Businessman, electronics whiz, ham radio enthusiast, Greek culture aficionado, family man and keen historian of Newcastle’s Hunter Street. With so many passions no wonder the recent passing of Spero Davias caused such a reaction in his home city of Newcastle, NSW.

He’d been on my long list of people I had wanted to interview for a blog post on this website and when I heard he’d gone I kicked myself for missing the chance to talk to him about his remarkable life and, especially, the extraordinary website he created to document the history of Hunter Street, from end to end. Another initial reaction was concern about the fate of that impressive digital monument, a concern I’m delighted to say has been allayed by conversations with Spero’s wife, Liz, and son Peter, who are determined the site will survive and prosper.

Born in Australia 75 years ago to parents who had moved to Australia from the Greek Island of Ithaca, Spero endured the usual criticism and abuse experienced by most members of immigrant communities in Australia. Rather than cowing him, this spurred him on. He trained as an electrician before suddenly deciding, in 1974, to establish his own record store. To quote Spero’s own (AI-assisted) words, as relayed by his son Peter:

In the late hours of a warm Sunday morning in late 1974, still feeling the remnants of a lively Saturday night. I found myself lounging over coffee, immersed in the hypnotic strains of Pink Floyd’s quadraphonic melodies. As the music enveloped me, a spontaneous idea sprang forth “I’ll open a record store”. As an electrical contractor with time to spare, the notion seemed both whimsical and inspired. Without hesitation, I abandoned my coffee, leapt into the car and embarked on a quest for the perfect location. Cruising through Cardiff, I stumbled upon a vacant space next to the Ford’s building and with determined optimism, I approached the venerable Ford himself, negotiating a lease for the adjacent shop. Returning home just in time for lunch, I eagerly deliberated the next steps, fueled by excitement and fueled by my modest means.

This was the beginning of the beloved Newcastle retail icon, Sound World, which was a highly successful brand until the onset of internet streaming brought it down, with the last Sound World outlet closing in 2006. Most Newcastle record collectors would have at least one Sound World branded record sleeve in their collection. Spero also made his own amplifiers – under the “Spero” brand, and had businesses that installed wireless access points and fibre optic cables. He loved technology and was quick to spot trends. In his eulogy for his father, Peter wrote:

Dad’s office was a haven of electronics, amateur radio gear, walkie talkies, computers, motherboards, soldering irons, wires, cables, flickering lights and somehow a desk, but good luck trying to figure out how to sit down and find space to write something. Dad was an avid eBay user, not satisfied with buying one of something, for Dad it was better to buy in bulk to get a better deal. Soon, packages would be arriving full of USB drives, light switches, torches, chargers, cables and all sorts of gizmos and gadgets. These Chinese eBay sellers are likely to go out of business without Spero’s credit card hoovering up their cheap electronics.

In his 40s he reconnected with his Greek heritage, overcoming his fear of flying and travelling to his father’s former home in Ithaca. This led to a passion for genealogy and family history, which in turn led to an interest in documenting the history of Newcastle’s Greek fish shops and cafes and the people who – like his father – established and ran them. According to Liz, it was this project (which can be found on his website here) that led him to the bigger Hunter Street undertaking. Frequent conundrums relating to altered street numbers and other confusing information about the fish shops and cafes forced him to look hard at changes in Hunter Street over many years. The logical next step, for a person with the energy and love of detail that Spero possessed, was to map out Hunter Street in its entirety and built a database of every building and allotment, recording their many changes of use and ownership. Peter explained:

Through his research Dad noticed a lot of changes and inconsistencies against the records of Hunter Street. Dad started to dive deep into whatever publicly available Newcastle historical materials were available. Using old classifieds and print ads from archived Herald newspapers, Dad triangulated street numbers, business names and owners to formulate a comprehensive chronological history of Hunter Street.

The incredible labour of love that was Spero’s Hunter Street project was and is constantly evolving as new information emerges. According to Liz, Spero last updated it five days before his death, telling her how pleased he was to have uploaded all the most recent changes he had available.

It’s a truly marvellous legacy, sitting on Spero’s website alongside his engaging history of Sound World, his history of Newcastle’s radio stations and his account of the city’s old Greek cafes. Peter said Spero’s family was committed to modernising and sustaining the site and its content, possibly recruiting some helpers in the task.

“Dad taught himself the basics of building websites back in the early 1990s and his web development and styling skills never progressed past 1995,” Peter laughed. That 1990s aesthetic may go, but the content will remain.

Spero’s other great passion was ham radio. Peter wrote:

Throughout his life, Victor-Kilo-Two-Yankee-Hotel-Xray, or VK2YHX, was his call sign. Still to this day, you can spot VK2YHX stickers pasted across many of his personal items. Dad was a member of the Westlakes Amateur Radio Club since 1976, where he studied for his amateur licence. He was also an original member of the Newcastle ATV and UHF Group which is now the Newcastle Amateur Radio Club. In 2024 Dad was elected as the Chief Repeater officer for Westlakes Amateur Radio Club.

You can find Spero’s website, with links to its various components, including the Hunter Street project, here:

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