Louis Chirakis attended just one West Beach Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) meeting before being appointed secretary, back in 1996. He has been in the role ever since.

Louis was born in Astros in southern Greece, but the Chirakis family moved to South Australia in 1955 and settled in the Riverland.

“At the time, education in Greece was very sparce, especially if you lived out in the villages,” Louis said. “My father wanted a better life for the family and I’m glad we did move to Australia because it’s such a beautiful country.”

After relocating to Adelaide to complete his schooling, Louis joined Telstra where he worked from 1969 to 2001 before changing course and opening a fast food outlet in the city, selling chicken and lamb yiros and filled potatoes.

“The fast food outlet was quite profitable, but it wasn’t my scene,” he said. “I was far more interested in electronics and technology, so I opened a computer shop in Findon. Both of my sons worked for me and it helped them move on to the next level of their education. In fact, all the lads that worked for me ended up getting good jobs out of it, which makes me very proud.”

When Louis retired, he quickly realised sitting around at home wasn’t an option, particularly as a natural born leader who enjoys communicating with people.

It was a connection with the late Rodney Beames, long-time West Beach Area Coordinator, that prompted his involvement with NHW.

“Rodney invited me along to the AGM and he wanted a secretary to do the minutes,” Louis said. “Well, he must’ve baited up the audience because they all wanted me to take on the role.”

Louis is proud of his community and it’s NHW group, whose meetings continue to be well attended.

“In some ways, West Beach is an isolated community because we’ve got the airport, beach, River Torrens and caravan park, so we can generally help get on top of any policing issues” he said. “In the earlier days of the group, our crime rate needed a bit of attention, but over the years we’ve been able to help lower it a fair bit and we take great pride in that.”

Recently the group has focused on encouraging the community to report crimes.

“We really want people to report crimes, no matter how small they may seem,” Louis said. “It’s a long-term plan to help reduce crime and make the community safer.

“We also do our best to make sure every house receives a newsletter three times per year. Sometimes we’ll do an extra newsletter before Christmas, reminding people to organise someone to collect the mail if they’re going away, make sure their houses are locked up and so on.”

Louis credits much of West Beach’s success to Rodney Beames, who he described as a dynamic person and leader.

“Rodney had a loud voice and people paid attention when he spoke,” Louis recalled. “He always made sure we had a police coordinator at every meeting and throughout the years we’ve had guest speakers from just about every section of the police, from the STAR Force to the Dog Operations Unit. We even had former Commissioner of Police Malcolm Hyde attend one of our meetings.”

When Louis isn’t working on the group’s next newsletter or caravaning with wife Heather, he’s part of a brains trust hoping to start up a local men’s shed.

“We want to get men off the couch and involved in a men’s shed where they can be social.” Louis said. “They don’t have to be a woodworker, it’s more of a social outlet for men which is very important.”

Louis enjoys nothing more than mixing with people and helping his community, so volunteering is an obvious outlet.

“I love West Beach and its people, and I’ve had plenty of satisfaction from volunteering and helping those who need it,” he said.