The feature photo is an article about the Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project and some interviews that were used in an exhibition at the Migration Museum in Adelaide. The article was published in the Italian national newspaper, Il Globo, 25 February 2016.
Remembering As a year ends, we often reflect on events and significant occasions that we have experienced.
This year there have been a number of significant events associated with the Veneto community in South Australia.
Cover of the 50-year history of the Veneto Book published in 2024.
In May the Veneto Club celebrated its 50-year history with a wonderful dinner and nearly 600 guests. It was a time to remember the hard work of the many volunteers who had contributed their time and labour to building the Club at Beverley. People were delighted to honour the Foundation members and the countless social functions, sports competitions and other events hosted at the Club.
A view of the attendees at the launch of the website, May 2014. Photo by Michael Campbell.
Another anniversary in May marked 10 years of the Veneto market gardeners’ website and its stories of families who migrated from the Veneto region beginning in the 1920s.
It is nearly 100 years ago since the first of the Veneto market gardener families and relatives arrived in Adelaide. Francesco and Margherita Marchioro arrived together as a young couple with a six-month old daughter in March 1926 and Domenico Rossetto arrived in February the same year.
Blogs in 2024
Descendants of the first generation contribute to the website through writing or collaborating in the publication of blogs. In 2024, eight blogs were about different families and members contributed their stories.
In this final post of the year, you will be able to link to the various blogs provided by relatives and read them again if you wish. To access a blog below, click on the heading within the box and it will take you to the page.
The Battistello story and the Veneto Club by Alessia Basso:
Thank you to all the contributors in 2024 who have helped to make the Veneto market gardeners’ website interactive and thought-provoking. The blogs offer insights into the circumstances of different families in their stories of migration and settlement – they form an archive of Veneto migration history in South Australia.
If you would like to contribute your family story to the website, please contact me to organise a blog in 2025.
Thank you to Michael Campbell for managing the website and thank you to the Veneto Club Inc., Adelaide for funding the annual costs of the website.
In this blog, you’ll read about two annual Christmas traditions – the presepe or nativity setting created by Irene Zampin in Caselle di Altivole in the province of Treviso – and a community tradition in Adelaide organised by the Trevisani nel Mondo.
In the view of Irene’s presepe above, pavers lead the way to the manger.
My presepe – 2024
For me November is a sad month because the first cold days show up and it is when I mostly get bored. The days become dark very early in the evening and the thermal changes bring colds and flus. To remove this melancholy, I have to find something that keeps me busy so I begin my research for some hints of how I could create my presepe.
Since I’m rather an impulsive person, it doesn’t take me long to decide how to proceed with it.
When I have gathered all I need to set it up, the fun begins with excitement.
Location of Caselle di Altivole. https://mapcarta.com/N1429155247
Not far from home, there is a hardware store where the owners allow me to choose all the cardboard boxes I need to make my presepe, at no cost. If you have some imagination, it isn’t difficult to create one with recycled material such as the one I made. I used cardboard boxes for the houses, egg cartons to make the layer of bricks and some cloth to put on the washing cord. The only expense I had this year was for the green fake lawn that I bought for the ground. The statues are recycled every year.
A view of the presepe.
As you can see, the presepe is made with 4 cardboard boxes, they are easy to set up. Each one represents a scene. The main part of the presepe represents the nativity of Jesus which is in a stable near luxurious houses. To keep the holy family warm in the stable, there are the ox and the donkey that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
Every scene took me about 4 to 5 hours. With the help of the precious hot glue, I assembled the 4 sceneries together so I must say that it took me around 20 hours to complete the presepe. Since I am not a patient person, when I start something I like to finish it quickly, but not always things turn out as I wish.
I love building up the presepe; the only thing that bothers me is putting in the lights because the electrical wires often get tangled when passing through each box.
Mario, Tommaso and Irene.
I made my first presepe in 2016 when my grandsons asked for it. This year Mario is 15 and Tommaso is 13 years old and they help me. To involve my grandsons, I make them create the old look of the houses. Mario tore up some paper from the carboard and painted a light layer of white on the walls while Tommaso created the rooftop where there is the washing line. I still glue all the statues to the floor because both of them love teasing me by changing the positions of the statues.
Since I have lots of friends that pass by to see my presepe, I keep it out for 6 weeks; 2 weeks more than the usual month (8th of December till the 6th of January). Of course, when they are here, we have a cup of coffee or tea.
You can play a short video (1 minute, 26 seconds) taken by Irene that shows the features of the presepe.
Every year, I participate in a program of one of our regional TV channels which makes an exhibition of homemade presepi.
Irene Zampin
15 December 2024
The Christmas picnic organised by the Trevisani nel Mondo, Adelaide
For 42 years, the Trevisani nel Mondo Association in Adelaide has organised a Christmas picnic for members and friends. The Trevisani nel Mondo is an international not-for-profit association that represents people and their descendants who migrated from the province of Treviso. Local chapters exist around Australia – and the world.
A view of the attendees at the picnic.
Each year the Trevisani nel Mondo in Adelaide organise a series of gatherings beginning with the Annual General Meeting in February. A Committee, currently consisting of 13 people, organises the events and other groups of volunteers – including a member who is over 90 years – assist with preparation of food and hospitality.
