Almost open, the new IGA supermarket at Mistful Park in Goulburn’s north. Photo: John Thistleton.
Principal of Ganter Constructions Basil Toparis and his family waited for more than 24 years for planning approvals for Mistful Park’s small commercial project north of Goulburn.
Mistful Park’s new IGA supermarket is to open in early April, even though the first development application for shops was submitted in 1999.
That was so long ago the family later had to untangle red tape around the old city council and current Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s residential boundaries. (The city and shire merged in 2004).
Drought, claims the project would undermine Goulburn’s main street traders and disagreements over the new supermarket’s size caused delays.
Basil thought he could either walk away from the proposal, go broke or continue building more homes. He had tried retiring previously but boredom drove him back to work.
“He got hooked on Days of Our Lives before we bought our home in Clyde Street,” his wife Dora said, recalling a previous unsuccessful attempt of retiring. “We ended up buying five acres and he spent 12 months picking up rocks so he could landscape it.”
“We had an acre of market gardens and fruit trees,” Basil said. “The first year we picked 60 bushels of tomatoes.” Dora added: “He used to give it all to his friends.”
Three generations of the Toparis family. Back row, from left: Nick, Richard, Broc, Sam, James, Lee and Tom. Middle row: Meg, Vanessa, Basil, Rie, Janet and Phil. Front row: Tyler, Dora, Mae and Matilda. Photo: Toparis family collection.
These days Mistful Park stands on what once was a 200-acre farm where the Toparises had planned to build their home and retire. They were gazumped, then bought a smaller portion of the land on which Basil grew pumpkins.
“We sold it later and I said to the buyer, ‘If you ever decide you want to sell it again, I might be interested,’” Basil said. Sixteen years later the buyer offered to sell him back the land and he agreed.
While waiting for planning approvals at Mistful Park, Basil decided to develop more homes elsewhere and estimates they built about 500 new homes at other locations in Goulburn.
Basil Toparis says his wife Dora continues working more than 50 hours a week on administration. She would like to retire, but he insists he cannot do without her.
Mistful Park’s shopping centre now comprises the 1500 sqm IGA supermarket, a chemist, doctor’s surgery, service station, car wash, K and Gs cafe and a childcare centre.
At its peak, Ganter has employed up to 50 bricklayers, painters, plasterers, carpenters and other tradies. Basil and Dora say the key to attracting and keeping them is paying them on time.
“Every Friday we paid,” Basil said. “If the job wasn’t finished, we would give them a draw (progress payment). We had Wilson Plumbing for 30 years and electrician Mark Robinson for 30 years. He is still with us.”
Dora said when Basil retired from the fruit market many years ago his former truck drivers were upset to see him go because he had treated them so well.
“Well, you have to. Your staff can make you or break you,” Basil said. “If you treat them right they will treat you right, because after all, they’ve got to make a living too.”
In November 2024, the Toparises held a large family reunion and tour of Goulburn properties developed after their arrival from Alexandria, Egypt, 75 years earlier.
Returning for the event from Queensland and Sydney were many of the children and grandchildren of Basil’s brothers and sisters.
They began their tour from the family’s first house, visited the former fruit market site in Robinson Street, Supertex and land near the original Teneriffe homestead where years ago the family had rented an orchard, picked fruit and dispatched it to Sydney.
They stopped at the Greek church in MacAlister Drive which was built on land donated by Con Toparis, the family’s patriarch. Dora said Con was a traditional, religious man who had always intended to take his family back to Greece. He longed to worship in a Greek church.
Descendants of Con and Maria Toparis gathered in Goulburn in 2024 for a coach tour of the city where the family bought businesses or developed sites. They paused at the Greek church which was built on land donated by Con Toparis. Photo: Toparis family collection.
The visionary businessman’s plans for returning to Greece faded with every passing year, because his children became too involved in the Goulburn community, building long-term relationships socially and at work, most especially Basil and George.
“The boys never wanted to leave, they loved their lifestyle in Australia, they loved what they were doing,” Dora said, closing a thick photo album that has a pictorial record of four generations of hardworking Greeks in Goulburn.
Mistful Park Village is located on the corner of Crookwell Road and Marys Mount Road, Goulburn.
