Veneto market gardeners 1927

This is the first of two blogs that give glimpses into the lives of Duilio and Nives nee Cescato Caon over nine decades. Their experience contributes to the bigger context of Veneto migrant history in Adelaide. This blog focuses on Duilio’s life and the next one distils Nives’ experience.

The image above shows the Caon family
who were reunited in Adelaide in 1955.
Duilio stands beside his father, third from the right.

In 11 days time, it will be 76 years since Duilio Caon and his brother Galdino arrived in Adelaide. Duilio, who was 20 years old and Galdino, three years younger, went against their parents’ wishes and contacted their uncle Giacinto Caon and made arrangements to travel to Australia. Their uncle met them when they disembarked in Melbourne on 28^th November 1948.

A family attraction to Australia
Giacinto Caon initiated the family tradition of migration to Australia.

He had arrived in 1926 and went back to Italy in 1933 to marry Giuseppina Campagnaro. The couple returned to Adelaide in 1934 and lived in Franklin Street where they had a butcher shop. A second uncle, Angelo, migrated in 1937.

Duilio’s father did not want his sons to come to Australia because he had had a bad experience of life in Adelaide. He had migrated in February 1928, sponsored by his brother, Giacinto. Because of the Depression, employment was difficult to find and the only work he could find was clearing land 400 kms north west of Adelaide at Iron Knob. The conditions must have been difficult to endure and like many migrants at that difficult economic time, he returned to his own country. In 1930 he met his 2 year-old son, Duilio, for the first time.

Duilio – the eldest in the Caon family
Duilio was born at Ramon di Loria in May 1928, the first of 12 children born to Maddalena Luigia Sabbadin and Leandro Caon.  His father had left for Australia several months before Duilio’s birth – in the hope of finding opportunities to make money for the future of his wife and family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life in Ramon di Loria
Duilio remembers the poverty in Ramon as he was growing up. His parents leased land and lived in a large farmhouse with two other Caon families and there were 25 people to feed. There were few facilities in the house and family members walked half a kilometre to get water from a well.

 Duilio attended school for five years until he was 12 years old and then worked with his father and two uncles on the farm that had crops such as wheat and corn. The equivalent of about ten blocks of land in Australia, the property was rented at first, then the brothers were able to buy it.

The war years
In 1944 when he was 16 years old, Duilio was taken by German soldiers with other young boys to San Donà di Piave, a town on the River Piave about 70 kilometres from Ramon di Loria. They were removed from their families and loaded onto carriages used to transport animals and when they arrived, they found that their job was to dig trenches to protect the German Army from bombardments. In 1945, when the Americans made progress and the Germans retreated, Duilio ran away and joined the partisans. He remembers being able to take a gun, a horse and a bike from the German Army.

He eventually returned home to Ramon and found ways to earn money and one initiative was to sell the skins of rats which were sold for making gloves. The consequences of the war were felt deeply in areas like Loria where food was scarce and people were existing on very little.

 The dream grows
Duilio remembered those years as a “desperate” time. He kept his goal in mind, could see no future in Italy and the urge to migrate to Australia grew stronger.

 Dulio was fixed on his dream of living in Australia even when his parents encouraged him to think about going to Uruguay where they had relatives. He was independent and wrote to his uncle in Adelaide who lent his nephew the fares. (It took Duilio and Galdino a year to pay back the money .)

The voyage

When he left, Duilio remembered that his mother was very sad. His father took him and Galdino to Castelfranco Veneto to catch the train to the port of Genova. The voyage on the ‘Toscana’ took 42 days and Duilio recalled that this was one of the best times in his life – a young man suspended between the difficult life in Ramon and the dream of living in Australia. On the ship there was plentiful food and large numbers of young people who were also looking for a better future.

 

The dream is realised
The dream became a reality – and Duilio and Galdino settled in Adelaide assisted by their uncles, Giacinto and Angelo. Duilio had very positive first impressions and perhaps the biggest impact was that he could eat three meals a day. He stayed in Franklin Street in the west end of the City with his aunt and uncle. His aunt ran a boarding house where he lived for two years.

