of the Olympic Games victors whose names were inscribed on a column at Olympia in Greece. This informative book was published with the generous assitance of the New South Wales government through the Office of the Premier, the Hon. Bob Carr. Only a small number of books remain, however, since the interest generated by the concept attracted the attention of Hellenes around the world. It was especially appreciated by athletes and officials during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The Committee is now looking forward to the second edition.

[Dr Steve Georgakis is also the author of Sport and the Australian Greek. A Historical Study of Ethnicity, Gender and Youth, as well as numerous other articles on the subject].

Note: The photograph above is the original photograph in Pinax.

Arthur is 92 years of age and lives in Bondi Junction, Sydney, Australia.

His parents were Panayiotis, and Maria (nee, Trifilis) from Aroniathika.

The family's parachoukli was "Ksipolitos".

The nickname proabably derived from the famiy's poverty - not having sufficient funds in order to buy shoes - or from an ancestor who refused to wear shoes - whilst performing his day to day activities.

It would be great to have Athur's more detailed family history on the web-site.

more examples of camara arches from houses in aroniathika.

sinage around the island

My grandfather Peter Aroney, MBE, migrated from Kythera to Australia in 1900 at age 14, alone. He returned to Greece to fight in the Balkan Wars and WW1, before marrying Irene Mavromatis from Pitsinathes, and returning to Brisbane. He founded the first Chapter of AHEPA in Brisbane, and was editor of the first Greek newspaper. They had 5 children, and Peter lived to 102 years and Irene to 107 years.

Congratulations on the great website!

A picturesque village. Old houses live along new or restored buildings

The old house and kamares awaiting restoration

This a wall standing next to Kamares traditional House in Aroniadika

What a great site.
My grandfather, Harry Aronis was from Aroniathika.

Images of Nick Theodore Aroney outside the cafe he built in 1930.

The grey shutters present a striking contrast to the off white rendered walls of this recently renovated contemporary house in Aroniadika

Set amongst the traditional houses of Aroniadika is the Averoff mansion which introduces almost a Cycladic style of architecture to an Ionian island!

Nicholas Aroney came to Australia from Kytheria in 1902.

He was well known for his hospitality to new Kytherian arrivals.

Photograph cira Sydney 1916.

No history of this Shop has been provided.

Can anyone help fill in the history of this Shop?



To view a larger collection of photo's, including many Kytherian-Australian photo's go to

http://www.cybernaut.com.au/greeksinoz/photographs/photos.htm


Thanks to Maria Hill, for allowing us to reproduce Kytherian photographs at kythera-island.

The picturesque township of Aroniadika

On the road from Aroniadika - almost a scene from a Jeffrey Smart painting

My late grandfather, Georgios Aronis, who had an oyster saloon in Young in NSW in the early 1900's, changed his surname to Camaris meaning in Greek "well admired" - ie na kamaronis.

My grandfather Dimitri (James)Aroney was married to Stamatia & they came from Aroniathika - immigrating to Australia. They had Kos, Maria, Efracini, & Steven - living on the eastern coast of Australia. My sister Alexandra Ermolaeff has contributed to this website & i can be reached on tatiana@strangecities.net + http://www.strangecities.net
this is a fantastic online portal = proves that online evolving communities can be connected to the real world....congrats! on a wonderful opening in Sydney 2004 @ the Castellorizian Club!!!

Prof Manuel J Aroney's paternal family home in Aroniadika.

Family name: Aroney
Village of origin: Aroniadika
Photo taken: Aroniadika, 1966

Brothers Jim and Theodore Aroney outside the Aronis-Beys kamara on the beach at Diakofti in 1966

Family name: Aroney
Village of origin: Aroniadika
Photo taken: Diakofti, 1966

Panayiotis Viaropoulos (left) and Prof Manuel J Aroney (right) outside an Aronis-Beys kamara at Diakofti in 1966.


Family name: Aroney
Village of origin: Aroniadika
Photo taken: Diakofti, 1966

Prof Manuel J Aroney (right) with his wife Ann Aroney (left), their sons Jim (front left) (aged four) and Theodore (aged two) (front right), and Manuel's uncle Peter Aronis (his father’s brother) (centre), taken in Athens in early 1966 soon after they first met him.

This article was originally published in the Greek Australian VEMA in TO BHMA (December 2001)

[[picture:"profaroney.jpg" ID:841]]
Prof Manuel James Aroney

31st August 1932 - 15th February, 2011

Dimitrios James Aronis ('Beys'), who was born in Aroniadika, Kythera, came to Australia in 1908. In 1916 he joined some of his brothers and sisters in Boston, USA, but returned to Sydney in 1919. In 1923 Stamatina Aronis ('Papadominakos') also from Aroniadika, came to Sydney. They married in 1926 in Townsville and thereafter opened up the Central Cafe in Mackay, north Queensland, in 1928.

Dimitrios and Stamatina Aronis (Aroney) had one child, Manuel James (Dimitrios), born in 1933, who grew up in Mackay where he did his primary and high schooling. In 1951 Manuel was awarded a Queensland Open Scholarship, given to the top 25 students in the State, and a Commonwealth Scholarship.

He then went to the University of Sydney where he gained a B.Sc. with 1st Class Honours (in Physical Organic Chemistry). He completed a higher degree, M.Sc., and in 1961 a further degree, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), in Polarity, Polarisability and Molecular Structure. He was made a Teaching Fellow in 1955 and in 1961 a tenured lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Sydney. Manuel has been there ever since and worked his way up the academic ladder. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London). Professor Aroney is also a Member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

During the 1970s and 1980s Manuel Aroney's involvement in the community increased enormously. As well as carrying out his University duties, being appointed Head of the School of Chemistry in 1977, a position he relinquished because of a severe health breakdown, he took on many other responsibilities, serving on non-government organisations and on four Federal Government commissions and boards.

In 1975 he was foundation member of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW. From 1977-81 he was appointed by the Federal Government as a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council, charged with advising the Commonwealth Government on multilingual electronic media. From 1978-81 he served as one of four members of the first Board of the Federal Governments Special Broadcasting Service, which made ethnic radio permanentacross Australia and, with Bruce Gyngell, established the SBS television service.

During the 1980s Professor Aroney continued to be called upon to take an active part in the formation of policies affecting our community. From 1981-83 he was a member of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. The Institutes function was to formulate multicultural policies within the Australian context, to promote community understanding and acceptance, and the practical implementation of such policies in the community.

From 1981-86 he was a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission. Its functions included: the review of legislation, investigation of complaints, and the undertaking of research and educational programmes affecting human rights (according to the Human Rights Commission Act 1981). The Commission was also charged with responsibility for the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (both Commonwealth Acts). Manuel Aroney’s primary function on the Commission was to act as a bridge between the ethnic communities of Australia and the Commission at top level.

