26 million Italians have emigrated abroad, nine million never to
return. These people were shaken loose from their homeland by massive
political and economic convulsions which have shaken that peninsula.
Yet these people have not been mere hostages to fortune: armed with
certain skills and attitudes, the Italian peasantry has refused
to accept its lot in life. Ingenuity, frugality, perseverance -
these are some of the necessary attributes of the traditional small
farmer in Italy, and are, moreover, the skills which enabled such
families to survive and succeed in far-off Australia.
Buongiorno Australia - Our Italian Heritage, Robert Pascoe
DAREBIN'S ITALIANS
People from regions all over Italy, Puglia, Abruzzo, Sicilia, Calabria,
Friuli Venezia Giulia, Basilicata, Molise, Campagnia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto
Adige, Lazio, Le Marche, Umbria, Toscana, Piedmonte Valle D’Aosta,
Sardegna, Liguria, Lombardia & Emilia Romagna arrived in Australia
in the post war immigration boom of the ‘50s & ‘60s.
The Italians were part of the first significant wave of immigrants
from Southern Europe to settle in present day Darebin with Reservoir
having one of the largest Italian communities in Australia. They
changed the landscape of the Merrilands estate with concrete, brick
veneer homes and mini farms in their backyards with chooks, fruit
and vegetable gardens, homemade vino, salsa, pasta e salsicce. They
recycled everything before it was fashionable. The agrarian foods
they ate and still prepare today are now part of our gourmet food
culture.
FROM CIVITELLA M.R. ABRUZZO TO STATION PIER
Achille Di Guglielmo and 17 other young men left Civitella M.R.
a small hilltop village in the mountainous region of Abruzzo in
December 1951. Rosa Piccone, his 18 year old fiancee, would join
him 4 years later as his wife. Achille sailed on the ‘Sydney’
arriving at Station Pier, Jan.‘52.
BONEGILLA - MILDURA - LAUNCESTON - BONNIE DOON - MELBOURNE
From Bonegilla Migrant Camp he was sent to Mildura to pick grapes
then onto Tasmania for 27 months working on the Comalco Aluminium
Smelter. He back to Melbourne to work on the Bonnie Doon bridge
as a builder’s labourer.
After 4 years he purchased a house in Abbotsford and sent for Rosa,
they married by proxy.
OFTEN THE WOMEN CAME LATER Rosa arrived on board the ‘Aurelia’ on 26th
Sept ’55. In her glory box she brought the home spun, woven
and embroidered sheets, towels, doilies and pillow cases she had
made. She was an excellent seamstress and also brought her domestic
and cooking skills. Like so many immigrants Rosa and Achille had
an enormous capacity for hard work.
FROM ABBOTSFORD TO RESERVOIR & MERRILANDS
Rosa began full time work at Ensign Drycleaners in Croxton Nov.’55,
continuing to work there on a part time basis until Jan.‘63.
In 1959 they moved into their newly built brick veneer home in Merrilands,
Reservoir. They were the 2nd house in the street. Rosa recalls “We
had very good neighbours across the road Mr and Mrs Adams, they
helped us very much, Mr Adams was a junk collector and many weekends
he gave Achille work, going around with him.” The roads weren’t
made, there was the odd wandering cow and their home was surrounded
by paddocks of volcanic rock and thistles. Whilst raising a family
and between part time work Rosa learnt English over the wireless,
by correspondence. In Italy Rosa had loved school. Her father, Domenico
was a prisoner of war and away for 8 years. Mother Giuditta was
left to raise 4 children as war raged around them. This meant Rosa
had to leave school in grade 2. This has always saddened her.
INVISIBLE MENDING
In Feb.1963, Rosa began the next 14yrs of her working life as an
invisible mender at Spotless Drycleaners in Northcote catching the
tram to work along Plenty Rd and High St. In her half hour lunch
breaks she would often do shopping, banking or pay bills. Rosa had
many appreciative customers, thanking her for the wonderful invisible
mending she had done on their clothing. “In those days, people
mended their clothes or got them mended, not like today where they
are just throw them out.”
....she worked during the week at Spotless as an invisible mender.
Yet she made time to make and mend clothes for myself, my brother
and my father. I can see her now doing the mending at the machine
- a basket of clothes that needed patches, letting down, taking
out, rips sewn, new zips....She made all my underwear and so many
dresses....I always like the way she ironed the clothes she made,
tunics pressed with a wet cloth....
from Running Up A Dress by Suzanne Spunner
a mother and daughter dialogue
TEXTILES AND TEA LADY IN RESERVOIR
Between 1977 -’90 she worked at ‘Aweave Textiles’
in Reservoir. Firstly on the looms depilling the newly woven fabrics
and later as the best tea lady they ever had! Another bygone era,
when the tea lady wheeled the trolley to the desks of the employees.
A chance for a quick chat with everyone suited Rosa’s social
and outgoing nature. They were most appreciative of the homemade
‘la sagna’, ‘pizzelle’ and ‘crostoli’
Rosa often took in. The lunch room was kept ‘spotless’.
In 1990 Rosa retired to care for her aging mother-in-law, who in
2004 turned 99 years of age.
