Veneto market gardeners 1927

Guest blogger, Alessia Basso, writes about her family’s strong connections to the Veneto Club in Adelaide from the first seeds that were planted in the early 1970s.

The image above shows Francesco and Lucia Battistello in front with their daughter, Marisa and son-in-law, Bruno Basso, Adelaide 1993.

---

My family’s connection to the Veneto Club in Adelaide began in 1924 when my bis-nonno (or great grandfather) Stefano Battistello arrived in Melbourne, Australia. That year, my nonno, Francesco who was the youngest of four sons, was just nine months old and his father began working in country Victoria as a stonemason.

He experienced the harsh conditions of the Great Depression after his work ‘dried up’ and he walked from Melbourne to Adelaide in search of work.  Bis-nonno carried all his belongings in a cart and along the way, he worked on farms for food and lodging. Earlier, he had saved enough money for deposit on a farm but unfortunately, he couldn’t keep making the repayments. He returned to Italy when my nonno Francesco was approximately 10 years old. In those times, there were no assisted passages and the fares were very expensive.

 

 

My nonno Francesco Battistello

Following WW2 and hardened by his experiences as a young soldier and later partigano, there was a lot of poverty and hardship in Italy, he needed to search for work and a better life and more opportunities for his young family. He had married my nonna Lucia Canalia in April 1948 and their daughter, Marisa, was born in October 1950. (The year before, they had lost their son Franco Pietro to meningitis.)

In June 1951, Francesco embarked on the ‘Ugolino Vivaldi’ and the journey to Australia took 3 months. He was sponsored by Pietro Franzon, a plasterer, who was married to my nonno’s cousin, Rita Nicoli.  When he first arrived, he lived in a boarding house run by Flora Maschio’s parents behind the Newmarket hotel on North Terrace in the City of Adelaide.

My nonno initially worked as a carpenter for Fricker Brothers Construction. He knew that in order to progress he needed to be able to communicate with others, so he would attend English lessons one night a week at St Mary’s Convent in Franklin Street run by the Dominican nuns. He also supplemented his day job by washing dishes at Allegro’s Restaurant on other evenings. On Sundays he did weeding in an onion block in Richmond and a friend would lend him their bicycle to get there. From 1956 he had his own construction company F. Battistello & Co Pty Ltd, until he retired in 1985.

The Battistello family in Adelaide

My nonna, aged 32, and my mother aged 22 months, arrived in 1952 with my nonno’s sister-in-law to be who was engaged to Zio Virginio Battistello, nonno’s brother. My mother, Marisa Basso (nee Battistello), lived at Woodville West and attended Our Lady Queen of Peace and Star of the Sea for Primary Schooling and continued her studies at St Aloysius College for high school.

The Veneto Club Adelaide
There weren’t any clubs in the western suburbs for the young Veneto migrants to meet up and socialise together. They used to attend the Fogolar-Furlan Club in Felixstow but they wanted a local Italian club. Italians weren’t accepted/welcomed in “Australian” pubs/bars. The Veneto people in my nonno’s generation who had arrived after the war wanted a place where they could gather and connect with their fellow Veneti – they wanted a place that could be a refuge.

 

My nonno, Francesco, was one of the Veneto men who began planning for the Club in the early 1970s. After considerable searches for a suitable location Club in the western suburbs an abandoned clay pit that had supplied local brick works and had also been  a dump became the site for the Veneto Club.

 

Nonno was one of four men who were guarantors for the purchase of five acres at Beverley. The others were Leo Conci, Arturo Pagliaro and Gino Torresan who made it possible to negotiate with the bank to get a loan. Nonno became the first Vice-President of the Club.

 

Nonno participated in the Club’s activities and it quickly became a place that drew the Veneti; it was a safe and enjoyable place to spend time with paesani.

Before the Club was opened in 1974, my nonno played Bocce in Romano Dametto’s backyard at Seaton but later, the Bocce courts at the Club made it possible for extensive competitions. Nonno played cards or Mora Giapponese on Friday nights. On Sunday nights my nonni attended Dinner Dances and the Club became a venue for special events and functions. It was very popular and apparently up to 500 people attended New Year’s Eve dinners.