In 1983 Professor Aroney chaired a Selection Panel which assessed proposals from various institutions and ultimately selected the Australian National University to produce, as a bicentennial project, The Australian People - An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (ed. James Jupp).

During this decade, Professor Aroney's contributions to society were recognised by a number of awards. In 1980 he was granted the honour O.B.E. (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to the University and to the community (awarded by the Queen), and in 1989 he was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) given for services to multiculturalism and the Greek community.

Throughout the 1990s this remarkable man continued to add to his list of achievements. In 1991 he was awarded the degree D.Sc., Doctor of Science, by the University of Sydney for outstanding contributions to international scientific research. This is the highest degree given by the University for research over a long period of time. Professor Aroney's particular field of study has been research into forces that bind atoms together in molecules, the behaviour of electrons in molecular systems, studied by a range of techniques of physics. He has published more than 140 research papers and reviews in prestigious international scientific journals and as well, a large number of conference papers and abstracts.

In 1994 he was elected President of the Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry Within the University of Sydney, whose charter is to bring together management and research leaders from industry with academics of the University of Sydney. In 1995 he organised, with Mr Elias Marsellos, Head of International Relations of the University of Athens, for the Rector of that university to lead a delegation to Australia to sign agreements with the University of Sydney and the University of NSW. These agreements are for academic and student interchanges, course accreditations, and cooperation in research.

Professor Aroney has gained recognition for his achievements not only within Australia, but also within Greece. In 1982 he gained the very rare and prestigious honour of being elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens, Greece, as a distinguished Professor of Science. ('Corresponding' means 'living outside of Athens.') In 1994 he was given the further great honour of being made an Honorary Doctor of Science of the University of Athens. In 1998 the President of the Hellenic Republic made him Commander of the Order of the Phoenix.

In October, 1996, Professor Aroney went to Athens representing the First Greek-Australian Museum Foundation, for talks with the Minister for Culture, Professor Evangelos Venizelos. He was able to secure an understanding in which the Ministry would send to Sydney, in the year 2000, original classical antiquities from various museums in Greece, but especially from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

This Committee, which Manuel Aroney now chairs, was able to bring together the Greek Minister for Culture, Premier Bob Carr and the Powerhouse Museum for what turned out to be a wonderful exhibition of Greek treasures never before let out of Greece, with an Olympics theme. During the negotiations Professor Aroney was rendered great assistance by Professor George Cassimatis, Professor of Law at the University of Athens.

Throughout his life Professor Aroney has also been greatly involved in the work of the Church. In 1972 he was given the title Archon of the Oecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for services to the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia. Since its inception in 1983, he has been on the Board of Governors of St Spyridon Greek Orthodox College at Kingsford and Maroubra, and from 1986, a member of the Student Selection Committee of the St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College. He represented the Theological College in an Ecumenical tertiary institution called the Sydney College of Divinity, serving on the Council for about 8 years. He was recently made a Member of the ProviCare Foundation of the Archdiocese of Australia.

It deserves to be emphasised that Professor Aroney has had a very strong involvement with the Greek community and has been a member over the years of many Greek-Australian associations, including the Kytherian Brotherhood, AHEPA, the Castellorizian Club, the Cyprus-Hellene Club, the Hellenic Club where he served as a Director for fifteen years and the Nicholas Anthony Aroney Charitable Trust.

In 1960 he married Ann Pascalis and has three sons, Dimitrios (Jim) and Theodore Aroney, both doctors, and Stephen Aroney, a lawyer, who are married in turn to Evelyn, Felicia and Sophia.

Though now retired, Professor Aroney continues his scientific and general academic pursuits, holding an honorary appointment at the University of Sydney. He would like to take on fewer responsibilities these days but is still sought after for a wide range of community activities. A guiding principle throughout Professor Aroney's life has been to always endeavour to do his best. As a result of this, all Australians, not only Greek-Australians or Kytherians, continue to benefit from his life's work.

Professor Manuel James Aroney died in the early hours of the morning of Tuesday the 9th of February, 2011, aged 78.

written by Ann Coward

Prof Manuel J Aroney AM OBE

Read about Prof Manuel J Aroney in the High Achievers section of this website.

or

Read the following extracts from Prof Manuel J Aroney's memoirs in the Oral History
section of this website:

First Trip to Kythera - 1966
(01) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: Departure from the Motherland
(02) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: The American Experience
(03) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: Stamatina Aronis Papadominakos
(04) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: Mackay - The Early Years
(05) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: Andy & Evangelia
(06) Dimitrios Aronis-Beys: The Spectre of War

Theodore and Eleni Aronis (Papadominakos). Maternal grandparents of Prof Manuel J Aroney.

Village of origin: Aronyiathika
Family name: Aronis (Papadominakos)

Dimitrios Aroney's passport issued by the Greek Consulate of Sydney in 1916. This passport enabled him to travel from Australia to the USA.

Family name: Aroney
Village of origin: Aroniathika
Document dated: 1916

Dimitrios Aronis and colleague doing military service in the Greek Gendarmerie. This photo was taken circa 1906 just prior to Dimitri leaving for Australia

Family name: Aroney
Village of origin: Aroniathika
Photo taken: circa 1906

(An extract from the memoirs of Prof. Manuel J. Aroney)

The city of Boston, located not far from the large metropolis of New York in the north-eastern part of the United States, was a magnet for immigrants because of manufacturing and other industries close by. A number of Dimitrios’ family from Kythera had chosen to settle there and were doing their utmost to become established. For each of them a large volume could be written about their life experiences in the new land with its heartbreaks, tribulations and successes which came in time. My cousin Rose Pine (Pintsopoulos) now residing in Beverly Hills California, kept in touch with the various branches of the family and I am indebted to her for much of the information I have regarding my American relatives. Only a very brief outline can be given here.

The first contact with America involved George, the eldest of my grandfather Emmanuel’s children, who was highly regarded in the village as a young man of quality. It was his fate to fall in love with a beautiful local girl, an heiress and an only child. Grandfather was against the marriage but, despite his father’s protestations, George married her and in time they produced two sons. His wife strongly insisted that he go to America to make money and finally he succumbed, departing for Boston and subsequently gaining work at the Bethleham Steel Corporation at Philadelphia. It was his misfortune to be seriously injured in a factory accident when a steel girder fell on him partially crushing his chest. He returned to Kythera, a broken man, but was taunted by his wife who called him lazy and a failure. To help out, grandfather opened a second small blacksmith shop for him close to the original one and did much of George’s work as well as his own. However, in 1904, within a year of his return from America, George died. It was a bitter blow for grandfather and for the whole family. Some years later, George’s sons departed for America, Manuel at 14 years of age and Andoni at 19; they settled there permanently, married and brought up their children who in time became prosperous citizens of the USA. George’s wife remained in Kythera where she remarried and saw her days out on the island.