The first large social gathering is the autumn picnic in March. In May, members attend a lunch and the June Castagne or Chestnut event is very popular with attendees who take home packets of roasted chestnuts. In August the Trevisani commemorate Pope Pius X who was born in Riese, a village in the province of Treviso. He was elected Pope in August 1903 and the lunch brings together many people with connections to Riese Pio X. The Christmas picnic is the most popular event in the Adelaide chapter of the Trevisani nel Mondo calendar.
The 2024 picnic was held on 1st December. About 400 people attended including young children who welcomed Father Christmas (Peter Rebellato) who made an entrance and moved around the groups who enjoyed the shade at Sunnybrae Farm, Regency Park.
Madeleine Regan with assistance from Anna Mechis nee Rebellato.
This is the second of a two-part story about Nives and Duilio Caon. Part 2 covers the life of Nives Caon nee Cescato, beginning life in her mother’s boarding house and balancing family with the building business in partnership with Duilio and enjoying opportunities to experience life.
The image above shows the Cescato family, Clorinda seated between Nives and Guido, and Angelo standing on the right. The others are a group of friends and this was taken at the Cescato boarding house about 1938.
Nives Cescato was born on the first floor of a house in the west end of Adelaide on 7th March 1932, the daughter of Angelo Cescato and Clorinda Balestrin. An older brother, Guido, was four years older, and a sister, Linda, was born 15 years after Nives.
Arrival of Nives’ parents 1928 Angelo Cescato (1905 – 1985) was born in San Vito di Altivole and Clorinda (1907 – 1986) had been born in Spineda, about a kilometre away.
Angelo Cescato and Clorinda Balestrin, Italy,c 1925.
Angelo and Clorinda had migrated to Adelaide in January 1928 and Nives thinks it was partly as a result of the sadness of her mother’s loss of twin daughters – one had been born dead and the other lived for a short time. There was also the incentive of family reunion because Clorinda’s father, Federico Balestrin, a widower, was already living in Adelaide with his four daughters and two sons who had migrated after Clorinda and Angelo’s wedding in 1927. A third son joined the family in 1928.
For a time, Nives’ father worked for Chinese market gardeners at Richmond, not far from the City and this gave him skills to start his own garden with the help of Clorinda after Nives was born. However, the Depression years were tough for market gardeners and the venture was not successful. Angelo returned to work for the Chinese gardeners and Clorinda helped her sister, Elena, in a boarding house she was running with their father, Federico, in Waymouth Street. Later Angelo worked in a factory and during the Second World War, was employed in a munitions factory.
The vision of the future In the 1930s, Clorinda and Angelo were young migrants who wanted to create a better life at a particularly challenging economic period. Clorinda had a vision of developing a business that would enable her to work and assist the family financially. She also wanted to provide opportunities for her children in secondary schooling which she had not been able to access in Italy. The experience of assisting her sister in the boarding house prompted Clorinda to start her own sometime in the late 1930s.
The boarding house at Waymouth Street In a document that Nives wrote for her grandchildren so that they would know more about her early life, she explained her mother’s role in the boarding house:
Guido, Clorinda, Nives, Angelo Cescato outside the boarding house, c 1939.
She was like a mother to them. She did all the work herself, making the beds, cleaning, washing, ironing and of course, cooking for them… It was nothing for her to be still up at 1am and then up again at 5:30 am to get breakfast for her husband and boarders… One thing I remember well. We lived in a multicultural pocket. We had Australian, Greek, Lebanese, Aboriginal, Maltese, Arab, and of course, Italian families as neighbours and I do not remember any racist remarks thrown around. Everyone got on with everyone.
The Cescato garden next to the boarding house c early 1940s. Photo supplied by Maria Rosa Tormena
Approximately 13 men lived in the boarding house in six bedrooms spread over two buildings. While the majority were Italian, Nives remembered Hungarian and men from Baltic countries. The men became like members of the Cescato family and everyone ate the evening meal together. The children served the meals and washed up.
Nives and Guido had their allocated jobs before school – Nives cleaned the bathrooms and helped making cut lunches for the men. Guido made beds and also assisted with lunches. Both of them washed breakfast dishes.
On the property, Nives’ father had a vegetable garden and raised chickens and Nives’ mother grew flowers which were always in the boarding house. The men who lived in the boarding house became like family members. Clorinda and Angelo cared for the boarders and demonstrated kindness and respect and their children had opportunities to understand difference and what it meant to be inclusive of others. Nives remembered that she and Guido helped the men with taxation and sponsorship forms when they wanted to bring members of their family to Australia.
Surgery at 8 years and a difficult outcome
Nives and her mother, Wakefield Street hospital c 1940.
When she was 8 years old, Nives had an operation on her mastoid in her inner ear and as she said, “the surgery went horribly wrong … a facial nerve was cut resulting in total deafness in the right ear, and my face slipped to one side.” The surgeon removed her right eardrum as a life-saving intervention. Nives remembered her mother stayed with her all day and night for the whole time she was in hospital. It was a challenge for a young girl to experience the change in her appearance and one of her teachers made sure that her classmates understood the circumstances.
