Author: Madeleine Regan

Part One
In this blog, the story of the railway carriage or vagon that was located in the Tonellato family market gardens begins. Next blog you will read further details about the ‘Willochra’ carriage.

Secondo Tonellato migrated from Caselle di Altivole to Australia in 1927 and after he was established , he began planning for his wife and children to arrive from Italy.  In 1935 he purchased a disused carriage from South Australian Railways and moved it to his land at the end of current day Ferguson Ave, Kidman Park. It was there to accommodate Secondo, his wife, Elisabetta and their children Lui, Rosina, Alberto, Lino and Nano. Assunta joined the family in 1937 and she also lived there with Secondo and Elisabetta until a new house was built in 1954.

In an interview with Madeleine Regan Lino Tonellato remembered:

Well it took ‘em all day from early morning to night time, because they had to have the police and shift the electric poles. It was that long they couldn’t get it around the corner in them days from Islington, all the way from Islington down to Lockleys, but they couldn’t get around the corner on the Grange Road there. They were stuck there for about five hours trying to get the post out to get it across (laughs). Then they reckon they had to lift up wires and all on the way. (Lino Tonellato, 6 July 2010)

According those who remember the carriage it was lavishly appointed with polished woodwork, velvet drapes and etched glass.  The name of the carriage was Willochra.

Allegedly this carriage was part of the Royal Train during the 1927 tour by the Duke and Duchess of York, who became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1936. According to reports of the tour the Royal Train comprised 2 ‘pullman sleepers’ and a ‘pullman dining car’ plus standard carriages. In his interview, Lino recalled what it looked like:

I still remember, it was all nice shiny and real polish, high polish, and it was not hot and not cold, always the same temperature in there, with no air-conditioner, it was always the same temperature because the wall was three layers of cork, to get … them days they didn’t have … all filled in with cork, and the roof was three layers … (Lino Tonellato 6 July 2010)

The records of South Australian Railways confirm that this carriage was a ‘Mann Boudoir Car’ built in New York in 1886 for the Victorian and South Australian Railways. Mann Boudoir Cars were designed for luxury overnight travel with 10 sleeping compartments per car. In 1908 the carriage was transferred to the South Australian Railways, re-numbered 116 and named Willochra.  At the same time, it was modified into an ‘Observation Car’ for railways department tours – some suites were removed to create a lounge and dining room and it was fitted with electric lights.  It remained in service until 1933 and condemned in 1934. According to South Australian Railways records in 1935 it was sold to Rofe & Co  Rofe & Co were a transport and moving company who were probably responsible for relocating the vagon to Kidman Park on behalf of Secondo Tonellato.

Photos supplied by the families.

Alex Bennett
5 April 2021

It’s autumn in Adelaide and the traditional time to make wine after the grape harvest. People like Angelo Innocente made wine every year and the feature photo was taken at his home at Lockleys when he was 89 years. In their interviews many narrators spoke about the ritual of wine making. Jimmy Ballestrin explains why it was important for the first generation to maintain Veneto traditions. Other narrators recall the processes of making wine – and provided details about where families got the grapes, how children were involved in pressing the grapes and sharing the ritual with others – including the local policeman!

I’ve selected excerpts from just four interviews to give the idea of the family activity of making wine in autumn.

Jimmy Ballestrin, 6 June 2011
I think it was very important because … you know, there’s always something of home. In those days especially, they all liked to have their glass of wine, and wine wasn’t that easy to come by here in Adelaide, the type of wine they were used to drinking, and also the type of foods that they were used to eating, weren’t readily available. So therefore yes, they liked to keep the lifestyle of their Italian lifestyle, and, and might I say, perhaps improved on the Italian lifestyle that they, that they had. Because of their poverty over there, they did all the things that they were able to, that they were able to muster here …

Norma Camozzato nee Ballestrin,
21 September 2016
Around Easter we used to go picking our own grapes. At Williamstown. I remember Williamstown I used to like going up there. Mum would provide the food. Well, Frankie’s mother would provide her family and we’d all go up there and we’d have this nice chicken in the middle of the plants. And, yeah, I remember picking grapes, then coming home and the men would squash it and carry on … I didn’t care about wine. But we always had wine …

