Putting the Dura in Mildura

The new quarterly magazine The Dura has made a huge impact in the small, sun-kissed town of Mildura. Neos Kosmos talks to its Greek Australian founders


“Mildura-ites are really proud of being in Mildura, they’re really proud of their town, they don’t like a little controversial truth, but they embrace the history of it.”

Tongue-in-cheek is a great way to describe The Dura. The brand-new Mildura quarterly magazine isn’t there to be pretentious, despite its monochrome layout and oversized pages.
Little tidbits will show you it’s not taking itself too seriously.
The masthead reads ‘Local stories, history, news, art and shenanigans’, and just next to it is an old local on a mobility scooter. ‘It doesn’t get better than this’ the man’s caption reads, and for a small community magazine, it’s hard to refute.
The Dura, in its first issue, is an in-depth historical and modern representation of Mildura, aiming to tell the hidden stories and the stories once forgotten.
It’s the brainchild of three creative Greeks – Harry Rekas, editor in chief, Brendan ‘Citizen Kane’ aka Panagiotis Nasoufis, and Dimitri Nickas, part of the magazine’s ‘brains trust’.
Harry Rekas is the famous creator of the highly satirical, pop-culture magazine called Large. His publishing background and his family’s roots in Mildura made The Dura a reality.
After coming back from working internationally on Large, Harry decided not to get back into the thick of things straight away and opted to visit his parents in Mildura over Christmas last year.
That’s when, along with Brendan and Dimitri, The Dura was born.
“I got back onto it [The Dura] and produced a mock for Christmas 2012, and Brendan started selling ads and they were selling,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“And it sort of grew legs all of a sudden.”
Despite toying with the idea for several years, the trio never expected it to take off, and so quickly.
Launched in late May, The Dura has definitely made chins wag and seen the print world tremble thanks to its stunning layout and out-of-the ordinary content.
“We have hit a nerve,” Brendan reveals to Neos Kosmos.
“Mildura-ites are really proud of being in Mildura, they’re really proud of their town, they don’t like a little controversial truth, but they embrace the history of it.”
Their cover story definitely captured the interest of many locals.
They introduced one of Australia’s most influential, yet amazingly forgotten figures, Clement John DeGaris. The suave-talking PR mogul in the 1920s plastered his name all around Australia in his business ventures. Along with his packing company, his newspaper, his garage, his furniture shop, DeGaris fronted a Mildura staple, the Sunraysia Dried Fruits Association.
“No one knew DeGaris,” says Rekas, “but there’s a street called DeGaris, there’s a kindergarten called DeGaris…”
“People came up to us and said, ‘Wow, why isn’t there a statue of DeGaris here’ and another person said, ‘There should be a film made’.
“Mildura has been really taken by that story.”
Another gem in the first issue is the roll of negatives retrieved from a wall cavity in an old building being renovated. Dating back to the 1940s and 50s, the photos have never seen the light of day. With the help of La Trobe University, The Dura developed hundreds of lost personal photos; weddings, location shots and portraits that were frozen in time.
Most of the photos were studio photography, and a particular photo published in The Dura of a young girl dressed in elaborate Scottish garb caught the eye of a local who recognized her and passed on more information.
Brendan says the next issue will feature more of these lost photos to see if more people recognise them and put a name to the face. Not even the name of the photographer is known.
The team has actually been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content available to them, and say there will never be a shortage.
Their first issue was actually going to be 32 pages, but was bumped up to 44 to include more photos and extra content.
“Jesus, the stuff that you’ve got to play with, the pool of images, I don’t even know the half of it,” says Rekas.
The magazine is giving itself a character early on. Its signature ants trail their way onto the front and back cover, while each issue gets characterised by a theme.
The current issue looks at the history and legacy of the Mildura railway.
The Mildura railway was born in 1903 and now lies idle, or as The Dura reveals, in Chris Davis’ small mechanics garage. Mr Davis, a mechanic- come-gelato maker and train enthusiast, collected some of the most rare remnants of the Mildura train system when the Kennett government shut it down in 1993. He even has the train’s luggage trollies.
Described as one of the city’s ‘most visible eccentrics’, Mr Davis has lobbied for the preservation of the old, and hopes to inspire the young. He’s been operating miniature steam trains for children in the Diamond Valley miniature railway in Eltham for 35 years.
These modern day ‘relics’ are what makes The Dura special. The team work very hard to gain people’s trust: “They’re suspicious,” says Rekas.
“With something like The Dura, going to a town like that, the key to it is to see people. You’ve got to go out and form relationships and take shots and to see what someone has in their home, whether it’s some writing by their long dead grandfather.”
Despite its strong historical subject matter, the team made sure to balance the old with the modern. Their ‘Mail, news, notes and opinion’ section is a breath of fresh air and completely unique to The Dura.
It also harks back to Rekas’ controversial nature. Cheeky caricatures and jokes surround strong opinion pieces, while my favourite, DeGaris’ 10 uses for the Sunraysia Daily (if he were still alive) makes a humorous link to their cover story.
“There are a few shenanigans in there,” says Brendan. “Mildura gets up to no good sometimes, so we wanted to showcase that.”
Mildura has a deep migrant history that is quite different to the big cities, and the team will be investigating their migrant legacy in the next issues.
The 1920s saw many Greek communists settle in the sunny town, before the big wave in the 1950s and 60s.
The team has given a special tribute to the late George Stamation Raftis. A figurehead in the Mildura Greek community, the philanthropist was well known for his bouzouki skills and for helping the construction of the Greek Hall of Mildura.
Along with the Greeks, early settling Italians, Lebanese and Yugoslavians meant the town was bustling with foreign accents and made many families rich.
Despite the allure of the big city, Mildura always kept its population strong and now sees many returning to the town to retire.
“It’s like a little pocket of Melbourne stuck in the desert,” Brendan says.
With the success of their first issue, the team will be looking to get the next edition up to scratch to keep readers enticed. Talks are already underway to increase the circulation in neighbouring towns.
But for the three creators, the project still retains its first edition enthusiasm. You’ll see Harry and Brendan driving around town taking sneaky photos (that’s where the inspiration for the mobility scooter joke came from) while their meetings still feel like a sit down chat with friends.