In this blog, Amanda Rossetto writes about her paternal grandparents who both came from the province of Treviso between the wars. Mandy focuses especially on her Nonna Adele or Lina and their strong relationship.
Mandy has written the blog in two parts.
The image above shows Amanda with her Nonna, Lina Rossetto nee Bordin, Adelaide, 1968.
Early days – coming to Australia
I am Amanda (also known as Mandy) Rossetto, the oldest granddaughter of Gelindo Rossetto and Adele (Lina) Bordin.
Nonno Gelindo was the oldest of nine children born in Bigolino, Treviso. He was in the Alpini, however rather than fight in WWI he went and worked in the tax office in Venezia. After the war, he refused to be a part of the growing fascist movement and decided to leave Italy, with a few of his brothers, because of the political and economic circumstances, and the safety of his family. Back home, this earned him the nickname “scampa paese” (a person who runs away from the village).
Nonno Gelindo has been the subject of a number of previous blogs – he has a very interesting story. However, I want to focus on my Nonna Lina in this blog.
Nonna was born in Biadene (P.Treviso), one of eight children (three died as infants). Her brother Diotisalvi (Salvi) and sister Amalia migrated to France and Nonna and her two other sisters Irma and Maria migrated to Australia at different times and raised families here in Adelaide.
Nonna and Nonno were married by proxy and Nonna arrived in Adelaide in 1930 to begin her life with Nonno on the market garden in Lockleys.
From hardship and tragedy, resilience grows
Nonna’s life changed dramatically on arrival in Adelaide. Although very happy to be with Nonno, she had to endure living in a small hut without a floor, gas or power. The bed was on the ground, and none of her family were here yet. Even though life was poor in Italy, at least they had those basic homely necessities like tiled floors with rugs and curtains. So, she set about making it liveable and worked hard alongside Nonno in the market garden.
Times were tough – it was the Great Depression – and they struggled to make ends meet. They ended up moving into a house in the west end of Adelaide (Fenn Place) after the birth of their first two children (Romeo and Elena). Nonno worked the market garden and had a milk round and Nonna cooked, washed and cleaned for relatives.
Nonna had seven children, three who lived to adulthood – my Zia Lena (Elena) who died in 2023, my father Aldo who died in 2012, and my Zio Silvano (Sid) who thankfully is still with us. All the Rossetto children were born in Adelaide. Tragically, between mid-1938 and 1941, Nonna lost four of her children, the eldest Romeo at the age of 7 from meningitis and three more who died as infants. As you can imagine this was devastating!
The deaths of her children coincided with the lead up to and early years of WWII, which meant that she had to cope with this mostly on her own, because Nonno was considered an “enemy alien” and was summoned to work in the Northern Territory for the security of Australia. He wasn’t home often. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to cope with this level of tragedy, along with managing the house and keeping food on the table for her small children… what incredible inner strength and survival instinct she must have had to keep going!
This wasn’t the first time Nonna had dealt with significant tragedy and poverty. As a child, she was 11 years old when she lost her mother to typhoid during WW1. Shortly after her mother died, she was sent to work as a nanny in Feltre. When things got really bad in the Veneto during the war, Nonna and her grandmother and sisters and brother went to Rome as refugees.
She became a housemaid for a family at the age of 12. During that time, she became very ill with pleurisy and was bedridden for two months – she was lucky to survive. When the war ended, they went back home to Biadene where she cooked, cleaned and helped her family eke out an existence. She eventually got a job as a nanny in Venezia, which is where she met Nonno Gelindo.
I guess she had built up some incredible resilience and courage from those early years. She survived her own children’s deaths with the support of her sisters Irma and Maria, her extended Rossetto family and in-laws (the Rebuli, Bernardi and Tormena families) and dear friends like Angelina and Vittorio Marchioro. She fought on and worked hard to keep her family safe and secure. It always amazed me, given what she had been through in her life, that she had such a love of life and such a good sense of humour.
Life in the 1940s – 1960s
In the 1940s – 60s, Nonna supplemented the family income by taking in boarders, migrants from the Veneto region, and Italian soccer players who had come to play for Juventus. She never stopped working hard or looking after people. In return, she was loved by them all.
By the time I was born in 1960, Nonna and Nonno had returned to Bigolino to live for a while. Nonno became very ill and died in 1962. I never actually met him. Nonna used to say that he and I were kindred spirits, shared similar values and politics and that even though he was a hard man, I would have definitely softened him up! Apparently, he used to kiss my and my cousin David’s photos.
After Nonno died, Nonna returned to Australia to be with her children and grandchildren. By then the family was living in Kent Town on the edge of The Parade, (Norwood).
She was well known by the bus drivers on The Parade service and all the shopkeepers at Norwood. She expertly haggled with shopkeepers especially the butcher, to get the best quality and price for food. She rode her bicycle everywhere to do her shopping, loading up bags on her bike that she would leave at the local chemist. She had a deal with some of the bus drivers where she would put all her bags on the bus and then ride home and meet them at the bus stop just outside her house, where they would help unload them!! She rode that bike until she was in her 80’s.
Amanda Rossetto
All photos provided by Amanda.
SAVE THE DATE
My book about the Veneto market gardeners in the Lockleys area, ‘I buy this piece of ground here’: An Italian market-gardener community in Adelaide, 1920s – 1970s, will be launched on Saturday 19th July at Mater Christi parish hall, Seaton from 2:00 – 4:00 pm.
I will provide more details including the price of the book in coming blogs.
Madeleine Regan
4 May 2025