Sofis family history in Barraba
History Notes
This week perhaps we should remind our older residents of a well-known family who lived many years in our midst and who were very well thought of in the Barraba population.
I am referring to the Sofis family who came to Barraba from Lesvos. Dimitrios Sofianos (Jim Sofis) came to Australia in 1923 and stayed more than 10 years settling into the café scene in Australia. It’s not known just when he decided to settle in Barraba but he certainly had the Empire Café, next door to Clifton Hall, in February 1930 and was advertising meals at all hours by Sofis and Co. at that time.
In 1937 Jim, as he was known in Australia, went back to Greece for a holiday. It was during that 2-year holiday that he married Electra Sarika. The young couple then sailed to Australia on the Strathmore in 1937. On arrival in Sydney there was a brief time to look at the shops before boarding the train to Barraba.
On arrival in Barraba they lived with friends for a while with hardly time to write to family in Greece before the Second World War began. It was a lonely time for a young bride living so far away from family and by the time the war ended there were three young girls in the Sofis family.
It is not certain just when the café opened on the western side of Queen Street – there has hardly been any activity in the café since the Sofis family left in the mid-1960s but some of the old features are still visible.
Electra was rather surprised to see how many friends Jim had made and how much he has become part of Barraba. The family got on well with the Barraba population and socialized with many of them especially the other Greek family running the Golden Bell Café down the street.
Tragedy struck on the 23rd May 1950, when James Sofis died in a car accident on the Bingara road while returning home from a fishing trip. He left a wife and three young girls and a café for everyone to look after. Barraba rose to the occasion and there were people everywhere helping the family get back on their feet. Some customers would come from great distances to support the Sofis family and the locals used any excuse to shop there – my mother often bought fruit from Sofis and we often had meals there as well.
After finishing boarding school, a group of us played tennis at the Tennis Club on Saturday afternoon, then had a meal at the Sofis Café and went onto the movies after that – the café was usually still open when the film finished but we mostly went home.
On Sundays in the summer months a number of the same group went to Keepit Dam to learn to water ski – we spent most of the day down there and came back to Sofis Café for dinner before going home. We were always amazed at the Sofis girls’ memories – 12 people sitting around one table and one waitress taking the orders without pencil or paper. The meals were always correct!
Sadly, the Sofis family decided to leave Barraba in the mid 1960s. The girls were growing up, Anna had married and Electra was beginning to feel it was too much. Anna and her husband had bought a milk bar in Sydney and so the family moved to Sydney. The girls still keep in touch with their Barraba friends, which is nice.
I wonder who else has memories of the Sofis family to share?