This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" :


A particular refinement and upbringing distinguishes Mr. Panayiotis (Takis) Mantzaris, the highly popular Greek from Newcastle.

Born in Sparta in Lacedaemonia in 1887, he came to Australia in late 1907. Within a few months of his arrival, he succeeded in buying a small, but profitable, shop in one of the central streets of Newcastle.

Mr. Mantzaris, as he passed through Egypt on his latest visit to Greece and the rest of Europe, conceived the idea of founding a tobacco factory. This he did and no manages it most skilfully. It is most certainly true that by his action in devoting himself to the tobacco trade, Mr. Mantzaris has catered to a palpable need. Now fellow Greek shop-keepers, with the greatest of eagerness and from all over Australia, lodge their orders with him, in the conviction that they will multiply their clientele, thanks to the select quality of his tobacco and that they are strengthening the Greek business presence.

Mr. Mantzaris, who is a direct young man of deep, encyclopaedic knowledge, deserves particular support and notice and also enjoys great esteem in the eyes of the commercial community of Newcastle. He also warmly supports anybody or anything likely to contribute to the progress and elevation of the dignity of Greece abroad.

His commercial address is: P. Mantsaris, 14 Park St., Newcastle.


This biography is part of a collection from "Life in Australia" published in 1916 by John Comino. It is an important book as it was one of the first Greek books published in Australia for the Greeks back in the homeland. If they needed any more convincing of the golden opportunities awaiting them in Australia, it probably helped create interest amongst young Kytherians and other Greeks. Each of the men portrayed in the book paid for the honour, which, considering their reputation for thriftiness, must have made the decision a hard one for many a Kytherian.

The Kythera-Family.net team, with the support of the Nicolaus Aroney Trust and other generous sponsors, has undertaken to transcribe the entire book for the website and to translate it into English for the non-greek-speaking diaspora community. We hope to also produce a printed version of the translation of Life in Australia sometime in 2005.

For valuable information about the historical background of the publication of Life in Australia, please read the entry by Hugh Gilchrist I ZOI EN AFSTRALLIA in the History, General History section.