 Settling in Adelaide
Albert Del Fabbro, an Italian from Friuli had arrived in Australia in 1915 and by the time Duilio and Galdino arrived in 1948, he owned a successful mosaic and terrazzo business and over the years had employed many young Italian men. Duilio worked for Albert for about four years. See entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography – Biography – Umberto Primo (Albert) Del Fabbro – Australian Dictionary of Biography)

Duilio worked hard as his son, David explained at Dulio’s 70^th birthday –

When Dad first arrived, he worked very hard as a concrete and terrazzo worker, six days a week because he was determined to make good.

Sometimes it was necessary to work seven days.

 

Duilio attended night school in Grote Street in the City and learned English.

Extending the dream
The two brothers sent money back to their family in Italy who continued to experience the misery of poverty. Two more children were born after they left for Adelaide.  In late 1951, Duilio sponsored another 2  brothers, Terzo and Luigi, to migrate to Australia. Duilio realised that his dream of settling in Australia could extend to his whole family and he promised his parents that he could find a home and a job for everyone if they migrated. Duilio’s father sold his share of the land in Loria to pay for the passage for the rest of the family to migrate to Australia. In 1955, his parents and six siblings, Prima, Sisto, Bruno, Graziano, Pio and Margherita arrived in Adelaide.  His parents were in their early 50s when they arrived.

Duilio’s father worked at Holden’s Woodville and Duilio spent a day showing his father what to do on the production line. Two brothers became carpenters, two others worked in the building industry as a bricklayer and with concrete and Luigi worked with Duilio. The family lived in a house that Galdino, Terzo and Luigi had bought at Maylands and the block was large enough to subdivide which enabled Duilio  to build a new house for his parents later on.

Meeting Nives and building a business

In 1948 through his uncle Giacinto who was a friend to Clorinda and Angelo Cescato Duilio met their daughter, Nives, who was 16 years old. Nives and Duilio became friends and three years later they married in January 1952.

In 1953, Duilio decided to try and work for himself and with Nives, took the first steps placing advertisements in newspapers. Duilio began taking on jobs in the cement paving and terrazzo industry. The dream of owning a business began with Duilio and Nives making cement bricks on the vacant block next door. The bricks were for the first house that Duilio built in Adelaide. Over the years, the business, Danny Caon Pty Ltd became well known – Duilio managing all the physical work and Nives was responsible for the office and administrative work and later, for  the internal features of the houses.

Their son David summarised their partnership:

… In 1968 Dad moved from building only a couple of houses a year to full-time building. He had found his calling and his future. He loved his work and worked tirelessly. He worked out in the building field on the job while Mum did the books and chose internal fittings … they worked well as a team … They did well and built houses all over the metropolitan area.

Danny Caon Pty Ltd won awards including Home of the Year Award in 1982 and was recognised for its quality work.

 The potential of a dream
A young man’s dream of having a better future, his sense of independence and confidence in his own resources all combined for Duilio to embark on a journey to leave his family in Ramon after the second World War and begin life in Australia. His dream created the possibility for his parents and brothers and sisters to migrate and enjoy the opportunities of employment, schooling and the more comfortable life possible in Adelaide after the war.

 

Duilio and Nives raised their family and built a successful business partnership, enjoyed travel and made many trips to Italy. They take opportunities now to reflect on their long and productive lives. Their three children, six grandchildren and now, their first great grandchild, Olearia, who was born in June 2024,  bring them great joy.

 

 

 

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Madeleine Regan, Duilio and Nives Caon
17 November 2024

All photos supplied by Duilio and Nives.

 

 

 

Anna Santin nee Mattiazzo died on Saturday 26^th October 2024. Anna was 97 years old and the last of the second generation in the Santin families who worked market gardens on Frogmore Road in the area the Veneti called, ‘Lockleys.’  The following information comes from two oral history interviews that Anna recorded in 2013 for the Veneto market gardeners’ project.

The photo above is a family portrait, Vito, Anna and Dean Santin, late 1960s.
Photo supplied by Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo.

