Athanasios and Erini Kastrisos - one of Coffs Harbour's Kytherian families

Amalia Samios
3 days ago
3 min read

Athanasios Kastrisos was born at 5am on 3 January 1895 in Kastrisianika. He was the youngest of at least eight children of Ioannis Kastrisos of Kosma, a farmer, and Hariklea of Antonios Kastrisos. He was baptised on 15 January 1895 In Agios Antonios church, Kastrisianika.

He obviously had no idea when his birthday was as he only entered the year 1894 on his naturalisation application in 1919.

He described himself as 5’6” with dark hair and dark eyes.

Image from Κυθιραϊη Δρασης newspaper 28 February 1958

He arrived from Greece in 25 July 1911 onboard the Geoben to Sydney where he was now known as Arthur Castrisos.

On his arrival he spent two years in Grenfell NSW. He then moved to Grafton where he worked for 12 months in the Notaras Bros Refreshment Rooms, Prince Street.

His next move was to Bellingen to work for Peter Glitsos at Peters & Co as a waiter. While in Bellingen he was a respectable, hard-working man.

He had a short stay in Sydney for six months before finally settling in Coffs Harbour for a while in 1915 or 1916 where he was a self-employed fruiter. Here he would spend most of his time.

In 1919 he was working as a fruiterer in an unknown business.

He was a man of excellent character who contributed to the war effort by buying two War Bonds and “liberally contributing” to Patrioitic funds during WWI.

He filled out his Australian Naturalisation application on 2 October 1919 in Coffs Harbour.

Copy of his signature from his naturalisation application. NAA NAA: A1, 1920/1778

At some point in the mid to late 1920s Arthur had an interest in two businesses. At the end of October 1927, he sold his share of the business Samio and Co in Coffs Harbour. A few days later he and Peter Melittas purchased Nicholas Samios’ share of the business called Peters & Co on Coffs Harbour Jetty.

He was heavily involved in the local community as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and spent many years on the board of the Coffs Harbour District Rugby Club.

In late 1927 or early 1928 he sold his business and left Coffs Harbour to open a new business in Coonabarabran. It is obvious he was well respected and liked in Coffs Harbour as the newspaper article below from the Daily Examiner (Grafton) dated 9 February 1928 demonstrates.

In April 1929 he and Peter Gleeson left Urunga to board the Orama to for a visit to Greece. This is the only reference found for him living in Urunga.

In late 1929 he announced his engagement to Erini Trifili in a Kytherian newspaper. Erini’s family have not been found as she was possibly born in Athens. They were married in Athens and announced this in a few local newspapers in March 1930.

Sometime before 1934 Arthur and Erini moved to Carp Street, Bega. He was still a fruiterer. They remained there until they moved to 64 west Esplanade, Manly between 1933 and 1949. Here they remained until Erini passed away on 6 December 1955. She had a stroke while preparing to attend the cinema with her daughter. Athanasios was not with them as he was attending a meeting of the Kytherian Brotherhood and AHEPA at the time. She died eight hours later.

After the death of his wife, Arthur moved to 74 West Esplanade Manly and remained there until his death.

He died in Manly District Hospital on 2 February 1959. He was 65. He was buried with his wife on 4 Feb 1959, location GL 810. Curiously, Sofia Trifilli is also buried in their grave. Nothing has been found to indicate who she was, but she is possibly a sister to Erini.

It seems throughout his life his link to Kythera remained strong. He donated money to Kytherian public appeals such as £5 each to the building of the Aroniadika/Diakofit road and the school in Chora and many others.