The Sydney Café at 81 Goondoon Street

By Betty Laver

The Sydney Café was owned by Demetrious (Jim) Psaradelis who was born in Rapanadi on the Greek Island of Lemnos. He migrated to Sydney as a young man in 1920 and opened a café. After a few years he went north working on many different jobs, eventually becoming a cane cutter at Babinda in north Queensland. Jim was on his way to Bundaberg from up north when he stopped off in Gladstone and, liking the place, he stayed. He established a café next door to the Lincoln Hall in Goondoon Street, naming it the Sydney Cafe. At this time, he also bought some land from Zwislers Estate at the base of One Tree Hill in West Gladstone where he could farm.