Eustratios Georgiou Haritos

Eustratios Georgiou Haritos or Stratous Haritos (5 January 1888 – 25 September 1974) was a salt producer and storekeeper who spent much of his life in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Early life

Haritos was born at Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was then controlled by Turkey. he is the sone of George and Despina Haritos and as a young man he worked on salt pans on the Turkish coast.

In 1919 Haritos went intro business with a number of partners, including John Sphakanakis and Dick Colivas, to develop the salt pans around Ludmilla Creek, nearby to Ludmilla and, when established they sold to people around the Northern Territory including; Vestey's Meatworks. It appears that they were very successful and in 1931/1932 their pans yielded of salt which was valued at £1200. In addition to the salt business Haritos and Ellen ran a farm with several hundred goats and chickens and grew peanuts and watermelons.

By 1940 Haritos had purchased a number of blocks of land in the Darwin CBD where, on one, he built a large grocery store which opened on 15 October 1940; it was called EG Haritos & Sons. After the Bombing of Darwin in 1942 Haritos evacuated from the area and joined Ellen who had settled in Mullumbimby for the remainder of the war where they farmed bananas.

The family returned to Darwin in January 1946 and reopened their store, which had been used by the army as a post office during the war, while other land he had owned was resumed by the government.

He died on 25 September 1974.