“Singing is in me” – Gianna Gallina

This blog introduces a significant elder in the Veneto community in Adelaide, Gianna Gallina, and includes details of
a family Christmas tradition.

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 In the image above, Benvenuto and Giovanna Manera are seated with their 10 children. Gianna stands between her parents, Riese Pio X, c 1939.

Gianna Gallina nee Contarin remembers that she was about 9 years old when she began singing in the church choir at Riese Pio X. She has always loved singing and has been a member of choirs in Adelaide for more than 60 years.

Gianna’s family background

 

Gianna was born in Riese Pio X on 21 December 1933. She was the last of 10 children born to Giovanna Manera and Benvenuto Contarin. She had five sisters and four brothers. Gianna was especially close to her eldest sister, Bianca, who had a significant role in raising Gianna.

 

 

 

Their father was a merchant who had a stall at local markets. As the children got older, their mother assisted her husband with the work outside the home. Her parents sold goods at different times of the year. For example, in summer, the stall sold watermelons whereas in autumn, the focus was on selling fruit trees and olive trees.

After Gianna completed primary school, she learned sewing and embroidery and fed the animals in the family home.

She admits that she was quite spoilt being the last child in the family, and did not have to work very hard at the time.

The family lived next to the parish church and the Contarins kept an open house with people always coming and going. However, Gianna’s life was limited, and she was not permitted to have a social life. She remembered saying to herself, “I’ll have another life, a different future from being in Riese.” The idea of being with her sister, Bianca, who had migrated to Melbourne sparked her imagination.

A new landscape with Bianca and Melbourne

Bianca was 20 years older than Gianna and had always had responsibilities in the household because she was the eldest daughter and looked after the younger children. She had worked for her parents in the markets after her fiancé, Giovanni Parolin, left for Australia in 1939. On 19^th June 1948, Bianca arrived in Melbourne  and on the same day, married Giovanni.

After Bianca had gone to Australia, Gianna had missed her very much. When she was 19 years old, Gianna defied her mother’s wishes and decided to visit Bianca. Her mother only gave permission after one of her brothers, Guido, offered to accompany Gianna on the trip. Gianna remembered that her sister asked her to bring a special delicacy – horse meat salami and in those days, it was possible to include food in the luggage. Gianna and Guido arrived in Melbourne per ‘The Australia’ on 5 March 1953.

 Although it was not easy to find work, after two or three weeks, Gianna found a job in a clothes factory in Carlton where she finished off men’s clothes with hand-sewing. She enjoyed the work and stayed for two years.

 

Marriage in Melbourne and a move to Adelaide

When Angelo Gallina began visiting Bianca and her husband every second day, it was clear that he was interested in Gianna. Angelo, who had arrived in 1951, was also from Riese, 6 years older than Gianna and he had known her older sisters and brothers.

 

Gianna had not planned to stay in Australia indefinitely and was not really interested in Angelo’s attention. But he was persistent and one day, he appeared with a ring – a sure sign that he was making a commitment to her. They decided to get married. Angelo wrote to her parents and asked them to accept him as a son-in-law with the promise that he would look after Gianna.

Angelo did not like Melbourne and wanted to move to Adelaide where his sister, Norma, was living with her husband, Albino Berno. Gianna recalled, “I was very disappointed about leaving my sister.”

Gianna and Angelo married on 30th July 1955, and enjoyed a reception in a mechanic’s shed owned by a friend with about 50 guests. Gianna recalled how happy she was that her brother Guido made a special trip from Italy to accompany her to the church for the wedding. Within two days, the newlyweds were on the train to Adelaide.

The extended Berno family met the newly married couple at the Adelaide railway station and Pietro Berno helped them to buy a bed before the shops closed because it was Saturday morning. They were then guests at a big welcome lunch at the home of Pietro and Antonietta Berno. At the time, in Adelaide, accommodation for a married couple was hard to find and they had a room in the house of a Berno cousin where they put the new bed. Gianna laughed as she remembered that this was their honeymoon!