The Mattiazzo family
Anna was born on 11^th July 1927 in Bigolino, a small village in the province of Treviso.

Anna’s father, Emilio, migrated to Australia in 1928. Anna arrived in Australia in 1936 with her mother, Livia Vettoretti, and her sister Augusta who was 11 years old. Anna was 9 years old. Two more children, Rita and David, were born in Australia.

 

 

Throughout her life, Anna maintained a strong relationship with her two sisters Gusta (Augusta) and Rita, and her brother David.

 

 

 

Anna’s father was a butcher in the west end of the City, and was well known in the Veneto community in Adelaide. The shop was in a large building with upstairs accommodation where Livia had made space for boarders.

 

 

Memories of the war
Anna was 12 years old when the war began. The situation became challenging for Italians in Australia when Italy allied itself with Germany in 1940. Anna remembered the sense of fear that was part of everyday life:

You were always frightened because they interned a few people around, and Dad was always frightened they were going to pick him up, but he was never questioned or anything, so we just lived it out till the end of the War, it was the same thing… always somebody around to be frightened of, calling ‘dirty dago’ and all that, though my Dad never had any trouble with anybody. (OH 872/24, 3 April, 2013, p 8)

 Early working life
After Anna went to school for a few years, her first job was at a factory next door to her parents’ house. It was called Harmony where she packed custard and jelly packets. She worked there until about 1947 when she took a job at Holdens at Woodville. As a machinist, she sewed the upholstery for the interior of the first car that came off the line in 1948. Anna said:

 

I was just lucky I suppose. I was on the machine, on the floor where all the machines were, and I was just lucky I think they’d pick me out to build, to sew the first Holden. (OH 872/24, 3 April, 2013, p 4).

 

 

Meeting the Santin family and marriage
Sometimes Anna delivered the meat for her father and this included cycling to the Lockleys area and she got to know some of the market gardener families like the Santins.

There were three sons and a daughter in the Santin family who had a large market garden that they leased from the Berno family on Valetta Road in the mid to late 1940s. All the family was involved in growing vegetables.

Anna went out with Vito, the second Santin son, for five years before they  married in 1949 when she was 22 years old. In the interview when Anna was asked if she had a honeymoon, she laughed at the very idea of a market gardener having time off for a honeymoon – Got married on the Saturday, on the Monday I went to cut celery (OH 872/24, 3 April 2013, p 14).

When they first married, Anna and Vito had a bedroom in the big old house that all the Santins shared with the Berno family.

 In 1950, Dean was born and two years later in 1952, the Santins bought land on Frogmore Road and the whole extended family moved there. The large old house on the property was divided in half and Anna, Vito and Dean lived in one half. Romildo, Vito’s younger brother, and his wife, Clara and family shared the other half with Vito’s parents, Giovanni and Costantina Santin.

 Working the market garden
Anna worked in the Santin market garden with her husband and two brothers-in-law and alongside her two sisters-in-law, Rosina and Clara, for about 40 years. They grew celery, cauliflowers, cabbages, carrots, potatoes and artichokes – and they also had glasshouses where they cultivated tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.  She reflected on her experience of working the market garden:

Oh well, you just picked it up. They gave you a knife in your hand, and go down with your backside up and cut celery… We all, the six of us, all, three brothers and three sisters-in-law, all worked the garden. Seven days a week. Celery, you used to have to cut it on a Saturday and [pack it] Sunday for the market on the Monday. Oh yeah, it was pretty busy doing all different things. (OH 872/24, 3 April, p 16, 17).

Anna’s parents-in-law helped out and her mother-in-law, Costantina, cooked lunch for the families and looked after the young children in each of the families as they arrived.

Family connections
In her interview, Anna remembered visiting her own parents once a week:
I used to go and see Mum and Dad while they were still on Currie Street. I used to go up every Friday … we had a motorbike, and we used to sit Dean on the tank in front. [Laughs] You couldn’t do that nowadays.