Roma Bordignon nee Zampin, 3 February 2017.
We used to get into the big bucket or whatever it was, and we’d go with our feet and we’d dance the Tarantella. (Laughter] … And [Dad would] say, “Come on girls. Hurry up! We’ve got to make this wine.” So, we’d dance faster. And the Lockleys policeman at the time, he used to come up to see Gerry, as they called Dad. And he’d say, “How are you going Gerry? Have you made the wine yet?” And he’d say, “Yeah. Would you like a taste?” So, he’d sit down and drink it. He only come up to see him for a drink … 

 

Johnny Marchioro, 21 July 2008
I think they used to go to Reynella and get their grapes for the wine. Dad made a cement tank and when the wine season was – back in would have been April, May – used to get it and we used to squash it, jump in the barrel and squash it by foot, and they’d make our own wine. That was like a seasonal thing.

 

 

 

 

Autumn is also the time for Easter here in Adelaide. I know that many families had Easter customs related to special food for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Buona Pasqua!

Madeleine Regan
21 March 2021

From the 1920s to the 1960s many boarding houses sprang up in the West End of Adelaide to accommodate large numbers of newly arrived migrants from countries all over Europe. Some were only for sleeping arrangements and laundry but others offered full board which included 3 daily meals.

There were many families running small to large boarding houses and they also employed lots of locals to help. Following is a list of some of these families who ran boarding houses.

On the corner of Currie and North Streets the boarding house owned by Raymond Tranquillo Balestrin included his father Federico and his four daughters when they arrived from Italy in 1927.

In Waymouth Street some of the boarding houses were run by Clorinda and Angelo Cescato, Elena and Luigi Stocco (who also had 3 bocce courts), Mrs Agnese Urbani and Mrs Paoletto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giovanni and Lino Pietrobon also had a boarding house in Waymouth Street.

Other boarding houses in the West End

• In North Street there was Nelli Guidolin, known to all as Nelli Crotti, and later Mrs Saccoia.

  

• In Grattan Street there was Giuseppe Nussio known as Beppi Scarparo.
• On West Terrace there was Mrs Castagna.
• The Conti Family was in Hindley Street.
• In Currie Street there were the Del Tedescos and on the corner of North and Currie Streets, the Mattiazzos had boarders.
• Lina Rossetto also had a few boarders in Crowther Street
• In Franklin Street Giuseppina (Pina) Caon’s establishment was behind her husband Giacinto (Jack) Caon’s butcher shop.

 

 

In the next-door garden block of the Cescato boarding house Angelo and Clorinda dug out an air raid shelter during World War 2. Then they covered the top with the soil they had excavated and grew all sorts of vegetables (and peanuts) on it for the boarding house. You name it and they had it. Chickens too, naturally!!

Some of the children in the boarding house families had to help before and after school with chores, including cleaning, sweeping and washing floors, making boarders’ lunches, preparing and waiting on tables, washing up etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some hostesses secured jobs for their men whether daily, weekly, monthly or life time – either locally or in the bush! When some of these men met these ladies again later in life they told them they attributed their successes to them and how eternally grateful they were.

Some long-time boarders became life-long friends. Some made toys, rocking horses and walkers for the infant/child of the family. One in particular was Giuseppe DeBandi, known to one and all exclusively as Piemonte.

Social life around the boarding houses
A Spanish contingent invited the hostess’s teenage nieces to impromptu Flamenco afternoons and they also taught the girls how to dance.

On Sundays Federico Balestrin would organise get togethers where his son-in-law Dario Pisani would play his piano accordion for singalongs and dancing.

During summer evenings the boarders and friends would meet out of the front of the houses and passed the time together.

The boarders were always treated as family and were even advised on family matters with some of them having family overseas. Some were accompanied to medical and other professional appointments to help with the translating and understanding.

The whole of the West End was very much a close-knit family with everyone living side by side – Aboriginals, Italians, Greeks, Jugoslavs, Hungarians, Australians, Maltese, Spanish, Scandinavians, Syrians, Lebanese, Balts to name a few. Racism did not exist here!

 

Linda De Marchi nee Cescato
Nives Caon nee Cescato
7 March 2021

Photos supplied by Linda and Nives except for the one from Maria Rosa Tormena.