Stamatia, the eldest of the daughters to survive to adulthood, was sent to Smyrna at nine years of age to work as a servant girl for the family of a wealthy uncle living there; these people had the misfortune to be massacred later by the Turks. Stamatia is remembered as a hard-working and thrifty young woman who managed to accumulate a substantial sum of money. At thirty years of age she met and married Kostas Strogilis and they left to join Panayiotis (Peter) and Anthousa who by that time were living in Boston. Stamatia stayed there with her two children, Basili and Angela, for the remainder of her life.

Anthousa had an eventful and, at times, very sad life. She was a statuesque, beautiful young woman in Aroniadika when she married a Kytherian Greek (an Aronis) whose family had become wealthy with business interests in Russia. Her first son Theodore died as a baby so to perpetuate his name she subsequently had a second son whom she also christened Theodore. Unfortunately problems arose between the couple and one day the boy was secretly spirited away to Russia by his father; sadly, his grief-stricken mother was never to see him again. Many years were to pass before Theodore returned to Greece; he and his wife Mary Aroney both became nationally acclaimed stage and screen actors experiencing fame and adulation from Greek theatre audiences and critics alike. After her separation, Anthousa remarried, this time to a sculptor from Karpathos called Louis Vassilarakis who went to Boston seeking work on the understanding that Anthousa would later join him with their little daughter Garifalia (Rose). I was privileged to meet Rose and her husband Manuel Koutoulakis many years later and will refer to this exceptional family in a subsequent chapter. Anthousa and Louis had two more sons but both died in their early twenties. A very hard-working capable person, Anthousa leased a five storey house and lived with her family in the basement level while renting the remainder of the building to boarders coming over from Kythera - it was to be the first home in America for many of her relatives and compatriots.

In 1904 Evgenia travelled from Kythera to Smyrna to stay with Stamatia for a short time before undertaking the month-long voyage to America to join her husband Constantinos Castrissos (Kakomarios), a Kytherian who had established a very successful “leski”, a combination of Greek-style club, coffee shop and restaurant. They had two sons and two daughters but the sole survivor now is Garifalia (Rose) who was born in 1919 in Providence, Rhode Island. Illness and the onset of the Depression of the twenties took their toll on Constantinos Castrissos and regrettably he died early in life of a stroke. Rose met Fred Pintsopoulos (Pine) in 1939; they became engaged and accompanied by her widowed mother Evgenia they left Massachusetts for the warmer clime of California. Having married, they settled in Beverly Hills where they still reside with their daughter Georgia Anne. Rose is a gem. We have been communicating regularly since I was a young boy and it was wonderful to meet her in person on my first trip to the U.S.A in 1975.

Peter Aronis, my father’s brother, was only sixteen when he went to America. His many years there were spent primarily in Boston and in California and those who knew him readily acknowledged that he was a very intelligent and talented man who adapted easily to different conditions. From 1913 to 1945 he worked in Boston as a court interpreter, having become proficient in both Greek and English, and also as a real estate broker. Peter never married. He cut a dashing figure, tall and lean, with a car in an era when it was rare to have one and the trappings of a successful businessman. He built up a substantial fortune in real estate in the twenties, owning many apartments, but made the fatal mistake of trusting friends to manage them and this sowed the seeds of his economic demise especially when the Great Depression struck. He lost everything. Peter lived with the family of his sister Evgenia, following the death of her husband, initially in Boston and later in Los Angeles. In 1963 he departed for his beloved Greece where he spent the last years of his life, dying in Athens in 1973.

When Dimitrios arrived in Boston his joy at reuniting with other members of the family would have been tempered by the realization that all of them were confronted with great difficulties in the struggle to survive and become established. Almost certainly he would have stayed at Anthousa’s boarding house. Regrettably, with the passing so many years ago of my father’s generation and indeed of most of the subsequent generation as well, I have not been able to gain much information on this part of my father’s life. Rose Pine was an infant when my father left America and has no recollection of him but she suggested that he would very likely have been employed for a time in her family’s leski. On the other hand, Anthousa’s daughter Rose Koutoulakis told me when we met in Boston that she believed my father had bought a restaurant but, not being able to read English, he depended on the advice of others who didn’t inform him that the lease had just one year remaining before it terminated. Thus he lost his hard-earned savings brought from Australia and, as well, found himself in debt. Rose Koutoulakis went on to say that my father worked at the Quincy shipyards near Boston until he could discharge his debts and have enough money to pay for the journey back to Sydney. I will probably never know exactly what happened but he returned to Australia on the Somonia in 1919, disillusioned with America.

A relic, important to me, is a fine quality photograph of my father taken in Boston, showing him young, handsome and resplendent in a fine three-piece suit and ornate solid gold watch chain traversing his elegant waistcoat as befitting a gentleman of that era. I have the superbly framed, oil-finished photograph, beautifully reproduced on canvas, and the gold chain, both of which I treasure.

[[picture:"Dimitri.jpg" ID:823]]
My Father Dimitrios Aroney.
Photograph taken in Boston circa 1919.

Dimitrios Aronis, Boston, circa 1919

(An extract from the memoirs of Prof. Manuel J. Aroney)

[[picture:"matergrand.jpg" ID:837]]
My maternal grandparents Theodore and Eleni Aronis

Another well-known family in Aroniadika was that of Theodore and Eleni Aronis (Papadominakos). Theodore was a relatively tall man with a moustache, distinguished looking and with a reputation for honesty and fairness to the extent that the villagers would often call on him to adjudicate in local disputes. His wife Eleni was somewhat short with a beautiful rounded face, green eyes and fair skin. Both were very hard workers, renowned for their hospitality, and with a house which was well-stocked with barrels of wine, cheeses, olives and other produce from their land and livestock. As well, Theodore Aronis was a master tradesman who specialised in the excavation and construction of wells and of “sternes”, i.e. large in-ground water tanks. Their children were in order of age: Kalliopi, Panayiotis (Peter), Nicholas, Marouli, Stamatiko (Stamatina) and Anargiros (Andrew). In time, Kalliopi was to leave for America; Marouli stayed in Kythera with her parents; the other four settled in Australia.

Nicholas and Peter initially migrated to Chicago in the USA in 1910, seeking work, but patriotic fervour caused them to return to Greece to fight for the mother country in the Greek-Bulgarian war of 1912-13 which led to the reunification of Macedonia with the modern Greek State. Their father could sense ominous war clouds about to enshroud Europe and he urged them to leave Greece, this time for Australia as he’d been told it would be easier to make a living there. Before their departure in 1913, Nicholas married Stamatoula Kepreotis who by inheritance had land holdings in and around Aroniadika – another ten years were to pass before the couple were reunited. Nicholas was a very hard worker and within a few years he bought and paid off the prosperous New York Cafe in the town of Nowra about one hundred miles south of Sydney. Some six years after his arrival, he took in as a partner his cousin Nick Aroney (Anastasopoulos) who earlier arrived from Greece as a young boy and proved he was very capable and diligent in this type of business. Peter preferred a less demanding life and he opened up billiard rooms in Nowra. Soon after, Andrew joined his brothers in Australia; by this time all of them had the locally accepted surname of Aroney.