Anna enjoyed the closeness of family and she had a strong bond with her sister-in-law, Virginia who married Oscar Mattiazzo. They had been bridesmaids at each other’s weddings. Virginia chose Anna to be godmother to her first-born daughter, Christine, and confirmation sponsor to her second-born daughter, Helen.

Anna loved her nieces and nephews and their families and she delighted in her grandchildren and her two great-granddaughters.

As land was being developed in the western suburbs, and market gardens were sold, the Santins bought a property at Bolivar about 30 kilometres from Lockleys and the family transferred their market garden there. It meant a longer working day but there were benefits because the property was larger and different crops were added.

At both Kidman Park and Bolivar, the Santins experienced challenges when the respective Councils wanted to acquire their land for developments.

Moving into a new home

In 1972, the three families excised house blocks and built their own houses. Anna recalled the thrill of having her own home:

I think it was everybody’s dream those days to buy, to build a house that you liked. I remember we never took any of the old furniture from the old house, we bought everything new, so I was in my glory! (OH 872/24, 3 April, p 32).

Trip to Italy
Anna remembered a six-month trip to Italy in 1968 and she enjoyed the experience of spending time with her relatives in Bigolino with Vito and her mother who accompanied them on her first visit to Italy after more than 30 years. Anna also met the large group of Vito’s relations in Caselle di Altivole. It was the only visit she made to Italy.

 Identity
Although Anna spent 88 years of her life in Australia, she felt a strong affinity with Italy. In her interview she said, your Italian heritage is always on your mind. I think when you get older you think more … back to your Italian heritage in what you do, not the Australian … I’m an Italian. OH 872/24, 3 April, p 36).

 

 

 

Changes in the Santin family
Vito died in 2011 aged 88 years. Anna and Vito’s son, Dean died in 2019 when he was 68 years. When I interviewed Anna in 2013, she stated that she was “the only one left of the old generation of the Santins.” Anna reflected that she had had a good life and she quietly accepted many of life’s challenges. Anna felt the loss of Vito and Dean deeply. At 97, when taken to hospital, Anna was in command. She wanted to return to her home at St Hilarion to die in peace, to be reunited with her loved ones – and this she did.

Anna is survived by her daughter-in-law, Desma, her three grandchildren, Aaron, Matthew and Sarah, her great-grandchildren, Lyla and Amelia.

Family was everything to Anna.

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Madeleine Regan and Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo
3 November 2024

 

 

 

In the second of the blogs about photos in the lives of the Veneto market gardener families, I’ve adapted an earlier one to share some images taken in Adelaide after the first generation of Veneto market gardeners arrived from the Veneto region in the 1920s and 1930s. Families have kindly given permission to use the photos  that have become part of the archive of images that tell the story of the market gardeners in Flinders Park and Kidman Park on this website.

A studio family portrait – c 1927/1928
The oldest photo taken in Adelaide that I’ve seen is the portrait of the Marchioro family which was taken in late 1927/early 1928. (This is the feature photo above)  Margherita and Francesco had arrived in 1926 with Mary who was a baby at the time. Lina, who is perched on the arm of the chair between her parents, was born in a boarding house in Hindley Street in the west end of the City of Adelaide in March 1927.

The family portrait is formal – the parents are dressed handsomely and their daughters are clothed in fresh white dresses – adults and children look directly at the camera with serious expressions. The backdrop suggests an idealised scenario and perhaps this is the positive image that Francesco and Margherita wanted to communicate as the photo was probably taken to send back to their families in Malo and Monte di Malo. However, the reality for the family was very different. In Lina’s interview she remembered that her parents had moved several times in the first years in the search for cheaper accommodation because it was difficult to earn an adequate income in the Depression years. The third daughter, Connie, was born in 1938.

A different family portrait – c 1931
In the second photo, Lina nee Bordin and Gelindo Rossetto are pictured with their eldest son Romeo who died when he was seven years old. The photo was taken around 1931 at Lockleys on the southern side of the River Torrens where Gelindo and Lina had a market garden. Lina had arrived from Italy the year before and started a very different life in primitive conditions on Gelindo’s market garden on the south side of the River Torrens at Lockleys.

