Footscray’s Con Goulas has been remembered as a giant of Melbourne’s seafood industry and the Greek community following his death last week aged 91.
The founder of Conway Fish Trading, Mr Goulas died on Monday 16 February after years of ill-health.
His daughter-in-law, Stacy Goulas, said despite his health struggles and advancing age, Mr Goulas remained committed to the Footscray fish business he founded in 1969.
“He was a tough cookie, we’re talking John Wayne tough,” Ms Goulas said of her father-in-law.
“What kept him going was that he kept coming to work every day regardless of his frailties.
“He had an office overlooking the retail shop. He’d just look down and feel a part of the business.”
That business began as a fish wholesaler on Wingfield Street, before it slowly expanded to the Whitehall Street corner with a fresh fish store in 2006 and a fish and chip shop in 2015.
The Goulas family and their business became pillars of the Footscray community, especially its Greek diaspora, and in 2023 that contribution was honoured when they were featured in the Footscray Hidden Hellenism mural painted on the Yewers Street side of the Conway Fish Trading building.
The mural also features in the recently opened new Footscray Hospital.
Ms Goulas said it served as a fitting tribute to her father-law.
“He was such a charismatic, charming, jovial, joking personality,” she said.
Con Goulas is survived by children Yvonne and Dimitrious, daughter-in-law Stacy, and grandhildren Kosta, Nik and Alex,