Nives – in school uniform 1946.
Schooling
Nives loved school at St Marys Dominican Convent in Franklin Street – a couple of streets away. Her parents were involved with the school and particularly on Sports Days. After completing primary school her father thought it was time for Nives to get a job because in the Italian tradition, education for daughters beyond primary years was not considered important since they would marry and there would be no need for schooling. Her mother understood the value of education for her children and made sure that Nives completed four years of secondary school.
St Marys Convent – Intermediate and Leaving students with Sister Mary Sebastian, 1948. Nives back row second from left.B Grade Basketball Premiers 1948 Nives – captain of the St Mary’s team, holding the trophy.
Nives was popular at school, involved in sport, was captain of the netball (now basketball) team and became Head Prefect. The friendships she made at school have continued through the years and Nives has organised regular gatherings of the ‘St Marys’ girls’ which sometimes included the nuns who had taught them.
Nives & Duilio, Glenelg, 1949.
When Nives was still at school, she met Duilio Caon who was boarding with his uncle in the next street. The two families spent time together and although Nives was 16 and Duilio was 20, they developed a friendship.
Teaching career Nives had always wanted to be a teacher but when she left school, was just a few days too young to enrol in Teachers College. Fortunately, there was a junior teaching program which meant that she could teach in one-teacher school in the country.
Nives and Linda, Adelaide, 1949.
She was 17 when she became a junior teacher at Jervois about 100 kilometres south-east of Adelaide. At this time, Linda was just two years old.
Lui Brion, Maria Brion, Clorinda Cescato, Nives, Jack Brion, Jervois, 1949
It was most unusual in 1949 for Italian parents to allow their daughter to leave home but they would have been comforted a little because Nives lived with a Veneto family who came from the same village as her father, San Vito d’Altivole.
Nives reflected on her time at Jervois: “This year also helped me to mature and mix with all types of people and children. I am sure that my love of teaching stemmed from that practical year of junior teaching.”
Marriage and teaching
At the beginning of 1950, Nives enrolled at Teachers College and completed the two-year course in December 1951. Nives and Duilio married in January 1952 and instead of having a honeymoon, they decided their money would be better spent on buying a lounge suite in their house in Torrensville!
Nives and Duilio with members of their wedding party – Aldo Pratale, Alice Brion, Rita Pisani, Lino Favretto. January 1952.
They began married life as two energetic young people who worked hard in their respective jobs located quite near their house at Torrensville; Nives as a teacher and Duilio was working at the new airport at West Beach.
Nives’ first teaching job was at Lockleys Primary School and she thrived as a young teacher and involved herself in activities. For example, she became Sports Mistress and she sometimes brought migrant children home to help them with their English. Nives also taught English to adult migrants at night time twice a week.
Duilio, Nives with Anne and David at Sandra’s baptism, 1961.
Balancing family life with business
Nives balanced family life with assisting Duilio after he started his business in 1953. David was born in 1956, Anne in 1958 and Sandra in 1961. Alan lived for a short time after he was born in 1967.
Nives undertook the administrative work while Duilio did the physical work. At first, she did the books and learned on the job. As more houses were built by Danny Caon Pty Ltd, Nives chose interior fittings like tiles and white goods. The business was recognised with numerous awards for excellence in building.
Nives and Duilio – building awards, 1983.
Activities threaded through Nives’ life Throughout her life, Nives has enjoyed opportunities to spend time with other people whether it was through sports – netball and basketball and bocce – or through social gatherings. She and Duilio have travelled widely and spent extended periods of time in Italy.
Nives and Duilio, Venice, 1969.St Marys’ girls with Sister Mary Sebastian, front right and Sister Mary Bernard, back row, right. Nives, second row on left. Late 1980s.
Nives has enjoyed the company of the ‘St Marys’ girls’ and the get togethers which sometimes included the Dominican sisters.
In 2023, Nives attended a gathering for past students and teachers at St Marys College from the 1940s to the 1980s. Nives was the oldest past student to share memories of her school days.
Nives ‘flying’ with instructor, on her 66th birthday, 1998.Article explaining Nives’ walk across the Sydney Harbour bridge, ‘The Advertiser’, January 2017.
Nives has enjoyed adventures such as jumping out of a plane for her 66th birthday and climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge when she was 85. She was acknowledged for giving her last blood donation (104) when she was 80 years old.
The lessons that Nives learned from her parents and the experience of living as a family in the boarding house provided a strong foundation for appreciating and respecting other people – and creating opportunities for widening her understanding and knowledge throughout her life.
Duilio and Nives with their children: David, Anne, Sandra, 2021.
Nives and Duilio love spending time with their children, their six grandchildren and the newest addition to the family, Olearia, their great-granddaughter who arrived in June 2024.
Duilio and NIves and their grandchilderen, 2016.Nives with great granddaughter, Olearia, 2024.
Madeleine Regan and Nives Caon nee Cescato
1 December 2024
All photos, apart from one provided by Maria Rosa Tormena, were supplied by Nives.
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