On Monday 1st March 1926 the steamer ship Regina d’Italia arrived at Port Adelaide after the 60+ day voyage from Genova. It was 30 degrees that day with a northerly wind.
The ship could carry up to 500 passengers. A total of 40 people disembarked at Port Adelaide – 35 men, 4 women and a “female infant.” One of the men was Francesco Marchioro, who was accompanied by his wife, Margherita, and their five-month-old daughter, Mary. Francesco was 24 years old and Margherita was just 20 years old.
The Marchioro family
The image above shows the Marchioro family,
Margherita, Francesco, Lina and Mary, c 1927.
The family was sponsored by Margherita’s brother, Florindo Marchioro who had been in Australia since 1922. He was living in Adelaide in 1926 and assisted his sister and family to get lodging in a boarding house in Hindley Street in the city. Florindo was a terrazzo contractor and he employed his brother-in-law, Francesco as a labourer.
Margherita and Francesco’s second daughter, Lina, was born in March 1927 and a third daughter, Connie was born 11 years later.
LIna, Marhgerita, Connie, Mary, Francesco.
Francesco applied to be naturalised in 1931 – meeting the requirements of residing for a minimum of five years in Australia. The police report stated; “The applicant is in good health. Has no intention of going back to Italy. Desires to become a British subject.”
Up until Francesco’s naturalisation, the Marchioro lived in three different boarding houses in the City of Adelaide – 3 years in Hindley Street, 18 months in Gilbert Street and the family had spent nine months in Waymouth Street at the time of his application.
During the 1930s, the family moved to Frogmore Road where Margherita and her brother-in-law, Vittorio Marchioro, worked a market garden. Francesco continued to work in the terrazzo business. Vittorio was sponsored by his brother, Francesco. When Francesco died in 1945, Margherita worked market gardens on the other side of the River Torrens in Lockleys for many years. She died in 2001.
South Australia – 1926
When the Marchioro family arrived in 1926, Adelaide had a population of about 316,000 people and in South Australia there were nearly 567,000. The 1921 census recorded 344 people who were born in Italy. By 1933, the number had risen to 1,489. (Italians in South Australia – SA History Hub: https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/subjects/italians-in-south-australia/ )
In the South Australian newspapers, such as “The Advertiser” and “The Register,” there were news pages that carried small and large stories. The Commonwealth Parliament still met in Melbourne and there were reports about legislation relating to a Crime Bill, tariffs, issues relating to the retention of nationality of women who were not British subjects when they married British subjects and other matters. International issues such as trade, post-World War I peace initiatives and small articles about various European countries. There was an article about the ill health of Benito Mussolini who was identified as a “dictator.” He had lost weight because of a medical condition that required him to be on a special diet.
The papers devoted large columns to information about the candidates for the State elections that were to be held on 26th March. A bushfire relief fund reported donations to assist people who had lost properties in the Adelaide Hills. Unemployment statistics were given at 300 for the month of February. The range of classified advertisements was vast and made up the first six or so pages. One interesting advertisement from Harris Scarfe’s department store was for electrical appliances – that suggests that not all households had the luxury of electricity.
Social notes were in the Women’s Pages and highlighted gatherings mainly of well-to-do people who attended functions and parties and the names of some first-class passengers were identified on steamer voyages to London.
There were lots of advertisements for entertainment in Adelaide. On the night of 1st March 1926, citizens could have attended a performance of Hamlet or Aladdin. During the first week of March they could have gone ballroom dancing – either in beginners or advanced classes – in different places around the suburbs including town halls at St Peter, Port Adelaide, Norwood and Thebarton. There were pictures being shown in a few theatres including a film with Gloria Swanson and another about ‘Rin Tin Tin’.
One of the tallest buildings in Adelaide at the time, the Kelvin building on North Terrace ,was six stories high. Advertisements gave details of used cars and on offer were Dodges, Buicks, Chevrolets, Ford and Overlands. Sporting news items publicised large numbers of country race meetings, mostly men’s sports such as cricket, Australian Rules, rowing and bowling.
Harris Scarfe’s and John Martin’s department stores were advertising the last week of summer sale fashions. Women could buy silk coats for “dusty and dry days.”
For the Italian migrants who arrived on 1st March 1926, the newspapers would have provided little information of interest. The main goal of the newly arrived was to have accommodation, and since they were mostly men, the priority was the need for employment in a country that was very obviously Anglo-Saxon and part of the British Empire. The migrants were hopeful that their new home would offer them opportunities that would provide them with a better future than they could have expected in Italy at that time.
In the 99 years since the arrival of Francesco and Margherita, their family has expanded into four more generations. Mary did not have children but Lina and her husband Ruggero Rismondo had three sons and Connie and her husband had a son and a daughter. In the fourth generation, there are 14 sons and daughters and the family has extended further with another 14 sons and daughters who are the great-great grandchildren of Francesco and Margherita.
Thousands upon thousands of Italian migrants have arrived and settled since that time, and have contributed in diverse ways to the cultural, economic, social and political life in Australia.
Madeleine Regan – with thanks to Frank Rismondo for the family details.
23 February 2025