The year is already underway but please accept my best wishes for 2024 – and for all that will unfold. There will be many events that will take place in our lives – and in our world – that as yet are unknown.
The image above shows a group of Veneto families who gathered at St Kilda for the annual New Year picnic. It was taken in the 1950s and
Noemi Campagnaolo nee Zalunardo supplied the photo.
The book about the Veneto market gardeners
I want to let you know that this year my book about the Veneto market gardeners will be published. It is called, “‘I buy this piece of ground of here:’ An Italian market gardener community in Adelaide, 1920s – 1970s.” The quote are the words of Vittorio Marchioro who was interviewed in the 1980s. The cover (in the photo below) is an image of Costantina and Giovanni Santin taken on Valetta Road in the 1940s. The photo was provided by their granddaughter, Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo.
The book documents the history of the group of Veneto families who established their market gardens in the now Kidman Park, Flinders Park area in the 1930s. I was fortunate to be able to use excerpts from lots of the oral history interviews that I started recording in 2008 with descendants of the first generation of market gardeners. I have also been pleased to include photos that families gave me permission to use over the years -and which are on this website.
It has taken a long time for the book to get to this stage – I began writing it over two years ago and in the last year, I’ve completed various processes required by the publisher, ANU [Australian National University] Press. The Press first publishes its books as e-books which are free to read online, and hard copies can be bought later. It is likely that the book will be launched in July this year when books will be available to buy. I will confirm the date when I know more.
New Year memories
To start the year, I have gone back to a blog that was posted in January 2020. You will see several excerpts from the oral history interviews and you’ll read some memories of how different families celebrated New Year.
Lena Moscheni nee Rossetto,
OH 872/32, 12 September 2014
I remember New Year’s Eve … or New Year’s Day I should say, we’d go around to people’s houses. It was bad luck if a girl went, it had to be a boy first, and we’d go to the people, Italians, and say, ‘Buon anno!’ (Happy New Year!). and they used to give us 20 cents or 10 cents, just like that, but the boys had to go first and I had to come last,
because I was a girl.
Bruno Piovesan,
OH 872/5, 4 October 2008
And then they used to go to St Kilda, which is just north of Adelaide, of course (laughs) but it felt like it was miles away at the time: that was a picnic time, once-a-year picnic time. Oh, yes, on the St Kilda beach.
And they used to have motorbike races and different things. And they called it a ‘swimming pool’, but gee whiz, it was just a hole in the dirt, virtually. [laughs] Used to have their own way of having fun.
Christine Zampin, OH 872/42, 26 February 2017
… and then we used to go to Saint Kilda every New Year’s Day in trucks. … Oh, all the men and the boys and that, kids used to go out and we used to get cockles and crabs and bring them back and then they’d light a fire and cook them up and eat them. And oh, everyone used to bring food. Oh, it was fantastic. And they had, every New Year’s Day, they had these games, down near the Saint Kilda hotel … for running and all that sort of thing… Yeah, it was really good fun. It was a lot of people that used to go to those picnics down at Saint Kilda.
Peter is held by his father. Photo supplied by the Zampin family.
Noemi Campagnolo nee Ballestrin, OH 872/29, 20 March 2014
I remember them going to St Kilda … People we knew, Tonellatos, … a lot of my relatives, like my zioNarciso. Lina, all the Zampins, they used to live on Angley Avenue in Findon … a lot of them that used to go, we used to have a truck full, follow the leader. It was good, it was nice.
Anna Santin nee Mattiazzo, OH 872/24, 17 April 2013
One of the family used to get the truck, and we used to put a tarpaulin on, on top, and we all used to get behind with a keg of beer, and something to eat and go around, St Kilda mostly it was.
Diana Panazzolo nee Santin, OH 872/27, 13 September 2013
I remember Bruno Piovesan, [or] I think it was Frankie … Ballestrin, I don’t know if it was Nillo [Piovesan] and [Guido] Rebuli and I remember a New Year’s morning and they came to Mum and Dad’s bedroom window, they started knocking at the window and singing. [laughs] I remember waking up, what was happening? You know.
And I thought, that was really, one of my happiest memories…
Invitation
I’d like to repeat my invitation to readers who are interested to write about their family’s story and contribute a blog on the website. Each family has a their own experience of migration and life in Australia – the circumstances and ways of settling in the new country are different and valuable to document. Collectively the stories build a history of Veneto migration in Australia and they form an important history to record for the future. If you would like to contribute a blog about your family, please contact me to arrange a date in 2025.
Madeleine Regan
12 January 2025
