L C Etalides Ladies and Gents Tailor heritage sign in Austin Street Cue
Stories Above the Street  •  Cue

L. C. Etalides

From Constantinople to country Western Australia — a skilled tailor whose remarkable working life eventually brought him to Austin Street, Cue.

Measured, cut and made by hand

Before clothes came off a rack, the tailor made them to fit.

The restored sign above Austin Street remembers L. C. Etalides — Ladies & Gents Tailor, advertising 35 years experience and promising that all work was guaranteed.

Behind those few words was a man whose life had already taken him from the eastern Mediterranean to Western Australia, through several country towns and a surprising collection of occupations before he returned to the trade he knew best.

At a glance
Official name: Lavrentios George Etalides
Born: c.1880, Constantinople
Background: Armenian
Arrived in WA: 1911
Trade: Tailor
Miling: Storekeeper during the 1920s–30s
Cue sign: Est. 1937
Died: 29 November 1949, Cue
A long journey to Cue

From Constantinople to Western Australia.

Historical records identify Etalides as an Armenian born in Constantinople, then part of the Ottoman Empire, around 1880. He arrived in Western Australia in 1911 with his occupation already recorded as tailor.

c.1880

Constantinople

Etalides was born thousands of kilometres from the Murchison, in one of the great cities of the Ottoman Empire.

1911

Western Australia

He arrived in Western Australia with tailoring already established as his profession.

1937

Austin Street, Cue

The restored heritage sign remembers the establishment of his ladies' and gentlemen's tailoring business in Cue.

35 years experience

His craft began long before Cue.

The Austin Street sign boasts 35 years experience.

If that claim is read against the sign's 1937 establishment date, Etalides would have begun learning or practising the tailoring trade around the beginning of the twentieth century — before his arrival in Australia.

That fits the broader historical record, which already identifies him as a tailor when he arrived in Western Australia in 1911.

Before Cue

Then a tailor bought a country store.

During the 1920s Etalides became associated with the small wheatbelt settlement of Miling. There, his working life temporarily moved a long way from cutting cloth and fitting suits.

1926

Storekeeper

Etalides purchased Dewar's store at Miling and became a country storekeeper.

POST & TELEPHONE

An unexpected extra

The store also carried responsibility for the local post office and telephone exchange — meaning Etalides suddenly found himself handling communications as well as merchandise.

1930

Bank agent

Government records also show Etalides briefly acting as an agent for the State Savings Bank at Miling.

One unexpected job too many

He bought the store — and apparently got the telephone exchange with it.

The local history of Miling records one of the more human episodes in Etalides's remarkable working life.

When he purchased the store, responsibility for the post office and telephone exchange came with it.

The arrangement reportedly lasted only a few months. The historical account says Etalides had considerable difficulty with both the language and operation of the telephone exchange. A skilled Armenian tailor had somehow found himself running rural telecommunications.

A country businessman

In small towns, one business could mean many jobs.

TAILOR

His original trade

Etalides arrived in Western Australia already trained in the skilled work that would later define his Cue business.

STOREKEEPER

Running Miling's store

By the late 1920s his occupation had broadened into general country commerce.

BANK AGENT

Financial services too

For part of 1930 he served as Miling's agent for the State Savings Bank — another example of the multiple roles carried by country businesspeople.

Cue  •  1937

Eventually he returned to the trade he knew best.

By the late 1930s Etalides was established in Cue, operating as a ladies' and gentlemen's tailor.

The building is remembered in Cue's municipal heritage inventory as Penn Chambers, with Etalides Tailors among the businesses associated with the premises.

The sign's promise — “All Work Guaranteed” — emphasised the selling point of an experienced craftsman in an era when tailoring relied on reputation, precision and repeat customers.

Made for the customer

A tailor's shop was a workshop, not just a clothing store.

Customers did not simply choose a size from a rack. Tailoring involved measuring the individual, choosing or supplying cloth, cutting patterns, constructing garments and adjusting the finished piece until it fitted correctly.

MEASURE

Made to fit

Each customer was measured individually rather than fitted into a standard mass-produced size.

CUT & CONSTRUCT

Skilled handwork

Patterns were transferred to cloth, pieces carefully cut and garments assembled using techniques developed through years of experience.

FIT & ALTER

Until it was right

Fittings allowed the tailor to refine the garment and alter it for the customer's body and preferences.

Penn Chambers

Another Austin Street building with several lives.

Etalides's tailoring business formed part of Penn Chambers, an early group of Austin Street commercial premises dating from around the turn of the twentieth century.

Cue's heritage record documents several later uses of the premises, including commercial activities and, at one stage, use of part of the building as a nursing post. Like many buildings in Cue, its story continued long after one business moved on.

One building, many stories

Penn Chambers

The Etalides sign is one layer in a much longer commercial history preserved in the buildings of Austin Street.

His final home

Etalides remained a Cue businessman until the end of his life.

Lavrentios George Etalides died at Cue on 29 November 1949, aged about 69.

His probate record described him as a “Tailor and Business Proprietor, late of Cue” — neatly linking his official record with the occupation remembered on the Austin Street sign.

He was buried in Cue Cemetery, leaving the town not only his business history but a permanent personal connection with the place where the final chapter of his remarkable journey unfolded.

A remarkable working life

From Constantinople to Cue.

c.1880

Constantinople

Born into the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire.

1911

Western Australia

Arrives in Western Australia with his occupation recorded as tailor.

1926

Miling

Purchases a country store and briefly inherits postal and telephone duties.

1930

Bank agent

Serves for a period as State Savings Bank agent at Miling.

1937

Cue tailor

The heritage sign remembers Etalides establishing his ladies' and gentlemen's tailoring business in Cue.

1949

Final chapter

Dies in Cue and is officially remembered as a tailor and business proprietor.

Modern L C Etalides tailor heritage sign above Austin Street
Stories Above the Street

Thirty-five years of experience, remembered in a few painted words.

The restored Austin Street sign reads “L. C. Etalides — Ladies & Gents Tailor”, together with two simple promises: 35 years experience and all work guaranteed.

Those words now represent a life far bigger than one shop — migration, skilled craftsmanship, country commerce, a brief encounter with the telephone exchange and finally a permanent home in Cue.

The sign allows one of Austin Street's more unusual personal stories to return to the streetscape.

Historical note

The Cue heritage sign and municipal heritage records identify the business as L. C. Etalides. Official probate and other government records identify the businessman as Lavrentios George Etalides, and some records use shortened forms including Louis. The reason the Cue business used the initials “L.C.” has not yet been established. Rather than silently reconciling the difference, this page preserves the historical business name while identifying the man using the name recorded in official documents. Historical details are drawn from Western Australian government records, heritage records relating to Miling and Penn Chambers, and surviving Cue cemetery and probate material.

Stories Above the Street

From Constantinople to Cue — a life measured in much more than cloth.

Lavrentios George Etalides crossed continents, worked as a tailor and country storekeeper, briefly found himself responsible for a rural post office and telephone exchange, acted as a bank agent and finally returned to his craft in Cue. He died here in 1949, officially remembered as a tailor and business proprietor. Today the simple sign above Austin Street restores his name to the town that became his final home.