Bingara Shire Council in Australia has secured a generous $94,500 state government grant to develop a museum in order to honor Greek settlement in rural Australia and Greek cafe culture of country life, at a former cafe called the Roxy. Built by three men from the tiny Greek island of Kythera in 1936, the Roxy boasted an art deco cinema, cafe, shops and a guest house. It closed in 1958 and lay empty until it was bought by the then Bingara Shire Council in 1999.
The announcement has been applauded by members of the Greek community, particularly descendants of those from Kythera. The Kytherian Association secretary, George Poulos, who is on the Roxy Museum committee, described the project as “ostensibly a Kytherian museum” on the ‘kythera-family.net website’. However the museum will tell the stories of all Greek settlers in Australia.
Bingara’s population was 1207 in the 2006 census, few of whom claim Greek descent. The town is renowned for its Orange Festival and is close to Myall Creek, the site of the notorious massacre of as many as 30 Aborigines in 1838.
The manager of the Roxy, Sandy McNaughton, said the proposed museum would be the only one of its kind in Australia “and it’s really because going to the Greek cafe was simply a part of how everyday Australians lived their lives”.
Finally, Ms McNaughton noted that the four Greek cafes operating in Bingara in the 1930s “never served anything Greek”. “They only served what they thought would be of interest to Australians”.
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