COMMUNITY LIFE - ST JOSEPH THE WORKER
Rosa contributed to community life through the local Church, St
Joseph the Worker, which she and the parishoners of Nth Reservoir
helped to build. A devout Catholic, she was active on the Italian
Womens Committee, helping with fund raising for the Church and for
many different charities. Rosa sings in the Italian Choir, visits
and takes Communion to the sick and also does the floral decorations
for the Church.
STORYTELLING & COMMUNITY ARTS
Rosa and Achille have 2 children, Carmelina and Tony and 3 grandchildren.
Both have participated in Community Story telling events at the
Italian Senior Citizens Club at the Merrilands Community Centre.
When Achille retired in 1992 he had worked in the building industry
for 40 years.“Oh My Papa” celebrated the working lives
of 15 retired Italian men. “Ballo Liscio” had Rosa along
with 21 other Italian Senior Citizens, dancing, singing and passing
on stories about the importance of dance in their lives. Along with
other Italians they are interested in passing on stories and traditions
about the immigration experience and their life in Australia.
ROSA: Someone in America sent my friend a pair of shoes, they did
not fit her, she said to me, "if they fit you, you can have
them".......they were so small, but I squeezed my feet in....."oh
yes, yes, yes they fit me"...I danced for years in those tight
shoes. ....When we got older we asked our grandparents and parents
if we could do something, if we could organize a dance. We had a
lot of corn in our village, on the longest day of the year, June
24, St John the Baptist day, all the girls in the village would
run to the corn fields, at sunrise and we comb our hair to the rising
sun, to help the corn grow, then after the corn harvest, we peeled
the corn and then we danced!
Ballo Liscio by Carmelina Di Guglielmo and Robin Laurie
TOMASO BUTERA
Tomaso Butera arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 23rd June 1951
from Incastro, Calabria. I was 28 years old, I came alone, my family
joined me 3 years later. The name of my ship was ‘Flotea Panorama’,
a Greek ship, it took 34 days. I was sponsored by my brother-in-law,
I’d been working in France as a coal miner, when we came out
of the mine we were unrecognizable, we were covered in black dirt.
I was also a prisoner of war in Greece, from 1943-45. In the camp
a lot of people died of hunger, there was nothing to eat. I always
thought one day things will get better and they did.
CALABRIA TO FITZROY
When I arrived I lived in a boarding house in Fitzroy, 22 shillings
a week. Italians ran the boarding house, they made a lot of money.
There were 17 Italian men, paying 22 shillings each, we weren’t
allowed to sit on the beds. There were 4 chairs for 17 people and
one pot to cook in. I felt like a prisoner again. We slept four
to a room, we had to get up one at a time because there wasn’t
room for all of us to stand up. A tiny room with 4 beds it was hard
to sleep. We had to put 3 pence in the gas meter to boil water or
make a coffee. A friend came to visit me and got me a days work.
WELDING THE EILDON WEIR
Then I got a job with an American company, Utah and I worked at
Eildon Weir. We built the weir. When my family arrived I took them
to Eildon, the company gave me a house. I worked as a welder. I
worked with Utah for 4 years. Then we moved to Melbourne we had
a house in Carlton, but we had to sell because they wanted to demolish
the houses to build housing commission flats, so we came here to
Reservoir. I worked in a factory in Brunswick, we made kitchens,
I was a welder, I always worked as a welder, I stayed at the factory
for 32 years until I retired.
PRESIDENT OF THE MERRILANDS ITALIAN CLUB
I use to walk around the streets ‘per una passeggiatta’.
There were 4 of us always meeting outside. Two have since died.
I thought why don’t we try to get a club here, my wife helped
me. We went to Merrilands Primary School, across the road from where
we are now and asked the Principal if we could have a room. He gave
us a room. There were seven of us, three women and four men, we
didn’t play cards or anything just talk - have a caffe.
Slowly, slowly it grew people wanted to come. We went to the Council
and they said they’d help us. So the club began. We got some
small grants. We were at Merrilands Primary for 3 years, then it
was decided to demolish the school, even the hall at the school
which wasn’t old, it was a good hall. Some men had started
playing Bocce across the road from Merrilands Primary, use to be
Keon-Park Technical School. I saw the need for a club and I wanted
to make it possible, because more and more people were retiring.
With help from the council we got this club. We worked on it and
have had this new club since 1994. I’ve been the President
for a long time, they always vote me back in.
‘GRAZIE AUSTRALIA’
I’m happy, very happy that I came to Australia. I’ve
never been back to Italy. I don’t have any family there, this
is home, there’s no other. My vegetable garden is still one
of my passions. My health is not the best. I see a good future,
very good future for my children.
From ‘Oh My Papa´’ - A Darebin Artist-in-Residence
Community Story-Telling Event, 2001. Community Artist-Carmelina
Di Guglielmo
Tomaso Butera retired as President in 2002. In 2004, with a membership
of about 300 the club was meeting 3 times a week, playing Bocce,
Cards, Bingo, going on excursions, and still holding monthly lunches
and dances.
DAREBIN'S ITALIANS
Today Darebin’s Italians have a range of organisations such
as clubs, senior citizen clubs, Churches, cultural, sporting, social
and welfare groups. It is common to hear Italian spoken in the street
and the language is taught in many local schools. There are numerous
Italian shops and businesses all through Darebin. The children of
the ‘50s &’60s immigrants now walk many paths in
life from trammies to pasta manufactures to doctors, concrete magnates,
lawyers, accountants, teachers, politicians and artists.
