Gerry Karidis is a straight-talking man. It’s a trait bestowed on him by loving parents. “My mother told me, ‘whatever you do, be honest. Be as tough as you need to be, but don’t lose your reputation,'” says Karidis, whose reputation – as a businessman for over 50 years combining personal success with dedicated public service – couldn’t be more respected. Next week more than 500 guests – industry leaders and senior politicians (from every side of state and federal politics) – will join Gerry, his family and friends, for a celebration of his life; a life that began in Lefkada in 1937, saw him emigrate at 18, and then plot a course that has made him an esteemed name in Australian property development. The event will also launch his biography. Written with co-author Brian Abbey, Building, Always Building trawls through Karidis’ memories with a fine net – from infant recollections of the wartime occupation of Lefkada to heading up the Karidis Corporation – one of the largest property development companies operating in South Australia. Gerry’s Australian journey began on his arrival in Adelaide in 1956. From humble beginnings as a dockside worker, to establishing his own multi-million dollar business, it’s a story of hard graft and making something out nothing. The early years as a wharfie is an experience he values to this day, because it gave him he says, the chance of “being in the other person’s shoes.” On the waterfront, Karidis made just enough money to use as an investment in his first property construction. Together with brother Don – who had come out to Australia a year before him – Gerry soon built his first house – a refuge for himself and his siblings. In December 1957, he was married, having been introduced by the local Greek Orthodox priest to Stella Anastas – from a Kastellorizon family that had taken the well-worn Greek diaspora path from Perth to Adelaide. Blessed with a daughter – Theadora in 1961, two years later he was able to leave the dockside, having laid the foundations for running a business on his own terms. Around the same time, Gerry met Ken Saunders – a man, he says, who was instrumental in helping write the Karidis story. Saunders’ investment in an early project enabled Gerry to get his commercial start. The property was 32 Gladstone Street, Mile End in Adelaide. Gerry bought and demolished it, and built six apartments in its place. He realised a profit of £6000 – a sum with the purchasing power of $80,000 today. Gerry Karidis was in business. So began his rapid rise through the ranks of property dealings in Adelaide’s west, gaining him the attention of influential people – agents, builders and financiers – contacts who enabled him to tackle ever bigger projects. He became as adept at building relationships as solid as the units he was creating. By the early 1970s he was producing housing at a rate of six a week: it was not a feat that went unnoticed. But Gerry Karidis was about to get a lot more notice. Based on Gerry’s connections, in late 1974, a source of foreign investment appeared that the then ALP federal Minister for Minerals and Energy – Rex Connor, took more than a passing interest in. That source – and what would later become known as the Loans Affair – would have historic repercussions for Australi that still resonate to this day. In essence the story goes like this: In 1974 the Whitlam government was attempting to raise a loan of US$4 billion to fund a swathe of major natural resource and energy projects. Such projects were traditionally financed from loans from European banks and as part of foreign ownership deals. Connor saw the potential for a loan raised independently, to challenge the status quo of foreign ownership of Australia’s key resources, and Gerry Karidis provided the unconventional Connor with the opportunity to tap into just such a source of finance. The opportunity came in the form of a man called Tirath Khemlani, a Pakistani trader with a London-based commodity-trading firm called Dalamal. According to sources known to Gerry, Khemlani had access to millions of petrodollars in the Middle East, finance that had become available as the price of oil quadrupled between 1973 and 1974. Authorised to pursue the deal in late 1974, despite the Treasury doubting the project, Rex Connor set out on a path to raise the $US4bn loan from Arab financiers – with Khemlani as the intermediary and Karidis as Connor’s right-hand man. The months passed. By May 1975, with the loan not eventuating, Gough Whitlam sought to secure the funds through other means. Two months later, the PM was forced to defend his government’s position on the Khemlani deal in the House of Representatives. Beset by economic difficulties and the negative political impact of the affair stirred by the Malcolm Fraser-led Opposition, the government was vulnerable. Though Connor’s authority to seek the loan had been withdrawn, the minister continued to liaise with Khemlani, and when this became public, Connor resigned from cabinet. The Opposition and its media supporters made hay with damaging accusations of impropriety. The rest really is history. The affair had mortally wounded the credibility of the Whitlam government. Using its numbers in the Senate to block budget legislation, Fraser tried to force a general election – citing the Loans Affair as an example of ‘extraordinary and reprehensible’ circumstances. On 11 November 1975, Whitlam was removed as Prime Minister by Governor General Sir John Carr, who appointed Malcolm Fraser as caretaker PM. Karidis had been Connor’s right-hand man and confidante – the initial link to Khemlani and chief conduit. Motivated by commercial considerations initially, as he came to know and respect Connor, Gerry’s motivation changed, warming to the broader nationalist and pro-development agenda the minister was pursuing. More than thirty-five years after the event, Karidis is still angry how his role in the loans affair has been construed, and how Connor was vilified by politically motivated opponents. Much of what has been said about the loans affair is, in Gerry’s opinion “mischievous, short-sighted and politically slanted”. In Building, Always Building for the first time Gerry has put down his detailed perspective on the affair, in an effort to draw attention to what he believes are neglected and misunderstood aspects of the episode. “Connor was a pioneer, a visionary who was ahead of his time,” says Karidis. “Why was he looking for the money? The reason was mineral resources and 35 years later we still have the same problem.” Karidis still believes in the absolute legitimacy of Connor’s motives – a man who he says was like a father to him. “When anybody tries to do something for the country, perhaps some people don’t like it, because it doesn’t suit the few.” For Karidis, the contemporary parallels are blindingly obvious, with questions again being asked about the appropriateness of Asia’s large-scale ownership of Australia’s natural resources. “Look at what Australia has done with China over the mining industry,” he says, with more than a hint of indignation. In Gerry’s succinct style – though disappointed in how the Loans Affair ended, and how some have chosen to criticise Connors and his own role since – today he is philosophical. “Everything comes in time. It was all political,” he says ruefully. As Karidis points out, he’s the last surviving member of the team that tried to secure the controversial deal – a more insightful analysis of what really happened, as detailed in Building, Always Building would be hard to find. In the 1980s Karidis became an early and energetic proponent for repopulating the city of Adelaide. For three decades he ran a relentless campaign to promote urban consolidation in the South Australian capital and make its city centre a livelier, more livable environment. Like many of his ventures, his actions won him devoted friends, as well as some enemies. Building, Always Building chronicles the deals, the disappointments, and the dedication to a cause, that goes way beyond a search for profit and personal wealth. Karidis’ story is that of a man who has had immense involvement in his ‘community’ in every sense. Involved over the years in a huge range of public bodies, community associations and the Greek Orthodox Church,  – his public service was recognised when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1990. Today, one of the major ongoing projects of which he takes most pride in, is the Karidis Corporation’s development of a series of retirement villages in Adelaide and Melbourne, providing hundreds of custom-built homes for pensioners to live independently in secure environments. “I like to spend time with the older people in my retirement villages, “says Karidis. “I look after them, I like to see if they’re happy. Sometimes I go without the property managers even knowing I’m there.” And what’s next for Gerry Karidis? “That’s a good question,” says the near octogenarian. “Do you expect me to lay down, dig a hole and get in or what? I’ll slow down a bit for sure, but I have to remain active to keep alive. “I want to travel more with my wife and I want to work with the next generation of my family.” The Karidis journey is far from over. Long may it continue.