In a personal piece authored for Neos Kosmos, Dimitri Fountas, a recently arrived Greek who experienced the Aussie “fair go”, shares his story in a bid to honour his origins and “pay tribute to the Greek community of Australia.”

It all started in 2013, while holidaying at his village, Kandila, in the region of Aetolia-Acarnania and introduced by his grandfather to a friend who was visiting from Australia, Denis Makris.

“He was a well-known businessman in Melbourne who died in 2015,” Mr Fountas writes, citing a past NK report on Mr Makris’ trajectory from arriving “barefoot” in Australia to becoming a millionaire.

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Mr Fountas made a good impression to Mr Makris, at a point where he was invited to move to Australia for a new beginning.

The young Greek took up the challenge, closing his business which was hit by the economic crisis, and arrived in Melbourne in January, 2014.

“Mr Makris welcomed me at the airport and took me to his place in Kew. We got there around 10 pm, his wife prepared dinner for us, we ate and went to bed,” Mr Fountas recalls.

“At 5 in the morning he woke me up to have coffee and straight away we went to one of his factories where I completed my first working day [in Australia].

“I didn’t know English, or anything… Every time we were driving to work he would tell me ‘Save enough money Δημητράκη and whenever you find an opportunity, go for it, don’t forget that, OK?'”

And he didn’t.

After two years working at Mr Makris’ businesses, while being a casual taxi driver at the same time, and studying, Mr Fountas pursued new pathways to continue working in Australia.

He switched to driving a taxi full-time, and subletting it for an extra income, learnt English and got familiar with the Australian culture and how things work in the country.

It wasn’t a rosy path he set on. He remembers suffering a burnout from excessive work, at which point his wife persuaded him to go to Sydney for holidays, taking a break for the first time after three years.

Their stay there instigated the idea for what is today his successful business.

Mr Fountas’ shopfront in North Fitzroy, Melbourne. Photo: Supplied

Wanting to hire a motorbike to tour the city, Mr Fountas realised that demand had out-beaten supply with none available.

“Immediately I got on my phone and posted an online ad for bikes available for hire in Melbourne. An hour later, I got my first deposit for an order, without having an actual business of course. The number of calls that followed was overwhelming so I had to delete the ad,” he describes.

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Upon returning to Melbourne a few days later, Mr Fountas was quick to establish the business despite being able to afford buying just two bikes for starters. On the very next day, both had been hired by clients for a two-month slot.

The rest is history, with Mr Fountas gradually expanding operations with income gained through taxi-driving, while in a year’s time he managed to have a fleet of 100 bikes.

Today his business is “among the five biggest scooter rentals agencies in the country”, with an estimated worth of $1.3 million, Mr Fountas says, with the undertaking also having successfully paved the way to Australian citizenship.

And while the achievements came as a result of hard labour and persistence, Mr Fountas says he will always remember the man thanks to whom this series of events was made possible.

“I will never forget μπάρμπα – Ντένη – this is how we called him at the village – who gave me the opportunity to come to this country, nor [will I forget] his words of advice.”