My parents, Marisa and Bruno Basso, were the first young couple to have their wedding reception at the Club in 1975. (The Club’s kitchen wasn’t operational at the time so an external caterer was organised for the event).

 

My nonna volunteered as a cook for about seven or eight years when she was in her 60s until the paid cook took over the kitchen. My zia Mariola Canalia (nee Gallio) later became one of the official cooks at the Veneto Club.

My nonno Francesco died in 2008 and my nonna Lucia died in 2022.

 

 

My memories of the Veneto Club at Beverley
I remember Sunday dinner dances – I used to love watching the ballroom dancers. Whenever visitors from Italy came to stay with us, we’d attend at least once to show them ‘our’ piece of Italy. Family celebrations like First Holy Communion meals were held there. Christmas was a special time for children and one year Santa arrived in a helicopter! In later years there were soccer teams and Italian language classes for children.

I became a waitress one New Year Eve’s celebration and then stayed on the roster. I loved listening to the women and their lively chiaccierate [conversation]. I remember older women there like Bertina Burato, Norris Schevenin, Anna Simionato and Renata Pietrobon.

I really LOVED it – it was a weekly dose of Italian. I enjoyed interacting with the customers. They’d always ask: “Whose grand-daughter are you?” Working there reminded me of my nonni. I got to know different people and they liked sitting on certain tables. For example, Mrs Fritz and Mirella Mancini were at Table 9, Visentin/ Didone on Table 21 and Mary Dal Santo, Table 4 etc.

Joining the Next Gen Committee
In 2015 I joined the Committee of ‘younger’ people as a way of continuing the work of nonno and my Dad in building up the Veneto Club over the years. They were both acknowledged for their contribution to the development of the Club and made Life Members. I also have the opportunity to give back to the community. We organise events that are relevant and appealing to the ‘younger or third generation of Veneti’ where possible. We have pasta night and tombola, wine tasting and movie afternoons. We have also organised cooking demonstrations and workshops to pass on food traditions – gnocchi, frittole and crostoli.

In November last year we joined forces with Fogolar Furlan for Italian Week – “Italian Cuisine with Altitude,” which was very successful.

The Veneto Club today
I like to think of the Veneto Club as a kind of piazza – a meeting/gathering place for people of Veneto background – a place to remember our heritage. Unfortunately, membership numbers are declining because Italians have assimilated ‘too well’ into Australian culture. I think the provinces need to work together to support each other and we also need to collaborate with other Italian cultural clubs and support them.

The Veneto Club celebrates its 50th Anniversary in May, 2024 – a significant achievement. We hope to see the Club continue for another 50 years!

Alessia Basso
21 April 2024

---

Family photos supplied by the Basso family.

Apart from the market gardeners who began their family businesses in the 1930s in the area that they called Lockleys, several Veneto families started other businesses in Adelaide between the wars. When you think about it, they were brave considering the difficult economic conditions in that period. They took initiative, were enterprising and had a vision for the future of their families in Australia.

The image above shows Emilio Mattiazzo and a worker. Emilio owned a butcher shop on Currie Street from the late 1930s. Photo, courtesy Santin family.

Boarding houses run by Veneto families
In two previous blogs, boarding houses that were owned by Veneto families in the west end of Adelaide were featured.

Boarding houses and the Veneti in Adelaide

Reminiscing/Memories of two West-Enders

Des O’Connor wrote about the boarding houses in a chapter in a book in 2005.* He identified that between 1930 and 1960, the majority of the people who ran boarding houses in the city were from the Veneto region. He named the following Veneto people and their origins: Raymond Ballestrin (Riese), Elena and Luigi Stocco (Castelfranco Veneto), Clorinda Cescato (Altivole), Maria Cecchin (Galleria Veneta), Giuseppe Pasin (Thiene) and Giuseppina Campagnaro (Resana).

Shops owned by Veneto families

Domenico Rossetto arrived in Adelaide from Bigolino in June 1926. Carmela (nee Buffon) arrived with their daughter, Anna in 1929 and their son, Modesto was born in Adelaide. Domenico and Carmela ran a grocery shop in Hindley Street which was an important place for many Italian families between the wars because they were able to buy ‘continental’ foods. The Rossetto grocery also delivered to families in the suburbs – including the Veneto market gardeners in Lockleys.  When Domenico died in 1946 aged 49 years, Carmela carried on running the grocery shop with her daughter and son, nieces and nephews and friends. The shop was a very successful business and well patronised by Italians for many years after the war.

