He may be 77-years-old, but George Aivatoglou is still pushing 12-hour working days, particularly now that it’s winter and the season is in full swing.

“Maybe it’s because I’m Greek, and Greece is in big trouble, that I want people to know through my story, that Greeks are hard-working people.”

He’s been part of the scene in Victoria’s premier ski resort for over half a century.

As a carpenter, he helped to build the first ski shop and has been an integral part of Mt Buller’s development ever since.

Recently, the Mt Buller community presented the owner of George’s Ski Hire with a plaque, in recognition of his work over the last 53 years.

Mt Buller was the natural fit for the man from Edessa in the mountains of northern Greece. But skiing was never part of life where George grew up. Before training as a carpenter, steady work was difficult to come by in the poverty stricken Greece of the 1950s.

He came to Australia as a 24-year-old in October 1962 with the idea that he would stay for a couple of years, make some money and return home. But as soon as he’d stepped off the Patris, things didn’t quite work out the way he planned.

“When the ship arrived in Melbourne, I was to go to Bonegilla to work. But there was no one to help me and I didn’t know how to get there from Melbourne.
“Everyone else who had been on the ship had been greeted by friends and relatives and went off with them.”

With no English, George spent four days around the port seeking shelter in the public toilets until someone asked him who he was.

“I said ‘Greek’ and the man sent for an interpreter, and the brother of a fellow passenger took me to his home in South Melbourne,”

That fellow traveller, Vangelos Stoyanou, fed him and gave him a place to stay in return for some renovation work.

“The next day, he gave me threepence to get a newspaper and look for employment. When he returned that evening from work, he found me a job for a carpenter on the mountain here in Mt Buller.”

So began George’s life’s work in Australia.

“I worked that summer on the first ski hire that went up. My boss asked me to stay on in the winter to work at the ski shop we had just built.”

In the summers he worked as a carpenter and repaired skis. In winter he managed the ski shop, all the while improving his English.

“Everything is difficult if you don’t know the language. All I did was read and try to learn English, and I worked day and night. But I got to know a lot of people.”

His wife, Margaret, whom he married in 1967, said her husband worked hard all his life. “He hasn’t stopped since he was 11,” she says.

Of Scottish and Irish descent, Margaret went on to learn Greek. In 1968, George had his first taste of managing a ski hire business on the mountain – Molony’s, owned by Geoff Henke.

“Mr Henke promised that he would sell me the shop when he retired. We shook hands on it and that was our contract.”

As the years passed and the skiing industry grew, George came to own three ski shops on Mt Buller and one at Merrijig, just off the mountain.

Not only did he build ski businesses, George also created a nursing home (named after his mother), Evangelia by the Sea, in Parkdale, which Margaret managed for 27 years until its sale six years ago.

At the nursing home’s peak, it employed 80 staff. Today, 20 employees are on the books in the one Mt Buller shop that remains.

“In a good season I get up to 4,000 customers,” says George, who travels regularly to Europe and Canada to source products for the store.

While bigger companies operate on the mountain, none are likely to offer quite the care and attention of the Aivatoglou business. It’s a family affair, with son Robert and daughter Lia key to its success.

“I love to make people feel welcome,” says George.

“Maybe it’s because I’m Greek, and Greece is in big trouble, that I want people to know through my story, that Greeks are hard-working people.”