Stathy Peter Efstathis reflects on life in Mackay
A well-known Mackay business man and his son reminisce about a gentler time in the sugar city – a time without traffic lights, when the fish would jump on the hook and an old school bell would tell the kids it was time to come home.
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The legendary Stathy Peter Efstathis is in a hospital in Brisbane but his mind and conversation hovers over the Mackay of his youth.
Mr Efstathis moved to the sugar city as a teenager after the second world war and speaks fondly of his life in the 1950s and 1960s.
“There were no parking meters for starters,” he said with a chuckle.
“I think I was one of the first ones to get booked for overparking.
“No lights, no green or red lights.”
Stathy’s son Peter, by his side at the hospital, also remembers a gentler Mackay.
“As you can imagine, we (the children) were free range,” he said.
“You could walk around a number of blocks to a friend’s house for a play or to do something.
It all felt safe, no traffic or anything like that.
“At the end of the day, Mum had an old school bell and she would give it a ring and whatever part of the neighbourhood we were in, the parents would say, ‘that’s your mum, better get home’.”
Stathy, his wife Mary and children Peter, Nicholas and Rosemary lived at 10 Brisbane St, opposite Byrne’s Pies, and then Nelson St.
Peter harbours fond memories from that time.
“Every Sunday there would be a gathering of family at the harbour, (to) buy fish and chips,” he said.
“Fireworks night, cracker night we called it.
“That was always great fun.
“And having free run of the school grounds.
“We were always over there playing cricket or sport or running around, climbing trees, you could just wander into the school grounds.
“Now of course they have all got security.”
He also talks about waiting for Stathy to return from fishing trips with his friends.
“Dad and his friends would go fishing and I remember waiting for the night they’d come back, waiting on the docks to see what they caught,” he said.
“And that was so exciting.
“They had those beautiful big reef fish.
“I think there were that many fish they would just jump on the hook.”
Stathy worked as a linotype operator for the Daily Mercury for almost 10 years, working night shifts from 6pm to 1am to get the paper through.
“I could run the whole show at that Daily Mercury floor,” he said.
“It was full steam ahead there.
“You started at 6 o’clock and finished about 1 o’clock.”
When asked about the journalists of the era, Stathy replied: “do you really want to know?”
“They were the worst spellers in history,” he said.
“I’m correcting the copy and typing away and I’m fixing up their bloody mistakes.”
Stathy married his “darling” wife Mary in 1956 and then moved into the peanut business from 1959-1968, operating a factory at 133 Sydney St.
Stathy sourced the peanuts from the Atherton tablelands and then processed them in Sydney St.
“In those days, there was such a thing as a peanut market,” he said.
Stathy was an active member of the Rotary club, serving in a number of roles including sergeant-at-arms and community service director.
He moved the family to Brisbane in 1969 to offer the children more educational opportunities, but he is always connected to Mackay.
“All my old friends are up there,” he said.
Now 91, Stathy has eight grandchildren and is proud of his family.
“I’m just proud of all my children and how they have performed now with all their children,” he said.
“That’s the main thing that sticks in my mind all the time.
“Forget about money, forget about all that stuff.
“In the end, it’s all about family.”
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