Copyright (2004) George C Poulos

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

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

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

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

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra. And only one family of Greek origin lives there.

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

My father, Con George (Tzortzo)Poulos began business in Gilgandra in this premises in the 1950's. He was later forced to vacate this premises, and set up a fruit ship and mixed business across the road. This second Fruit Shop is the subject of a number of entries leading up to this one.

A picture taken inside this shop can viewed at at Vintage Portraits/ People. "Nick (Belos) Coroneos, Karavas, and George Con (Tzorzto)Poulos (Hlihlis), Gilgandra Fruit Mart, NSW, 1955".

As you can see this premises is now operating as a Fish Shop.

During the 1960's through to the 1980's no "stand-alone" Fish Shop existed in Gilgandra.

One of my motivations in submitting these entries about the Gilgandra shops today is to try and encourage original Gilgandra family members - in this case my own family - to submit photographs of the shops in their heyday - photographs from yesteryear.