Last Day of School

Keira Street: Tales of gunfire, flames, drama, development, dining, music, mayhem, a trouser burglar and a kebab van
Last Day Of School
December 2024
$35 (including postage) order via the PayPal link below

The blurb
Telling the entire history of Wollongong would be a big ask. But how about just three blocks of it? That’s what this book goes. It looks at the section of Keira Street between Smith and Burelli streets and tells odd and interesting stories that happened somewhere on those three blocks. And there has been plenty that’s happened along that 500-metre stretch of road, which was actually one of the first in the city.
And sure, you might think history is boring and local history is even more boring, but not here. I’ve filtered out all the dull stories only to be left with the best – murder, shootings, kebab vans and more. You can have a free read of the introduction below.

You’re in Australia? You want to buy a copy of Keira Street? Well, you’re in luck, you can buy is direct from me. I’ll even sign it. All you need to do is use this PayPal link.

Read an excerpt from Keira Street

George Skouras was sick of it. He’d been going to the club for years and all they seemed to do was cheat him out of his money. He’d had enough and so on the night of Thursday, September 6, he got his revenge.
The venue in question was the Athena Club upstairs on the southeastern corner of Keira and Crown streets. At about 7.45pm the club was full when someone smelled smoke and soon people were running from the flames. Some made their way out onto an awning, where they were saved by a Keira Street fruit merchant by the name of E Walker. He drove his truck under the awning and helped the people climb down onto it and away to safety.
Chris Kynesos wasn’t quite so lucky, he jumped from a window and fractured his foot when he landed. Another member, George Mitchell (with the interesting job description of “potato merchant”) made his way outside only to realise he’d left his jacket behind with the earnings from a hard day of potato selling in the pocket.
“I was just sitting down when the next minute the club was in flames,” Mitchell said. After the fire was out, he was able to return the club and find both his jacket and his potato money.
Christopher Bados, another member in the club at the time, insisted the fire had started in the kitchen and must have been from an electrical fault, because nothing but coffee and tea were being made at the time.
But it wasn’t an electrical fault. It was the 22-year-old Skouras getting some of his own back. It was a pretty open and shut case; police had charged him with arson the very next day.
When the case came to court a week later (the law worked fast in those days) it became clear that Skouras wasn’t interesting in being subtle. Athena Club co-owner Leo Paragois testified that he’d seen Skouras carrying a plastic can of petrol up the stairs of the club.
When he made it to the top of those stairs, Paragois said he saw Skouras pour the petrol on the floor and light a match before anyone could stop him. The co-owner then said he jumped over the flames and chased Skouras down the stairs and out of the club.
Skouras, who pleaded guilty to the fire, said the source of his anger was being cheated at card games at the club for the last three years.
On the night of the fire, Skouras had managed to lose his week’s wages on a card game and asked Arthur Boyiatzis, the Athena Club’s other owner, for a loan of £5. The owner refused, apparently because Skouras already owed him £5.
Skouras didn’t take the refusal well. “Then I tell him I am going to close the place down and he hit me straight in the face,” Skouras claimed. Boyiatzis instead claimed Skouras began swearing and throwing chairs around the club. Then, a half-hour later, he saw the flames.
The Mercury didn’t record the sentence Skouras received, though he didn’t seem to dispute they he lit the fire.