Stamatina, later to become my mother, was sent from Kythera in her late teens to work as a domestic servant in Athens for a family called Venetzianos. These people lived in a grand two-storey house in Metropoleos Street near Syntagma Square, a plush part of Athens, and in Summer would retreat to their holiday home in the fashionable coastal suburb of New Phaleron. Stamatina was paid little but she learned much about needlework and home arts and became especially skilled in cooking traditional Greek dishes and sweets. In 1923 Nicholas arranged for Stamatina to accompany his wife and her sister Yiannoula on the voyage to Australia to join the other members of the family in Nowra. This represented a change of plans for Stamatina who had been preparing to join her sister Kalliopi and husband Basilios Cominos in America but was prevented from doing so at the time because of immigration restrictions imposed by the United States Government. Nicholas proved to be a generous family-oriented man; he paid for the fares from Greece and, more importantly, he extended a sincere and loving welcome to his relatives. Nicholas and Stamatoula in subsequent years had two sons, Theodore and Brettos (Victor) and a daughter Helen. Peter met and married an Anglo-Australian woman called Kathleen who already had a young girl Eileen; they added to the family when their daughter Theodora was born in 1920.

The Kytherian grapevine was very effective spreading news and gossip to communities, groups, individuals along the eastern coast of Australia and to inland towns in New South Wales and Queensland where people from the island had settled. It was not long before someone undertook a matrimonial matchmake (proxenia) between Stamatina in Nowra and Dimitrios who, since 1921, had been working in Townsville about fifteen hundred miles to the north. Andrew escorted his sister Stamatina to North Queensland where she and Dimitrios met and became engaged. The wedding later took place in the Anglican Cathedral Church of St James on the 5th of June 1926 and on this second train trip to Townsville, which took four days, Stamatina was accompanied by Andrew, Peter’s wife Kathleen and her young daughter Theodora. Dimitrios was forty-one years old at the time and Stamatina was thirty.

[[picture:"parentswedding.jpg" ID:820]]
Wedding photograph of Dimitrios and Stamatina Aroney in Townsville in 1926.
Standing at the back (left to right) are: Cosma Marendy (best man) and Stamatina’s brother Andy Aroney. The lady seated on the right is Peter Aroney’s wife Kathleen.

A sequel to this story took place in Mackay, a coastal town two hundred miles south of Townsville, when the couple went through another wedding ceremony on the 11th of January 1928, this time according to the rites of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The priest was Father Daniel Maravelis whose mission at the time was to tour central and northern Queensland to “regularise” marriages, baptisms, etc. Subsequent to this an official Marriage Certificate was issued by Greek Orthodox authorities in Sydney.

[[picture:"wedding4.jpg" ID:821]]
Wedding photograph of Dimitrios and Stamatina Aroney in Townsville in 1926.

Wedding of Dimitrios & Stamatia Aroney in Townsville in 1926

Wedding of Dimitrios & Stamatia Aroney in Townsville in 1926

Manuel J Aroney with his parents Jim and Stamatia Aroney in the front yard of their home in Mackay, circa 1949-50

(An extract from the memoirs of Prof. Manuel J. Aroney)

From 1923 to 1926 Dimitrios Aronis, now widely known as Jim Aroney, was a cook in the Townsville Cafe located in Flinders Street West. He became naturalized as an Australian citizen on the 7th of September 1925 – in the certificate of naturalization he is recorded as James Aroney (also known as Moustakos). The Townsville Cafe, owned by his cousins Cosmas (Charlie) Marendy and Peter Hlentzos in partnership with my father, was making very little profit so Stamatina urged him to search elsewhere for a business opportunity. In 1927 my father went to Mackay and with money he’d saved, bought a building which though old and dilapidated, was centrally located in the main street with a water trough for horses out the front. He converted the ground floor into a cafe; the upstairs section and a closed-in veranda overhanging the footpath and supported by timber posts were made into bedrooms. Thus was started the Central Cafe.

[[picture:"CenturyCafe.jpg" ID:817]]
The Central Café, Mackay, North Queensland.
Photo taken circa 1930
Pictured left to right: the café cook, my father Dimitrios Aroney, my uncles Andy and Peter Aroney, and the café waitresses.

Chris Tziolis, in Mackay at the time, described my father as a practical man who worked very hard from early morning to late at night and “a gentle person who wouldn’t hurt a fly”. Someone labelled him “the boss” or “bossi”, in Greek-speak; this was how the Mackay Greeks referred to him thereafter. My parents lived in a room upstairs so mum, known to the locals as Stella, was able to devote nearly all of her time working in the shop. This was a country town cafe typical of that era, providing meals such as steak with eggs, onions and chips, mixed grills, bacon and eggs, meat pies, fish and chips, sandwiches, etc., the usual fare expected by Australian customers. Troubles there certainly were, for some of the locals hated foreigners and could be belligerent especially if drunk. Mackay was a centre of the sugar industry and Saturday night was always busy as large numbers of cane cutters came from the farms for a night on the town. After much beer was downed, those not paralytic on the footpaths would often be spoiling for a fight and who better to pick on than the foreigner in the cafe? Another factor bringing unease and concern was the increasing peril of the Great Depression which according to reports from overseas and from within Australia was threatening ruinous times ahead. Stamatina wrote to Nicholas in Nowra requesting that one of her brothers be sent to Mackay to help out in the cafe, so in mid 1929 Andrew (by then called Andy) came to Mackay and a few months later Peter, Kathleen and daughters Eileen and Theodora (Thea) joined them. All lived in the rooms above the shop. Peter had been sent by Nicholas to get him away from the undesirable ambience of the billiard rooms.

About a year later the cafe was renovated. The property was wide, about twenty-five feet, and this allowed three shop windows and two entrances (as shown in the photograph). The middle display window was full of seafood and had a cool fresh appearance because of a constant light flow of water down the glass panels to a bed of crushed ice. Inside the shop was a food counter parallel to the eastern wall on the right, a confectionery display case and another counter for drinks such as milkshakes and fruit juices on the left and, further in, a large dining area divided by a partition into two sections, one for men and the other for ladies (who could be accompanied by males). Despite the Depression, business improved, helped by the opening of the Princess Picture Theatre close by which brought in more customers.