Emilio Mattiazzo from Valdobbiadene had arrived in Adelaide in 1928. He owned a butcher shop which was in Elizabeth Street in the city and about two years after his wife, Livia and children arrived in 1936, the family moved to the corner of Currie Street and North Street where Emilio had his butcher shop for many years. Livia looked after boarders in two rooms of the house above the shop. Their daughter, Anna married Vito Santin, one of the Veneto market gardeners on Frogmore Road.

Veneto mica miners in the Northern Territory

 

Two of the market gardeners, Gelindo Rossetto and Angelo Piovesan, bought shares in mica mines at Harts Ranges and worked at the Spotted Tiger in the 1930s. The mines were about 200 kilometres north east of Alice Springs. Gelindo and Angelo also employed relatives on the mica mines and also on their market gardens which they continued to operate.

 

 

 

Angelo’s son spoke in his interview about the reason that he went to the mica mines:

Dad went up into the mica mines for a short time, to get some money, to earn a little bit better living, because the market garden was only just set up and wasn’t
producing much income.

(Dino Piovesan, OH 82/17, 23 September 2011)

Other Veneto men and families also lived and worked on the mica mines between the wars. These included Attilio and Serafina de Pieri nee Corletto who were at the mines in the 1940s and lived there with their elder two children.  When the family returned to Adelaide, Attilio opened a shoe repair shop  in the City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Veneto families who had businesses in Adelaide
Giuseppe Bailetti arrived from Brescia in 1934 and within a few years had opened a gun shop and cycle repairs in Hindley Street. He and his wife, Eugenia who was born in Crespano del Grappa in the province of Treviso ran the shop and the family expanded it and sold household goods for many years.

Belsamino Brazzale arrived in 1924 from Caltrano in the province of Vincenza and by about 1930 had set up a factory that dressed mica. He was known as an importer and exporter of mica. Several of the daughters of Veneto families in the market gardener community worked at Brazzale’s which was in Liverpool Street in the west end of the City.

Giacinto Caon who had arrived from Loria, in the province of Treviso, in 1934 had first worked in a quarry and then ran a butcher’s shop in Franklin Street for many years.

Antonio Ugo or Hugh Pozza from Lusiana in the province of Vicenza had arrived in 1927 and ran a very successful tailoring business in Gawler Place, called ‘Parisian Tailor’  from the late 1930s. He became well known over many years for making suits for men and “costumes” for women. and advertised his  tailoring which had “quality, style and value.” He employed about 30 people.

There were other Veneti who took steps to set up their businesses between the wars whose stories are yet to be told. Those families who became business owners in that period created a strong future in Australia.

---

 

*Des O’Connor, “Club e Associazioni dei Veneti nel South Australia” in Veneti d’Australia, edited by Luciano Segafreddo and Ilma Martinuzzi O’Brien, 2005.

Madeleine Regan
7 April 2024

Gathering of Veneto market gardener families and friends
Yesterday, 23rd March 2024, over 50 people attended a gathering for Veneto market gardener families and friends at the Mater Christi parish hall, Seaton.

The image above is a view of the gathering.  In the foreground is Rinaldo Zamberlan and Dino Piovesan. Photo by Alex Bennett.

It was the first gathering since October 2022. We remembered people who had been involved with the project who had died since then: Mary Piovesan, Guido Rebuli, Johnny Marchioro and Lena Moscheni nee Rossetto and also Anna Maria Lucchesi nee Vettorello.

The focus of the afternoon was the celebration of two milestones that will occur in May this year – the 50th year of the establishment of the Veneto Club in Adelaide and the ten years of the Veneto market gardeners’ website. The significance of language in the Veneto identity was also a feature. Three guest speakers gave presentations.

 

 

Alessia Basso and Madeleine presented  a Q and A session about Alessia’s nonno, Francesco Battistello who had had a significant role in the establishment of the Veneto Club.

 

 

 

Michael Campbell who manages the website presented information about his role and ways to access the resources that are on the webpages.

