Heritage Hotel Dorrigo Page 3 of 16 Michael and Elene Michael Feros was a migrant to Australia, arriving from the Greek island of Kythera. Kythera is an island in the Mediterranean, situated at the southern end of Greece. In the Greek classics, Venus, the Goddess of Love, rose unadorned from the waters near Kythera. Thus is the Kytheran claim. The story is also told that when God made the world, he used a great sieve to distribute soil over the land. The rubble that was left in the sieve, God tipped into the sea off the end of Greece; and thus Kythera, the stony island, was created. As a 15‑year‑old boy, Michael left the port of Athens on February 25, 1911, for Australia. Travelling by way of Suez and Bombay, he arrived in Sydney on June 12th, 1911, unaccompanied and friendless in a strange land, with but a limited knowledge of English. However, he was lucky inasmuch as he met an old schoolmate of his father, who employed him in his restaurant at Circular Quay. There young Mick worked from 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, for the significant wage of 5/- a week. ‘Half day off’ was a Wednesday when the boy finished work at 4:30 p.m.! At this time Sydney was a city of 350,000 people, and horse‑drawn trams were the order of the day. Mick’s next move was to Boggabri, where he worked in a refreshment room on the same conditions as Sydney, except that he earned 7/6 a week for 18 months. He then returned to Sydney and was employed in a restaurant opposite the Town Hall at one pound a week. City life did not agree with our young adventurer, and he soon ‘packed his traps’ and headed for the North Coast. He travelled by coastal ship to Coffs Harbour, and has vivid recollections of being hoisted in a basket onto the wharf there. Yes, coastal ship was the passenger transport system along the coast. Travelling to Bellingen by horse and buggy, he recalled that the journey took some ten hours. Whilst in Bellingen, Michael developed a respiratory condition. His doctor’s advice was to relocate to the clear Dorrigo air. In 1919, Michael sold his partnership in the Bellingen business and came to Dorrigo, where he conducted a refreshment room in Bielsdown Street. Mick prospered and bought the corner block on which his hotel now stands. He applied for a licence at Bellingen Licensing Court in 1923, and the doors of the hotel were opened to the public on August 13th, 1925. Below is the wedding photo of Michael Feros and Elene Haniotis. Elene was the eldest daughter in a family of five girls and one boy. In Greece in the 1920s, for women to marry, they had to have a dowry, or in Greek, a ‘prika’. As Elene’s family had five daughters, there was little prospect of her marrying in Athens. Michael, on the other hand, was looking for a Greek bride. A mutual cousin arranged the match, or ‘proxinia’. Michael sent an engagement ring in the post. Elene travelled to Australia, and Michael met her when the boat arrived, presenting her with a gold watch. Both items of jewellery are preserved by family members. Elene stayed with another cousin in Bowral. After Michael visited three times, the parties confirmed the match, and the wedding took place on January 29th, 1929. Michael and Elene had four children: Nick, Taso, Maria, and Peter.
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