After a few years, my father decided to sell the business to Andy and Peter but kept the building which he leased to them. For a time he worked on wages as a cook and kitchen hand then with my mother went to Sydney where they bought a small brick and tile home at 12 Stream Street, just off Yurong Lane on the southern side of William Street in East Sydney. He worked for a year or so in Sydney and it was there that my mother, who had become pregnant, gave birth to me on the 31st of August 1932 in St. Ronans Private Hospital, South Kensington. I was to be their only child. Following Greek tradition, I was christened Emmanuel in honour of my paternal grandfather; Godfather was Vasilis Georgopoulos (Tzortzopoulos), a well-known Sydney identity, who owned the Athenian Club in Castlereagh Street.

Life became very difficult during the Depression so the Sydney home was rented out and the family returned to Mackay where my parents bought a North Queensland style house at 5 Macalister Street, just a few minutes walk from Victoria Street and the Mackay main shopping centre. It was of wooden construction with fibro cement outer walls and galvanized iron roof and was sited only a few hundred yards from the southern bank of the Pioneer River around which Mackay town had been built. The house was fairly safe from Summer floods brought on by cyclones and by torrential monsoon rains most prevalent in the January to March period as it was built on the high part of the town and, as well, it stood on timber posts with the floor about two and a half feet off the ground. The front was covered with honeysuckle vine which in the flowering season turned to a panoply of bright tubular orange blossoms; it was very pretty and conveyed a warm homey feeling.

Andoni (Tony) Prineas came to Mackay in 1934 with his wife Yiannoula, who had travelled to Australia with my mother, and their infant son Nick. Our house was located on a large block of land and my parents constructed a small two-storey home in the back yard connected to the front house by a galvanized iron roof so it could pass as an extension, enabling council approval to be obtained. The Prineas family were warmly greeted as kinsfolk from Kythera and accommodated in the back house. Two years later, in 1936, they had a baby daughter, Marina, and at the baptism my mother became her Godmother thus cementing an already close relationship. Tony Prineas was a sharp and clever man – the local Greeks called him “o dikiyoros” (the lawyer). He convinced my father, who it must be said was a naive trusting individual, that they should go into business together. Neither had any cash but Andy loaned my father eight hundred pounds to finance the setting up of the Rose Marie Cafe in Wood Street Mackay. My strong recollections, even though I was very young, were of Tony Prineas standing behind the counter near the cash register talking and joking with the customers, collecting money and running the show, while my father was in the kitchen at the back cooking and sweltering over a large stove. Sadly, about 1939, the business went broke and my father was left with the debts. Tony Prineas lingered on in Mackay for about two years, though not in our house, then left for a new venture in New South Wales. He and I met in Sydney decades later when he was an old man. I became close friends with his son Nick and daughter-in-law Katie.

In 1932 Peter Aroney and his family left their living quarters above the Central Cafe and moved to a house they bought in Macalister Street, several blocks south of our home and very close to the Central State Primary School. Years later they relocated to a larger home in Nebo Road, further from town and at that time a new and prestigious residential area. Andy continued to live above the shop.

A fruit and vegetable business next door to the Central Cafe was for sale in 1934 and Andy and Peter bought it, primarily to prevent a possible opposition cafe being set up there. Having refurbished it, they opened the Niagara Milk Bar which they placed under the management of George Kepriotis, Stamatoula’s brother who had come from Nowra. Unfortunately, George was not a good businessman, being more preoccupied with fishing, hunting and gambling, so it was no surprise that the shop wasn’t going well. Andy and Peter decided to take it over themselves and they sold the Central Cafe business to a man from Rhodes called Atherinos Atherinou whom I remember as very likeable and about two years later it was resold to a Greek-Cypriot, George Pavlidis, who ran the shop for the latter part of the Second World War.

Towards the end of the thirties my father contracted a builder to elevate our Macalister Street house to six feet above the ground. This was no small undertaking but the group hired was very experienced with this kind of job. Jacks were placed in appropriate places under the house and gradually it was lifted to the required height and then rested on rows of solid thick timber poles which were embedded in concrete below ground level. As well, the house was extended to create a large enclosed veranda at the back so it was now quite spacious with four bedrooms, a kitchen, an inside bathroom and toilet and plenty of living area. The elevation provided a cooling effect while the space beneath the house was useful for a number of purposes: clothes washing facilities (a large copper vessel heated by wood fire), lines for drying clothes during the wet season, storage space and, importantly for me, extra room where my friends and I could play.

[[picture:"mackay.jpg" ID:819]]
My father, mother and myself in the front yard of our house in Mackay, circa 1946-47.

In the backyard we had a large mango tree, custard apple shrubs and pawpaw trees, the latter in great profusion. One of my favourite pastimes was picking a ripe pawpaw off the tree, cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, filling it with ice cream and eating it – positively delicious. My mother conscientiously tended a sizeable vegetable garden and, further down the back yard, a chicken-wire enclosed fowl house. This was in addition to her many duties involving house and family. The back dwelling referred to earlier was rented for some years to a quiet gentle elderly Australian called “Zakeos” by the Greeks and he made a living from an old style taxi which he parked under the now-elevated front house. It was convenient having him on call, though for us use of a taxi was a rare luxury.

The Central Café, Mackay, North Queensland. Photo taken circa 1930.

Pictured left to right: the café cook, Dimitrios Aroney, Andy and Peter Aroney, and the café waitresses

Andy & Evangelia

(An extract from the memoirs of Prof. Manuel J. Aroney)

[[picture:"evangalia2.jpg" ID:814]]
Evangelia Aroney (nee Lukas): The beautiful girl in the photo that uncle Andy fell in love with.

Andy bought a house in Macalister Street barely three hundred yards from ours and within close walking distance to the Niagara Milk Bar; this was in addition to a two-storey investment property in Wood Street which he acquired in 1936. He was a very good man, hard working, somewhat overweight, much liked and respected. I had a particular affection for him. One of my earliest recollections was crying my eyes out and calling for Uncle Andy from my hospital bed after a painful tonsillectomy; only he could quieten me down and console me on that occasion. Andy was well known along the coastal towns of Queensland and amongst his many friends was Jack Barbouttis, a prosperous cafe owner in Townsville who, with his wife Rosie, had originally come from the small island of Castellorizo in the Dodecanese group just off the coast of Turkey. One day Jack showed Andy a photo of a very beautiful young woman – his wife’s sister Evangelia. This was to change Andy’s life; he fell in love with the girl in the photo. Arrangements were made for Evangelia, escorted by her brother George, to come to Australia to marry Andy. She was from a well-known and highly regarded family whose surname was Lucas (Hadjivasilis); her father in earlier years was the captain and owner of a trading vessel buying and selling commodities in the eastern Mediterranean. It was 1939, just before the outbreak of war in Europe, when the liner carrying the bride-to-be entered Sydney harbour and berthed at the pier where Andy was anxiously waiting.