 A home in Adelaide

It took a few years before Gianna and Angelo were home-owners. For the first couple of years, they lived in a shed on Berno market gardens at Flinders Park. They bought a block of land on Grange Road that already had had foundations laid for a house. Angelo cleaned second-hand bricks every day after he returned home from work at GMH. Gianna worked in the Pope factory at Beverley, and they both rode their bikes to their jobs. They did not want to have debts, so they gradually built the house as they paid for labour and materials. In 1959, the house was mostly finished when they moved in, the year that Lucio was born.

 

Sonia was born in 1964. When Angelo’s parents, Augusto and Elisabetta Gallina, arrived in Australia, also in 1964, they lived with the family in the house on Grange Road, Fulham Gardens.

 

 

 

When  Gianna started work, her parents-in-law helped to look after the children. Gianna enjoyed her employment in the supermarkets (IGA, Foodland and Drakes) where she was supervisor of the continental delicatessen section of the supermarkets for 23 years.

Connections to Italy

The Contarin family was close – and Gianna always kept in touch with her sisters and brothers here in Australia and in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

Angelo’s parents, Augusto and Elisabetta, two brothers, Luigi and Ernesto,  and a sister, Norma, and their families came to live in Adelaide. Just one sister, Maria, remained in Italy with her husband and family.

 

Gianna and Angelo visited Italy twice and enjoyed other opportunities to travel together. Gianna visited Italy three times by herself.

 Angelo died in Adelaide in 2007.

 The love of singing

Gianna was able to return to her love of choir-singing about 3 years after she settled in Adelaide. She has sung in the choir at Mater Christi church at masses on Sundays, at funerals and on special occasions for 67 years. At present, she is the eldest member of the Mater Christi choir. Recently she sang in the choir for the Italian Festival mass at St Francis Xavier cathedral.

For more than 30 years, Gianna was also a member of the Corale Italiana (Italian choir) which presented concerts in Adelaide.

A busy life…

Apart from the choir, which is a weekly commitment, Gianna is involved with a range of activities. She is a volunteer helper for the Trevisani nel Mondo and assists at several annual events including the Feast of Pio X. In 2001 a group of 30 people from Riese Pio X visited Adelaide and Gianna was interpreter when the group went on a bus trip to Canberra.

Recently she was part of a team that prepared salads for the Christmas picnic. Gianna is also a member of the Veneto Club and attends the monthly luncheons with friends. She has a wide group of friends from the Veneto, other regions of Italy and other countries. She says, “I’m friends with everyone. They call me the ‘international woman.’”

Gianna enjoys spending time with her family including her children and their families nd also with relatives who visit from Melbourne.

Gianna loves baking and experimenting with recipes – “I like to use my imagination with cooking.” Her family asks her to make biscuits and treats for Christmas that they share with others.

The tradition of the presepio

Another lifelong passion for Gianna has been making a presepio or nativity crib.  Since she was a young child, Gianna has made a presepio, “I got the habit to make the presepio – I’ve always made one.” In mid-November this year she unpacked the figurines, designed and set up the nativity scene.

Gianna uses a backdrop that she bought many years ago in Italy and places the figurines – collected over a long time – including some from Italy and others given by friends – in the nativity setting.  There are so many aspects to appreciate in the presepio and it needs time to take it all in.

Gianna sets up the presepio in the back veranda  and loves to look at it – even beyond the festivities of Christmas – “I love to go outside at night and sit and watch the lights – it is a peaceful place with the presepio.” The family enjoys their Christmas lunch hosted by Gianna in front of the presepio. She remembers her childhood and the way her family celebrated with simple gifts like an orange or a pear or some chestnuts. Gianna says that Christmas traditions have changed but her focus is on sharing the celebrations and being together with her family.

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Gianna Gallina and Madeleine Regan

7 December 2025

All photos, but the last one, were provided by Gianna.