Lina  looks stern and focuses straight at the camera as Gelindo feeds Romeo. We, the viewers, get the context of the land, the old gums, the bamboo on the right, growing along the river. It communicates an image of a pioneer family. It’s a portrait but not the formal kind taken in a studio. It is as if Gelindo has stopped work and joined Lina and Romeo for the photograph. Perhaps the photo was processed to send to  the families in the province of Treviso to show life on the land in Adelaide.

The power of the Box Brownie camera

In her interviews recorded in 2010 and 2011, Lina Rismondo nee Marchioro recalled that her father gave her a Brownie Box camera for her 12^th birthday in 1939. “I think my Dad spoilt me, really. He used to love buying me things.”  (Oral History interview OH 872/9, 9 June 2010, p 33) The Box Brownie or Brownie Junior Camera was the camera used by young people in Australia from the 1930s.[1] It had been marketed as a simple camera that could be handled by children and adolescents.

Fortunately for us, Lina used her camera to capture the lives of the Veneto market gardener families in the area they called ‘Lockleys’  in the 1940s.

Lina was a young girl when her parents, Francesco and Margherita Marchioro, moved to Frogmore Road where Margherita worked a market garden with her brother-in-law, Vittorio. Before the Second World War Lina and her family had transferred their home and farm to Pierson Street Lockleys.

Lina took photos of her extended family and the Veneto community. One photo shows her mother and aunt, Angelina Marchioro, picking onions on Frogmore Road, a reminder that women also worked the land. Lina’s collection of photos gives an insight into the everyday lives of the market gardener families, relationships in families and events like childrens’ birthday parties and gatherings of groups in the community.

Links between families – 1940s

Lina took this photo of Maria and Egidio Ballestrin with Angelina and Johnny Marchioro on Frogmore Road sometime in 1941.

Maria and Angelina are standing in front of a chook run and behind them in the background is the Marchioro market garden and the corrugated iron house is just visible in the top right.

The two women holding their first-born children look content and proud standing in the context of a fairly harsh environment.

Jimmy and his mother had arrived in Fremantle in June 1940 expecting to join Narcisio, Maria’s husband and Jimmy’s father who had been in Adelaide with his brothers since 1938. Jimmy explains in his interview that when they arrived in Perth, the passengers on the ship, the Remo, were considered ‘prisoners-of-war’ because Italy had entered the war against the Allies. The passengers could not continue their journey for about three weeks until the Australian Government approved the ship’s movements. The Ballestrins and the Marchioros became dear friends, and Jimmy and Johnny maintained a life-long friendship until Johnny’s death in 2023.

Working life, 1950s – and a photo returns to Adelaide
This image features Carmela Rossetto nee Buffon in her shop in the west end of Hindley Street. It was taken in the 1950s and she had sent it to relatives in Bigolino perhaps to show them that she was an accomplished business woman and her life in Adelaide as a widow and mother was prosperous.

Carmela and her older child, Anna, had arrived in Adelaide in 1929, joining her husband, Domenico Rossetto who had migrated in 1926. They ran the grocery shop in Hindley Street from sometime in the 1930s. In 1946 when Domenico died, Carmela applied successfully to purchase the property that included the shop and residence.

In the photo, Carmela looks the very image of the proprietor, shelves fully stocked with goods and she is ready to serve at the cash register. We can imagine that her family in Bigolino would have been pleased that she was a successful business woman.

 

In an interesting twist, the photo found its way back to Adelaide in the last few years. When Vicki Mattiazzo, the daughter of Oscar Mattiazzo, (the nephew of Carmela Rossetto) visited Italy, relatives in Bigolino gave it back to the family. The photo has been added to the Mattiazzo/Buffon archives.

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There are many other photos in the archive on the Veneto market gardeners’ website that illustrate the new lives that the first generation established in Adelaide. The few that are represented in this blog convey the experience of family life as migrants that contrasted with the way that their relatives lived in large households in small villages in the Veneto region.

Madeleine Regan – and thanks to Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo
20 October 2024

[1] State Library of South Australia Digital Collections, Brownie Junior Camera – https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/7708