On his way there, Andy called in to see Stamatiki Aroney and her husband Theodore who had a milk bar in Oxford Street, near Taylor Square, which functioned as a meeting place for Kytherians living in or passing through Sydney. Stamatiki was famous for collecting and disseminating information and gossip. Years later, she told me that Andy said (in Greek) “I’m going to meet my bride and I’ve promised to marry her, no matter what. If she is really like the girl in the photo I will bring her to meet you but if she isn’t then you won’t be seeing us – we will leave at once for Mackay”. Hours passed then Andy reappeared and with great pride presented the woman of his dreams.

[[picture:"wedding3.jpg" ID:815]]
The wedding of Andy and Evangelia Aroney in 1939.
My mother Stamatina Aroney is pictured standing on the far left next to the bridesmaids. My father Dimitrios Aroney is on the right wearing a grey suit and gold watch chain. The ‘koumparo’ Peter Samios of Brisbane is standing between the bride and groom.
Back row third, fourth and fifth from the left are Evangelia’s brother George Lukas, her brother in law Jack Barbouttis and Peter Aroney. Kathleen (Peter’s wife) is on the far right. The seven year old boy in the white suit sitting in front is me.

In Mackay Evangelia made a great impression on the Greek community as she was beautiful, good-hearted and charming to one and all. Kathleen Aroney had a big party to welcome her and she lived at Peter and Kathleen’s home until the day of her wedding to Andy. The marriage took place in the very imposing Holy Trinity Anglican Church with a Greek Orthodox priest, brought to Mackay from Brisbane, officiating at the ceremony. The wedding photo shows the bridal couple surrounded by their closest relatives, some of whom had come from Townsville. A reception with more than three hundred guests was held in the hall above Peter Zaglas’ cafe in Victoria Street; it was an evening of celebration with great “kefi” (gaiety), large quantities of food and drink and hours of Greek music and dancing. Evangelia was now part of our family and in the years ahead she would prove to be a wonderful person. A close bond was formed with my mother under whose tutelage Evangelia became very proficient in Greek cooking.

My mother Stamatina Aroney is pictured standing on the far left next to the bridesmaids. My father Dimitrios Aroney is on the right wearing a grey suit and gold watch chain. The ‘koumparo’ Peter Samios of Brisbane is standing between the bride and groom.
Back row third, fourth and fifth from the left are Evangelia’s brother George Lukas, her brother in law Jack Barbouttis and Peter Aroney. Kathleen (Peter’s wife) is on the far right. The seven year old boy in the white suit sitting in front is me.

Evangelia Aroney (nee Lukas): The beautiful girl in the photo that uncle Andy fell in love with.

(An extract from the memoirs of Prof. Manuel J. Aroney)

The strong conviction existed within the Greek community that our presence in Australia was greatly resented by many Anglo-Celtic Australians. A legacy of bitterness had been left by the “Report of the Royal Commission into Social and Economic Effect of Increase in Number of Aliens in North Queensland” – the Ferry Report of the 21st of June 1925 which contained outlandish generalisations such as “the Greek residents of North Queensland are generally of an undesirable type and do not make good settlers – they are not agriculturalists and add nothing to the wealth or security of the country – they engage in no useful work”. My family, often in company of friends out for an evening stroll, were frequently sworn at and angrily berated with the almost standard “speak English you bloody dagos”. We never reacted in an overt way but the feeling within us was reinforced that we were hated and as Greeks we should stick together. The children were given to understand that it was imperative to learn Greek and to cling to our traditions and culture.

My spoken Greek was quite good considering we didn’t have a Greek school or teacher and hence no formal tuition - it was acquired through conversation with my parents and others but I was not able to read or write. I had a smattering of English, not all of it polite, picked up mainly from the sons of our neighbours, the Evans family. Mostly these people kept their distance since in their perception we were an inferior race and had “a touch of colour”. This was conveyed in many ways; I recall Mrs Evans saying to my mother one day “I see you had visitors and one of them was white”. It was not meant to be unkind – just a statement of fact as she believed it. The Evans family were particularly annoyed when visitors to our home talked animatedly in Greek; I suppose it always sounds louder and more irritating when you don’t understand it. One Sunday afternoon, a mighty crash and, on exploring, we found someone had thrown a whole brick on our roof - a blunt expression of resentment. We came to terms with such incidents and never complained. In later years relations improved but there was rarely any warmth or acceptance.

Our quiet world suddenly changed in 1941. The war in Europe had been raging for two years and the situation looked very bleak for the allied forces. We read in the papers that Australian troops were in North Africa fighting Rommel’s army and among them was George Kepreotis, our distant relative, who had volunteered for the Australian infantry. In Mackay, all of this somehow lacked reality though we did notice that Italian men from the various shops disappeared as they were taken away to be interned. One balmy night on the 28th of October 1940, Paul Malos, who lived two houses from us, came striding down Macalister Street looking agitated and calling out excitedly “the Italians have attacked Greece”. He heard it on the radio. The invasion caused great dismay among the Greeks of Mackay; they feared for the motherland and for relatives living there. As the war progressed, despair turned to jubilation when the Greek forces defeated Mussolini’s army in Albania and sent it reeling into retreat in what was the first major setback suffered by the Axis powers. The Mackay Daily Mercury wrote of the heroism of the Greek army and on the radio Winston Churchill lavishly extolled the fighting qualities of the Hellenes. The Greeks of Mackay were ecstatic but, regrettably, their euphoria was short-lived as the might of the German war machine was unleashed on the Greek forces and their British and Australian allies and both mainland Greece and Crete fell after heroic defence. Despite this, a new-found respect was evident between the Greeks and Australians.

We didn’t know it then, but the horror of war was soon to menace us even in Mackay. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on the 7th of December 1941 brought the United States of America into the war on the side of Great Britain and her allies. Everyone was stunned to hear three days later that the warships Prince of Wales and Repulse, which were symbolic of Britain’s naval might in the far east, were sunk by the Japanese. The Americans were expelled from the Philippines and General Douglas McArthur set up headquarters in Brisbane in the south-eastern corner of Queensland. The Japanese imperial army seemed invincible as it thrust south conquering all in its path and the fall of the British bastion of Singapore brought to Australians the sudden realisation that “mother England” could not protect them and that they were under serious threat. This was further emphasised by the destructive Japanese air raid on Darwin and raids on Townsville as well as the midget submarine attack in Sydney harbour. Trenches were dug in our school grounds and we were drilled in what to do in the event of an air attack. Sandbags were used to build air raid shelters in the backyards of homes; they offered little protection from close bomb strikes but could absorb flying shrapnel. When Japanese planes approached northern Queensland, air raid sirens sounded a warning right along the coastal towns and everyone scurried into the shelters. The first time this happened, my mother quickly jumped out of bed and grabbing her handbag, rushed me into the shelter, calling loudly to my father to join us. He did this slowly and reluctantly but when siren warnings were heard on subsequent nights he took no notice and stayed in the comfort of bed. Mackay was never bombed but rumours were circulating of an imminent Japanese invasion and everyone seemed certain it would happen at Mackay which, in contrast to Townsville, had no armed forces stationed there and was unprotected and vulnerable. Also, the people of central and north Queensland were convinced that a secret agreement existed to implement the “Brisbane line” strategy in which Queensland north of the state capital Brisbane was regarded as indefencible and would be allowed to fall to the enemy.

