Working Life

Costas Vassiniotis was the last of 13 children in a family in the central Peloponnese. His father was an olive oil merchant. After arriving in Sydney, he worked in a variety of labouring jobs before becoming a bus driver. He worked as a conductor and then a driver in Sydney’s southeastern suburbs until his retirement. Vassiniotis was also active in the Pan-Arcadian Association, one of the largest regional associations in Sydney. He served as president of the association.

Athina Stavrellis was born in Nigrita, Serres in Macedonia in 1938. She spent her formative years on the island of Mytilene, where her father worked as a public servant. When height restrictions forbade her from entering the Teacher’s Academy on the island, she moved to Athens to enrol in an educational college for young girls. Athina married in Athens. Her first child was born a few months prior to the right-wing military junta taking power in April 1967. In Australia, she worked, initially, as a Greek afternoon school teacher and, later, as an Early Childcare teacher.

John Prineas was born in Kythera in 1933, where he completed secondary school. For almost the entirety of his childhood, John’s father was in Australia, where he operated a series of cafes during the interwar and war years. In 1951 John joined him. His first job was working in his father’s café in Griffith. Later he moved to Sydney and worked in an uncle’s café in Randwick, while also working for AWA and taking evening classes in electronics. By the 1960s he had opened his own electronics business in Chester Hill. He also participated in larger business ventures, such as Retravision, became an accountant and served on a number of company boards.