 

 

Silvano Ballestrin involved everyone in the fun of a language quiz and invited guests to identify the meaning of different words in Italian, Veneto language and Napoletano dialect.

The three different presentations provided an opportunity to share the ongoing story of migration and the history of the Veneto market gardener families at Lockleys and the wider group of Veneti in Adelaide.

Guests contributed plates of delicious food for afternoon tea and the time passed quickly as people renewed contact, exchanged family stories and met new people. All photos of the gathering were taken by Alex Bennett.

---

Easter traditions in families

 In their oral history interviews, people spoke about the celebration of Easter which was an important occasion and a reason for families to gather and share meals. Although customs might vary in families, the common theme was on the importance of generations spending time together, enjoying hospitality and great food.

The following selections of excerpts from interviews show ways that Easter was an important time in different families.

Oscar Mattiazzo OH 872/13, 13 April 2011

Oscar, who was born in 1923, reached back to his childhood in Bigolino and remembered a special time when he was given a gift by his godfather and he linked that memory with Easter:

… when a friend of my father, who was my santolo, and he gave me … it’s like a cake, a round cake, you hang it around your neck or something – I can’t remember what they called it – and I thought I was king. [Laughter] I thought I was a king that day because that was during the, oh, it must have been Easter or something, something, some celebration like that, and that’s about the only thing that I remember, like getting the thing.

 

Denise Doyban nee Santin, OH 872/62, 8 December 2021
Denise shared a memory of the food that was made for Easter in her family and the kind of rituals that were involved when her mother used the outside kitchen:

…if you cooked at Easter, they cooked baccalà  … you couldn’t have that in the house and then they’d make their frittole or their crostoli. That was all made outside because there’s a lot of frying when they’re cooked – if they killed the pig and then they had all the meats to be cooked and everything was – And I think it was to alleviate a lot of cleaning inside and also the smell going through the house.

 

Adelina Mattiazzo, OH 82/58, 2 November 2018
Adelina was 23 years old when she married Pietro Mattiazzo in Ponzano Veneto in 1979. They raised their family there and Adelina’s parents, Armida and Augusto made several visits and Adelina and her family spent time in Adelaide. Adelina recalled the challenge of living so far away from her parents and spoke about the early years when phone calls were so expensive that they were only made on special occasions. In the following excerpt, Adelina outlines the emotional impact of making contact with her parents by phone:

Always by phone on Christmas Day and Easter day or else we used to write to each other. There it was it was hard because every time we spoke to each other … you’d hear the phone ring and you had to run to the toilet because you were so nervous, hearing their voice twice a year. And you could only speak a very short time, what? Ten minutes because it cost us, I remember it was like fifteen or sixteen million lire every minute. It was so expensive to talk to somebody on the phone. You’d just say, “Hello, how are you?” “How are the kids and this and that?” And then, you know, put the phone down.

 

Mel Recchi OH 872/31, 18 June 2014
Mel’s childhood memories of Easter and Christmas were of occasions of large extended family gatherings:

Oh, mainly Easter was very, very important and Christmas time … was always a big family get together. It wasn’t just Mum and Dad, and my sister and myself. It was nephews, nieces, anybody that was involved in the family always used to come around to Mum and Dad’s place because Dad agreed to bring quite a few people out from Italy even from Mum’s town, from San Giorgio La Molara …

Angelo Piovesan, OH 872/66, 28 November 2022
Angelo spoke about a tradition in his family – Easter marked the time to make salami:

That was the Easter ritual. So, they would either purchase a pig from somebody, generally take it out to somebody’s farm to fatten it and cleaned it or feed it on grain for probably a month or so beforehand. And I can remember going out to Lino Tonellato’s land on Port Wakefield Road, and seeing that they used to keep an eye on it and then you’d go and shoot it and broil it … then you would pour boiling water over it to clean the skin off it. Gut it there, and then bring it home and then you would hang it up in the shed overnight. And then, all the salami makers would arrive at about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.

 

---

See also previous blogs about family Easter traditions:

• Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo –  5 April 2020
• Linda Zamperin nee Tonellato – 26 March 2023
• Diana Panazzolo nee Santin – 23 September 2023

You can search for the blogs by entering the names into the ‘Search’ box in the top right-hand section of the web page.

---

Madeleine Regan
24 March 2024