Johnny Tormena died on 6th April aged 97 years. He lived a long and very interesting life and through his lifetime he experienced many different historical events. He had a very rich professional life and he loved his relatives and friends. Johnny recorded an interview for the Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project in 2012 and at the end, he summarised his attitude to his life:
I’ve been lucky in life, been lucky with health, and I’ve been lucky with my life here — I just hope that I can arrive to my final days feeling the same. (OH 872/18, 25 May 2022, p80)
The image above features the Tormena family in Adelaide, early 1940s.
Family background
Giovanni (Johnny) Tormena was born in Bigolino, a village about 20 kilometres from Treviso, 60 kilometres from Venice and about 50 kilometres from Vicenza. Over his life, Johnny maintained a deep and strong connection to Bigolino and to his family history in that area of the province of Treviso.
Johnny’s father was Galliano Tormena who was a carter with two horses and he delivered goods from nearby railway stations to Vicenza and Padova and more locally.
Johnny’s mother, Severina, was the fourth of nine members of the Rossetto family – she and seven of her siblings migrated to Adelaide between the wars. Severina worked in a silk cocoon factory in Valdobbiadene, a five kilometre walk from Bigolino.
Johnny’s sister, Maria Rosa was born in 1933 and they remained close through their lives, sharing their home together until Maria Rosa’s death in 2021.
Life in Bigolino in the 1920s and early 1930s was difficult – the recovery from the destruction of World War I in the area took a long time. In his interview, Johnny remembered that money was “scarce.” He recalled his mother saying, “Go out and see if you can get some radicchio … and see that the chickens don’t break the eggs because I can’t think of anything else to give you for food tonight…” I used to take that seriously because [laughs] I like my food. (p6)
The Rossetto family – against fascism
Johnny’s maternal grandparents lived in a large household with their nine children born between 1895 and 1913.
By the time Mussolini came to power in the early 1920s, the family had strong views against fascism and there were consequences for their stand. Johnny spoke about his uncles and their decision to leave Italy. First, two brothers went to work in France and when their father was also targeted by the local fascists in Bigolino, some of the brothers decided to emigrate to Australia. Johnny explained:
Two of them decided to get out of Italy and they migrated to France. They were away for, I think, a couple of years and they came back thinking that things would have died down but instead it was getting stronger, and again they would get beaten up and when the Fascists saw that they couldn’t tame them or get them to think their way, they started to pick on my grandfather, and they caught him one time and put a funnel in his mouth and poured castor oil down his throat. And when they saw that, they said, “Okay we defend ourselves but now we’re a danger to our father, we either got to shut up or get out.” (p8)
The youngest Rossetto son, Beppi, migrated to Adelaide in 1938.
Johnny encounters Mussolini
In 1937, when Johnny was ten, he was, like most young boys in Italy at the time, was a balilla – a member of a fascist youth organisation which provided quasi-military training alongside schooling. Johnny remembered going with a group of balilla on his first bus trip away from Bigolino to Treviso where he was one of a guard of honour to greet Mussolini. He remembered being patted on the head by Mussolini. In later life, Johnny recognised the indoctrination of children about fascism but at the time, he felt it a privilege to be patted on the head by this man.
Johnny’s family – decision to migrate in 1940
In his interview, Johnny explained that his parents felt they had no other choice but to leave Italy because of the difficult circumstances that resulted from being anti-fascist. The family finally left Bigolino and arrived in Adelaide in February 1940.
First years in Adelaide
Johnny spent three years at school at St Mary’s Dominican Convent, Franklin Street and because he could not speak English, he was put into a class three years below the grade he had completed in Italy. Initially he had the support of a cousin in the same class but by the second year, he had acquired the language and he came third in his class.
Experience of the war years
It was difficult to be an Italian in Australia after Italy declared its allegiance to Germany in June 1940 just four months after the Tormena family arrived in Adelaide.
He spoke about this experience in his interview and said that he felt self-conscious about being Italian:
Then there was a bit of hostility… because we were not just immigrants by that time; we were ‘aliens’ and so they (students at school) had another title – I didn’t know what it meant but I knew that they meant to hurt your feelings and called me ‘the little dagoe’. (p10)
Johnny also recalled the limitations of movement that were imposed on Italians and other ‘enemy aliens’ during the war:
During the War we were not allowed to outside the square mile of Adelaide unless you had a permit from the police… The permit would only be for the one day and it was always on a Sunday for us that Mum wanted to go down and see her sister. So we used to go the police station and even me at my age, 12, 13, 14 we had to be finger-printed and signed and we had to be back in the square mile of Adelaide by the end of the day.(p 28/29)
The Tormenas lived in rooms in Waymouth Street in the west of the City of Adelaide for about ten years in a house that was owned by the Cescato family who ran a boarding house. Severina’s brother Beppi, his wife, Bruna, and their first child, Valeria, lived with the Tormenas for some time.
In 1950, the Tormena family experienced great sadness when Galliano died after a short illness. In 1951, they took an important step and bought a house together and Galliano’s sister, Rosa, and her daughter Anna Maria, also lived with them there for a time.
Working life
Johnny began working at 16 years of age. One of his early jobs was cleaning a picture theatre at night. He recalled that the theatres were full of American soldiers during the war years. He worked in a department store, Foy and Gibson’s for 14 years and became an experienced display manager and was respected for his creative window displays.
He made a visit to Italy in 1956 and also worked in London in a picture theatre for some months. He loved staying in Bigolino reconnecting with relatives and school friends. He returned to Adelaide and in 1957, opened a coffee lounge with a friend which they called Las Vegas. It became very popular but after four years of working seven days a week, they decided to close.
A new opportunity emerged in 1960 – a position at John Martin’s department store –where he remained until 1988. At first, Johnny was in charge of displays for 34 windows. He eventually became the Merchandise Presentation Director for John Martin’s in charge of five stores with a staff of 73 people. He travelled overseas with buyers to review the designs and displays of prestigious department stores in other countries such as France, Sweden, Norway, Germany, America and Japan. He also worked on promoting merchandise for other countries. Johnny was away on one trip for 11 weeks meeting retail associations, visiting large department stores and gathering new ideas to bring back to John Martin’s.
Johnny was loved and widely respected by his colleagues at John Martin’s. Some of the men who worked with him continued to meet with him socially over many years. Some attended his 97th birthday party last November.
Italian heritage
Johnny had a large extended family with many cousins and he enjoyed social life in Adelaide with them as a young man.
In his interview, he reflected on the balance of being Italian and Australian : I’m equally as proud of my Italian heritage as I am of being in Australia because when I go to Italy, I keep on talking about Australia. “You are talking about Australia, go back!” (p 79/80)
Although Johnny said he was “not a club man”, he joined the Veneto Club as a Foundation member in 1972 and he also joined the Adelaide chapter of the Trevisani nel Mondo, a world-wide association for people with origins in the province of Treviso.
A long life
Johnny’s life has been rich and full. In the last years, even with the challenges of dementia, he remembered phases of his life – his love of his family and relatives, enjoyment of friends, the wonder of films, the satisfaction of his working life at John Martin’s, delight in his garden, passion for travel and particularly his deep connections to his beloved Bigolino.
All photos from the Tormena family albums, apart from the final one.
Madeleine Regan
20 April 2025