Like many other townsfolk we locked up our home and distanced ourselves from Mackay, going to a sugar cane farm at Farleigh a few miles inland. This farm with a large rambling home was owned by the Tziolis family who were our “koumbari” (the youngest of the Tziolis boys was my father’s Godson). For years my parents had extended much hospitality to the Tziolis family whenever they came to town so there was a sense of obligation on their part to take us in. Living on a farm was a totally new experience for me. So much was different – our drinking water was that collected in a tank as rainwater runoff from the roof of the house. For other purposes such as washing, a hand pump was used to bring up water from a nearby well, but I had little confidence in its purity as small green frogs would be drawn up as well. The men would often go shooting and this was followed by a feast of cooked game under a tree outside the home. When walking through cleared bush or to the watermelon field nearby, we always took two dogs with us which were experienced in sensing and scaring off snakes and there were plenty of those around. On one occasion the Tziolis sons took me to a distant, partly-hidden shed which was a repository for bottles of spirits from an illicit still close by. Drinking appeared to add lustre to what seemed to be a monotonous existence though of course it was restricted to the men. Life on the farm was tolerable for a while but it was not for me. Being used to the shops and picture theatres of Mackay I found it very boring.

Rumours intensified about the momentum of the Japanese thrust towards Australia and my parents decided to go further inland to a very small settlement in the sugar lands called Finch Hatton, about thirty miles west of Mackay. The road there was really rough and subject to flooding in the wet season. We rented a small house on the fringe of a sugar cane plantation. Two shops and a hotel were the centre of the township; one of the shops was a very modest general store owned by David Andronicos while the other, a restaurant, was run by Charlie Zaglas (son of George Zaglas of Mackay). There wasn’t much to do and most afternoons my father, David and Charlie would pass the time playing “prefa” (a Greek card game) at the back of the restaurant; they seemed to enjoy it greatly. My major excitement came with the cane burn-offs at harvesting time which were spectacular and lent a sense of drama to an otherwise very tranquil life. The flames could be seen in cane fields close to us and the sky glowed orange or red at night as fires swept through delineated areas of cane burning off leaves, undergrowth and vermin. The cane cutters subsequently moved in to harvest the “cleaned” stalks and load them on narrow tracked mini-train wagons for dispatch to the sugar mill which from the outside looked like a large factory with smoke belching from a tall chimney. Most of my days were spent at the state primary school about a mile walk down the road which had a solitary male teacher who supervised and taught all classes – an impossible task. Needless to say, no-one learnt much but attending school gave focus to the day and imposed a regime of discipline. Occasionally we went to Mackay to see our home, to say hello to relatives and friends still there and of course to do some shopping, though there wasn’t much to buy in those days of austerity. Nonetheless, I found it exciting and looked forward to it greatly.

Following the great American victory in the Coral Sea Battle of May 1942, people came to realise that the threat of Japanese invasion was receding and late that year we returned to Mackay. It was wonderful to be home but the town had changed in that it seemed to be full of American airmen flown in from New Guinea and elsewhere for periods of leave.

Thrilling to me were the large numbers of military aircraft flying low over the town. Flying Fortresses and Liberators, my favourites among the bombers, were fearsome war machines. I was glad they were on our side. Most spectacular of all were the fighter planes with their incredible speed and manoeuvrability and these would frequently buzz the town like gigantic angry wasps. Lockheed Lightnings and Thunderbolts were the best. I would rush out onto Macalister Street and watch in awe as they dived from great heights hurtling towards the ground in a near-lethal display of brinkmanship, waiting to the last few seconds before pulling out of the dive and shooting upwards. The thunderous roar added to the drama. It seemed to me, a solitary figure transfixed in the middle of the road, that at times a pilot would be targeting me with his plane – a fanciful notion.

There was a traditional celebration that was called St. John of fortune, however it had nothing to do with the church, it was simply a local bit of fun. (ed: there is a similar Romany gypsy tradition)

It was mostly for the youth of the villages, and on the eve of the day each youngster would take an apple, carve his name into it and decorate it.

The next evening, around twenty to forty young men and women would gather in the plateia, along with a lot of people who came along for the fun and a few laughs.

All the apples were placed in a barrel of “silent” water, called silent because the girl who collected it from the well was forbidden to speak on the road. Each girl would then take an apple from the barrel and it was said that whatever name the apple carried, was that of her husband to be.

There were occasions when the apples were proven right!

There was an old couple living in Aroniadika, Giagos and his wife, whom they called “Giagena” after him. They married, both uneducated and slow witted.

One Sunday, they set off for the market in Potamos with their little donkey. It had been agreed, that at a certain point on the road, whoever was riding would get off and the other would get on, while the rider took his/her turn at walking.

However, they were soon chatting away and utterly missed the switching point. When the talk had finally died down, they discovered the mistake.

Giagos was so angry, that, instead of just getting on and continuing on their way, he turned the donkey round to return to the appropriate point to switch over.

All the people who saw them on the way got the laugh of their lives!

There was a guy who used to come down to the café of an evening, he was uneducated but he had a great talent for songs.

It was the time when lipstick had just come out and was all the rage, however most people round here were simple folk, farmers and the like, and few women had lipstick. But they all wanted some.

So this guy wrote a song about the whole fuss:

So my friends we are suddenly faced with a new expense
When lipstick costs two lyres and shoes three.
I take my few coins and go to Potiri’s shop
He says "if you’ve come for lipstick, my friend, I am all out".

"Every time the boat comes, I order a ton of the stuff
But in one or two weeks it’s all gone."
Well, I look here and I look there, but can't find any lipstick
Still, when I get back home my old lady shuts the door in my face

"If you don’t bring me lipstick and make me up
You can get out of my house and not set foot again
All the other house wives are all made up and nice
And I’m left out, unpainted like an uncared for woman."

"Wife, you shall not paint your face
It’s as God and nature gave it to you
You say you are a Christian and you go to church
Look then at Christ and Mary and how they stand"

"Mary is hairy and Christ has a beard
Yet my wife wishes for haircuts!
But I am not a piggy bank and full of cash
To buy you lipstick to look like a clown!"

What’s up with the old man and his woman shouting
And he’s got himself a cane and is beating her?
Saintly cane, father of Christ
I have found peace in your sweet music
Saintly cane, how saintly your name
With a slash, or two, you show your marvels.
And all yea who be free, think again
First find a good cane and then worry about marriage
And make sure it’s an especially good one
Choose it from a good strong olive or oak.
But at last the old man and his wife agreed,
She will stop her chatter and he, his beating!

