Our History

The Blue Bird Cafe and the Greeks of Lockhart

1903 – During an expansion boom in Lockhart, a brick shop is built at 104 Green Street. It is originally one large shop comprising the present Blue Bird Cafe and Verandah Town Electrical. Angelo Bachali is the first owner. He is a Greek from Lemnos who started an unorthodox business supplying fresh fish and oysters to the rural town of Lockhart.  The Marathon Saloon and Oyster Bar opened in 1906.

1913 – A young man from Kythera, called Panagiotis Veneris, arrives in Lockhart, NSW in search of relatives who can help him find his feet in Australia. Like many Greek immigrants before and after him, it is the strength of family that draws him not only to a remote town like Lockhart, but to the refreshment trade. Greeks families help each other out and more find success running milk bar cafes catering for Anglo-American tastes, than in any other industry in Australia. Panagiotis begins working at The Paragon Cafe, learning the refreshment trade from relatives Nicholas and Jim Katsoolis. His father John also arrives in town and begins a market garden. Panagiotis quickly learns English and to fit in, changes his name to its English form, Peter.

1919 – Peter Veneris has worked hard and saved enough money to buy The Paragon from his Katsoolis relatives. He is planning soon to marry a young woman from back home and he wants to show her that he is a suitable husband, settled, responsible and successful.

Also that same year Angelo Bachali sells The Marathon Saloon to his wife's cousin Vassili Tsitsinaris and his wife Sophie. Acting on advice that Australians would never be able to pronounce his complicated Greek name, Vassili changes it on board the immigrant ship. He Anglicizes his first name to William.  As his father's name is Panagiotis (Peter), Vassili becomes known as Bill Peterson.

1922 – Young bride-to-be, KyriaKoula Mavromatis, arrives in Australia with her father Benetos and sister Chrissoula. She has not seen her fiance since he left Kythera as a boy.  Her brother Anthony is waylaid and doesn't arrive in Australia for some time. He misses KyriaKoula's Surry Hills wedding which takes place on 22 February 1922 to Peter Veneris. It is not long before Peter introduces his bride to her new home in Lockhart. They build a house on Green Street where they can start a family and establish a market garden on their property that will provide a year round fresh supply of fruit and vegetables to sell.

1934 – Peter and KyriaKoula now have six children, Stella (b.1923), Violet (b.1924), Jack (b.1926), Mary (b.1927), Helen (b.1929) and Peter (b. 1932). The refreshment trade in Lockhart has been successful and Peter is ready to expand. He buys The Marathon (now known as Peterson's) Saloon from Bill Peterson and begins to renovate the structure and interior design of the building.  At the request of a friend Arthur Wood, Peter separates the large shop into two with a double brick wall. The second shop is to become a greengrocers but Arthur Wood is laid low with cancer and advises Peter that he is not likely to make it.  Peter decides to sell this smaller shop to his brother-in-law Tony Matis and it later becomes N.W. Gilmour's shoe store in 1940 and R.M. Chambers sporting and electrical goods in 1943. Today this half is the Verandah Town Electrical shop. The larger shop Peter keeps for his new cafe. A kitchen, storeroom and cook's bedroom are added to the yard out back along with a wood-fired stove and a well to provide a fresh water supply. Peter's business expansion includes interior design features from the popular American Art Deco style with booth dining and fan-shaped mirrors. He contracts a painter to decorate the windows with lobster and fruit motifs. The refreshment trade is modernised with a milk bar featuring built-in refrigeration for fresh ice cream and soda syphons. The Marathon Saloon and Oyster Bar is reborn as The Blue Bird Cafe. At the same time Peter takes on a partner, KyriaKoula's brother Anthony Mavroumatis (known in Lockhart as Tony Matis).

Bill Peterson moves to 124 Green Street where he turns part of The Lockhart Hotel into a refreshment rooms called Peterson's Cafe.

1935 – Tragedy strikes the Veneris family when Peter dies suddenly. He is only 46 years-old and he leaves his wife to bring up six children. KyriaKoula is advised by her Greek family and neighbours to return to Kythera but she has made her home now in Lockhart and all of her children were born on Australian soil. Her determination to stay wins out and she continues with the market garden behind her house while Tony and his wife Stella keep The Blue Bird Cafe going in trust for a time when the Veneris children are old enough to take over.

