Background
Comino was born in his native Kythera, Greece in 1844, son of Dimitrios Comino and his wife Agapy.
Comino was born in his native Kythera, Greece in 1844, son of Dimitrios Comino and his wife Agapy.
Comino arrived in Sydney in 1873 as a crew member on a sailing ship and found work at the Balmain Colliery. A fish-and-chips shop owned by a Welshman in Oxford Street, Sydney and his familiarity with seafood in the Greek islands pointed him to the idea of a similar venture. In 1878, he opened an oyster saloon a few doors down from the fish-and-chips shop.
From 1882 he took up the lease of oyster beds at the mouth of the Lane Cove River, then Portuguese Jackson and the Evans River on the north coast.
Relatives and friends from Kythera who came out to Australia opened other shops and the Comino name became known in fish shops, oyster bars and oyster leases. Comino became known as the ‘Oyster King’.