A Timeline of the Goulburn Greek Community

A digitised newspaper record refers to James Potiri, a Greek cafe proprietor of Auburn Street, Goulburn. This is the earliest individual reference identified so far, and we are working to learn more.

Source: Trove, National Library of Australia

A Greek business directory of this period lists at least six Greek-run businesses operating in Goulburn, most along Auburn Street, including milk bars and cafes run by families from Kythera, Ithaca, Karpathos, Piraeus and Vatika. The Goulburn Greek community was well established before the post-war migration wave.

Source: Greek business directory 1935-38, reproduced by Kythera Family History

The Paragon Cafe begins serving Goulburn at 174 Auburn Street. It continues to trade today, the surviving example of the Greek cafe tradition in the town.

Source: The Paragon Cafe; Goulburn Post

The Toparis family arrives in Australia from Alexandria, Egypt, aboard the SS Cyrenia, and settles in Goulburn soon after. Over the following decades the family runs the Classic Milk Bar, the Green Valley fruit shop and cafe, market gardens and wholesale businesses that supply the region.

Source: About Regional; Goulburn Post

Spiros Fish Cafe at 112 Auburn Street is photographed, with John Pandelakis and his daughter Flora identified in the image. The photograph is held by Goulburn Mulwaree Library.

Source: Goulburn Mulwaree Library, via Trove

Greek social life flourishes. Local reporting recalls Greek dances drawing crowds of around 400 people, with bands travelling from Sydney and Melbourne, held at the Phillip Court Hotel and later at the teachers college.

Source: Region Media

The Greek Orthodox parish of Agios Panteleimon is established in Goulburn, and the church on McAlister Drive is built on land donated by Con Toparis, patriarch of the Toparis family. References suggest the parish dates from the mid-1970s, and we are seeking a primary source to confirm the founding date. If you have committee papers, programs or photographs from these years, they would be invaluable.

Source: Parish constitution; About Regional; confirmation of founding date sought

Father Synesios serves the parish, and together with his presvytera teaches a generation of Goulburn children Greek at the parish Greek school. We are gathering the dates, class photographs and memories of the Greek school years.

Source: Community recollection

The Hume Highway bypass of Goulburn opens, and the passing traffic that had filled the main street for seventy years moves on. In the years around the bypass, community memory records the closing of many of the Greek cafes and takeaways, an era ending through the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Source: Region Media; community recollection

The Goulburn Greek Community Archive is launched by the parish, inviting families everywhere to help reconstruct and preserve this history.

Source: This website