1938 – Fellow Greeks Leo and Olga Vakas take over at Peterson's Cafe and rename it The Monterey Cafe while Bill and Sophie Peterson move into The Georgian Cafe in Wagga Wagga. Bill will eventually run a number of successful cafes around New South Wales. Along with The Blue Bird, The Monterey Cafe becomes a fine example of American Art Deco style milk bar cafes in Australia.

1948 – Jack, the oldest of the Veneris boys works for his sister Helen and her husband Con Matis in The Mudgee Cafe learning the refreshment trade. His younger brother Peter has not long left school and is working at Pollard and Bouquet's Garage where his is putting his mechanical talents to use. Peter is a shy young man and finds it difficult to serve customers front of house in the family business.

1950 – Tony Matis announces to his sister his intention to hand the cafe over to the next generation. He instructs his nephews Jack and Peter and his sister KyriaKoula on The Blue Bird accounts and packs up his family to move to Sydney to run The White Rose milk bar in Campsie. Coincidentally this was one of the cafes formerly owned Bill Peterson. The brothers Veneris settle in to a long run as cafe proprietors. Peter prefers working out the back peeling bags of potatoes to make chips or squeezing oranges for the family recipe orange ale while Jack takes centre stage serving customers. When the boys marry, their wives Peg and Barbara lend a hand and the two families take it in turns to keep The Blue Bird open seven days a week. It is is good system that allows them each to have time off but still the days are long, beginning before sunrise collecting and chopping firewood for the stove, and ending well after dark with the polishing of floors. Maintenance on the old building is a constant chore as is keeping the authorities and customers happy. The brothers held a proud record over the years of never having a bad health inspection report and many of Lockhart's kids grew up at The Blue Bird under the watchful eye of the Veneris families. Four generations of Veneris' learned about hard work at The Blue Bird Cafe.

1954 – Leo Vakas sells The Monterey Cafe and moves to Sydney. The cafe continues for a while under Greek proprietor Manuel Kaydos but eventually becomes the Red Cross Opportunity Shop.

2003 – Jack and Peter Veneris retire aged 77 and 71 respectively. Their careers as The Blue Bird proprietors and contributions to the community are celebrated in a street party. It is also a milestone for the building which turns 100 years-old. On the brother's retirement however, The Blue Bird is sold out of the family and although the business continues to operate under three successive owners over the next 11 years, the Greek-Australian cafe tradition has ended.

2010 – Severe spring rain causes a surprise flood in Lockhart. Water penetrates The Blue Bird causing damage to floors and walls. The 107 year-old grand dame is still standing proud but starting to feel her age and recovery is long and arduous.

2011 – Ongoing problems with poor health and the necessary upkeep needed on an old building, leads to the closure of The Blue Bird Cafe and the unbroken service of a refreshment rooms at 104 Green Street ends. The Blue Bird remains closed and up for sale for close to a year surviving another season's flooding in March 2012 where this time it is spared inundation but nevertheless suffers rising damp and neglect.

2012 – Roger and Louise spot The Blue Bird on a trip from Wagga Wagga to Jerilderie and something about the now forlorn grand old dame inspires them to take her on and breathe life back into her. Our vision for The Blue Bird Cafe is to return her to her heyday, and an era when she was at her best and full of life. We want all the people who used to visit The Blue Bird Cafe to return and feel like they have never been away. We want to evoke childhood memories of family road trips and summer holidays, stopping off at the local Greek-Australian milk bar for a soda and an ice cream sundae with fresh home-made fruit salad. We want the travellers, salesmen and truckies to relive the mixed grill and good coffee but most of all we want to give the Lockhart community back their much loved Blue Bird Cafe so they can bring the family in for not just a takeaway, but a good, hearty sit-down meal and a "night off for mum". We are the new caretakers of The Blue Bird, ensuring that she can continue a tradition in Lockhart for the next 100 years to come.