It happened about a hundred and fifty years ago. They said the man was on drugs, and everyone agrees he wasn’t from the island.
So the story goes he set off from Aroniadika to go to Kalokairines, where a christening was scheduled to take place. It must have taken him about two hours. The story goes he stayed the night near or in the church and the next morning early before the christening was due to begin he started to ring the bells… The people assumed the christening had started early and one by one hurried, like lambs to the slaughter, to the church, where the met the steel point of the mad man’s blade in their flesh….
The sixteenth person to go up was a young lad, and like the others he was slashed in stomach yet, unlike the others, he didn’t die immediately, but managed to scramble up the hill to where his aunt was taking the sheep out to graze. On seeing him she at first thought he was running to greet her, but when he reached her she realized the dreadful truth. He died in her arms, but it was enough to alert the village, and with rifles and pitch forks and their courage they set of to the church.
One more was killed in the fight before they managed to get the madman under control, at which point he was arrested…. He died in prison, and those who dare to tell the gruesome tale still call him Captain 17…

This photo was taken by Maria Pentes on her first trip to Kythera in 1967.

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Source: "Kythera Summer Edition"
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[[picture:"Nicholas Anthony Aroney AnastasopoulosSMALL.jpg" ID:8142]]

This life story was taken from Peter Vanges' "Kythera - A History". Many thanks to Peter and the Kytherian Association of Australia for their permission to reproduce it here.


Nicholas Anthony Aroney (Anastasopoulos) was born in Aroniathika, Kythera, on 14th February 1899. An only child, his mother died very early in his life; his father was far away in America. For some years Nick was in the care of his grandmother in Kythera; but it was a life of poverty. In 1914, at just fifteen years of age, he boarded a German ship bound for Australia. War intervened and they were to go no further than Batavia in Java. Nick was forced to find another ship to take him to Sydney. The long and tortuous trip was to end in 1914 in the small country town of Warren in New South Wales where he took up employment working for an uncle. Times were difficult; wages were very low, but through hard work and frugality, Nick was able to accumulate some capital. In 1919, he bought, together with his first cousin Nicholas Aroney (Papadominakos), the "New York Cafe" in the town of Nowra, 161 kilometres south of Sydney. Years later, in 1936, they were to move to Wollongong, 80 kilometres further north, as proprietors of the "Spot Cafe". This, in turn, was sold in 1940 and Nick Aroney moved to Sydney where for some years during the war he was employed in the famous "Hotel Australia". He became the senior partner in a number of businesses in Sydney, notably the "Coronet Restaurant", the "Chicken Grill", and "St James Milk Bar"; he acquired as well substantial real estate interests.

Somewhat late in life, in 1962, Nick married Natasha, a lady of beauty, style and culture who had grown up in Vienna. Together they ran a small clothing manufacturing enterprise. It was a very happy marriage. They built a fine home in the prestigious suburb of Pymble and they made several trips to Greece, visiting on each occasion the beloved island of his childhood. Nick Aroney died in Sydney in 1986 at the age of eighty-seven.

Nicholas Aroney left behind a trust fund, which since his death has funded dozens of important projects related to Kythera and Greece. Without his generous legacy this website would not have been possible.

[[picture:"Nicholas and Natasha AroneySMALL.jpg" ID:8143]]

Murwillumbah 1918.
Jack Cosma Aroney married Stavroula George Lianos 1917 Sydney. They sold their Murbah shops to Nick Antonios Koukoulis 1921 and after ventures at Southport, Goulburn, Bundarra, Talwood and Cooroy finally settled in Sydney in 1929.

Murwillumbah 1910.
L to R: Peter, Jim and Jack Cosma Aroney (Theodoropoulos) with cousin Anthi Minucoe. Anthi married Tony Manuel Theodorakakis (Cordatos) at Casino in 1916 in the first Greek Orthodox wedding on the North Coast of NSW.
The 3 brothers landed Christmas Day 1899, but Peter and Jim returned to Kythera ~1904. Jim returned 1906 and he and Jack then moved to Murwillumbah to work for Samio & Andronico, subsequently buying the businesses (2 cafes: The Tweed River Oyster Saloon and The Olympic Cafe.)
Peter came back 1908 and went to Maryborough with Jim ~1915, but returned to Kythera with him 1916.
Jack became main face of Murbah business until selling to Nick Antonios Koukoulis 1921.

This wedding portrait celebrates the marriage of Maria Aroney to Dimitri Dorbis. The wedding took place at St Thomas’ Church in Port Macquarie on the 27th June 1951. Father Klavidis was brought up from St Sofia’s Greek Orthodox Church in Sydney to celebrate this marriage.

Back row from left to right:
Steve Aroney (bride’s brother), Mary & Vassili Kyritsis (groom’s sister and brother in law), Dimitri &  Maria Dorbis (groom & bride),  Efrosini Pentes (bride’s sister),
Maria Levoune (bride’s first cousin), Kos Aroney (bride’s brother).

Front row from left to right:
Stamatia Aroney (bride’s mother), Matina Pentes (bride’s niece), Peter Pentes (bride’s nephew), Dimitri Aroney (bride’s father), Maria Pentes (bride’s niece).

This portrait of Efrosini Aroney in Greek costume was taken in 1939 at a fundraising event organised by the Greek community in Port Macquarie, N.S.W, to raise money for the war effort.  Efrosini was 16 years of age at the time this portrait was taken.

This is the first portrait of newly married Stamatia (nee Nikolasou) & Jim Aroney (Theodoropoulos) from the village Aronyiathika, Kythera. They eloped in Athens, Greece, in 1923 and then travelled to Australia.

Initially they settled in Bundarra, N.S.W, where they ran a café and picture show.

Dimitri Aroney (Theodoropoulos) was born on Kythera, Greece in 1890 and died in N.S.W, Australia in 1991, aged 100 years.

This portrait of him was taken when he undertook his military service in the Greek army during the Asia Minor War. He was around 25 years of age at the time this portrait was taken.

Dimitri served in the Greek army between 1915 and 1921.  After completing his military service he migrated to Australia, where he initially settled in Bundarra, N.S.W.

Dimitri Aroney (Theodoropoulos), son of Kosmas and Frosini (nee Papadopoulos), was born in the village of Aroniathika on the island of Kythera, Greece in 1890 and died in N.S.W, Australia in 1991, aged 100 years.

Dimitri migrated to Australia in 1906 at the age of 16, and from 1908 ran a restaurant with his brothers Peter (Panayiotis) and Jack (Ioannis) in Murwillumbah, N.S.W.

Dimitri went back to Greece in 1915 to serve in the Greek army during the Asia Minor War and returned to Australia in 1923 with his new wife Stamatia (also from Aroniathika, Kythera). They initially settled in Bundarra, N.S.W, where they ran a café and picture show.