They can't even be displayed behind shop counters now, but Perth once had a vibrant cigarette industry, supplied by large tobacco plantations in the south-west.

Key points: Michelides tobacco and cigarettes was once Australia's third-largest manufacturer of cigarettes

Michelides tobacco and cigarettes was once Australia's third-largest manufacturer of cigarettes Founded by Greek immigrants, it was an early proponent of vertical integration: growing, manufacturing and selling the end product

Founded by Greek immigrants, it was an early proponent of vertical integration: growing, manufacturing and selling the end product Competition in the form of filtered tip cigarettes and cheaper overseas imports eventually saw the business decline but its legacy as part of Australia's Greek migrant history remains

The story of Michelides tobacco and cigarettes is the story not just of a business, but the advancement and prosperity of the Greek community in Western Australia.

In 1901, long before the dangers of smoking were known, a 23-year-old Greek, Peter Michelides, who had completed an apprenticeship in cigarette making in Cairo, arrived in Perth in search of opportunity.

"There was a very large Greek population in Egypt, going back thousands of years," said historian John Yiannakis, who has researched the story of Greek migration to Western Australia.

Peter Michelides in 1927. He become an influential leader for the Greek community in WA. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

"A number of them had already started making the journey to Western Australia.

"Michelides would have been aware that Western Australia existed and there were opportunities here because of the 1890s goldrushes.

"Up to World War II, people from the islands and that particular island were the dominant Greek cohort in Western Australia."

Men handling tobacco leaves, grown in the south-west, at Michelides Ltd. tobacco factory in Perth in 1951. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

From rolling to growing and manufacturing

Peter Michelides and his family had moved to Egypt from the small eastern Mediterranean island of Castellorizo, as had many from the islands, and interest in migrating south had taken hold among the community.

Fluent in a number of languages and armed with his cigarette-making skills, Mr Michelides quickly established himself as a businessman and a Greek community leader, sponsoring other Greeks to migrate to Australia.

"The business was initially making cigarettes and cigars and rolling them, and then gradually moved into the growing of the product, and then eventually manufacturing and selling them on a much, much larger scale," Dr Yiannakis said.

"It was actually a very large Western Australian business that grew from pretty humble beginnings, selling cigars and cigarettes on street corners.

"Then he got a small factory and then a bigger factory and then eventually a much larger factory on the corner of Lake and Roe streets [in Northbridge]."

A few years after arriving he was able to bring out his young brother Michael, and a few years after that, his parents and sisters.

Tobacco grading at Manjimup, 1952. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

The tobacco leaf was initially bought from private growers in Manjimup but in 1931 the business bought 15 acres of land and began growing their own tobacco.

"There was a lot of experimentation with the growing of tobacco happening down in the south west, in areas around Hamel and Manjimup," Dr Yiannakis said.

By 1937, the business had 350 acres of tobacco plantation and by World War II, 1,000 acres, and employed hundreds of people on the land and in the factory.

Women making cigarettes inside the Michelides Ltd. tobacco factory, 1951. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

"He had a vast number of brands and different types of cigarettes," Dr Yiannakis said.

"He also managed, in the late 30s, to get the licence to Rizla cigarette paper, so that was a bonus for him.

"Very sophisticated machines had to be imported, that allowed for glue adhesive.

"You could buy the papers if you wanted to roll your own, and that paper was also used for manufactured cigarettes."

Michelides Tobacconists shop once occupied a central corner in Forrest Place, 1951 ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

Australia's third-largest manufacturer

By the early 1950s Michelides was the third-largest cigarette manufacturer in the country and hugely significant to the state.

"There weren't many Western Australian industries that were vertically integrated, although they didn't use that word then — he grew the product, manufactured it and sold it," Dr Yiannakis said.

"He had a number of shops and the biggest one was on the corner of Forrest Place and Wellington Street, where the Myer building is now."

Production had peaked during the war, when the company was supplying cigarettes to the army for soldiers shipping out of Western Australia, and again in the early 50s, when the company was making six million cigarette papers a year.

But just a few years on from the second peak, the business was in serious trouble.

The introduction of imported, filter-tip cigarettes, backed by international companies with huge advertising budgets competing for market share, meant that by 1956, customers had deserted the local company.

"It had a lot to do with the taste and the quality of the tobacco," Dr Yiannakis said.

"The introduction of filter tip cigarettes required a different type of tobacco leaf than farmers here were growing.

"When you speak to older people who remember the Michelides tobacco and smoked it, it wasn't the most pleasant."

At the factory staff lined up outside the Michelides building in 1934. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

Competition from overseas

The other overseas invention, the flip top cardboard cigarette box, became incredibly popular, but required special packing machines that the local firm did not have.

Post-war restriction on imported cigarettes were lifted and consumers opted overwhelmingly for the foreign brands now arriving in the shops.

"After that peak in early 50s, the decline that happened thereafter was actually very rapid," Dr Yiannakis said.

"By '55, '56 they were in a bit of trouble, and by 1960 they actually had shut down."

Hundreds of factory workers were laid off, and the grand Art Deco building in Northbridge was sold to Peters Foods and used as an ice cream factory, then later as a menswear boutique.

The Michelides building in 1952, when the business was at its final peak. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

A piece of history

In 2014, in the face of a fierce campaign to save it and argument over its heritage value, the building was demolished.

The Art Deco society protested that it was a rare surviving piece of interwar architecture left the in the city, but the City of Perth argued that the building had been altered in the 1980s and the minister had declined to heritage list it in 2013.

Also left stranded were the tobacco growers in the Manjimup area — there were 180 private growers in 1958, by 1961, large quantities of tobacco were left unsold and almost overnight, the industry came to an end.

Michelides tobacco plantation in Manjimup, 1939. Hundreds of labourers and growers were suddenly out of work by 1960. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

The Michelides family had sold off their plantations by the late 1950s, but had also been the principal buyers of tobacco from private growers.

"It had quite a devastating economic effect down at Manjimup," Dr Yiannakis said.

"Suddenly these people had no one to sell to and the multinationals like Rothmans and Phillip Morris were only buying limited amounts of tobacco from here because they claimed that the quality of it wasn't as good as what they could get from other tobacco growing regions on the east coast.

"The old timers from Manjimup dispute that and say it was just an argument that they were using to placate the locals, to continue buying from over east where they could get it cheaper."

Peters Ice Cream factory in January 1982 — the building later became a menswear boutique. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

In June 1960, what had been the largest Greek business in Western Australia for decades came to an end, but Dr Yiannakis said the impact on the community was long lasting.

"[Peter Michelides] got involved in helping establish the Hellenic Community of Western Australia and he is the longest serving president of that association," he said.