Snapshots of the Veneto region

Just a brief blog this time because I am fortunate enough to be on holidays with my husband, Alex Bennett, in Castelfranco Veneto which is about 65 kilometres north west of Venice in the Veneto region. I’m also completing some research for the Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project.

The snapshots are photos of places, some old and some new images of the people who have assisted with the Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project and interesting ideas relating to the Veneto region. In the past weeks, we have been to most of the villages from where the 17 men, one woman and an infant migrated to Adelaide between 1926 and 1928.

Castelfranco Veneto

The feature photo is the clock tower at the entrance of the historic centre of Castelfranco Veneto.

Staying in Castelfranco Veneto is great because it is so central to the villages that are significant in the story of the Veneto market gardeners. Several people told me that they remember it was important as a market town for local villages.

Castelfranco Veneto still has two big market days a week where all sorts of items including fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat and clothing are sold.

It is an elegant town with a population of about 33,250 people and is in the province of Treviso where most of the Veneto market gardeners had originated.

In this blog I am listing the villages and their approximate distance and location from Castelfranco Veneto.

Valla’ – 7 kilometres north

Three Ballestrin men left their large family household in Valla’ in September 1927: brothers Antonio, 25 years, and Isidoro, 23 years and their first cousin, Giuseppe, 17 years, the youngest of all the men who arrived in Adelaide in the 1920s. Over the years, other family members, including the mother of Antonio and Isidoro, migrated to Adelaide.

Riese Pio X – about 7 kms north

Two families originated from here – the Bernos and the Zampins. However, after the Second World War, large numbers of young people, mainly men, migrated from Riese Pio X to Adelaide. Diana Berno helped out with archival research in Riese Pio X in 2018 in  the parish archives.

Caselle di Altivole – about 9.5 kms north-east

Two men left their families in Caselle di Altivole and arrived in Adelaide on 27 August 1927. Secondo Tonellato and Giovanni Santin, the eldest of the Veneto market gardener men. They were reunited with their wives and families in Adelaide after several years.

 

In 2018 I spent time in Caselle with Irene Zampin who helped with recording oral history interviews in Italian and research in the comune of Altivole. I also worked with her husband, Giuliano Berdusco who assisted with research in the parish archives. It has been lovely to reconnect with them and continue some research activities.

Castelcucco – about 25 kms north-west

Eugenio Zalunardo was born in this village in 1907. It is elevated and in a very beautiful location. Renzo Bianco helped with research in the parish archives and in the comune in 2018. We met again in April and enjoyed an afternoon including tasting some excellent gelati!

Bigolino – 31 kms north-east

One of the most dramatic family stories in the Veneto market gardener history is that of the Rossetto family – eight of nine children of Modesto Rossetto and Elena Vettoretto  migrated from Bigolino to Australia between the wars. Just one son remained in the village.

In addition to the Rossettos, Brunone Rebuli also migrated and he was married to one of the Rossetto daughters.

Two distant cousins, Johnny Rebuli and Stefania Rossetto learned for the first time that they were relatives when we spent an afternoon in Valdobbiadene together in April. Valdobbiadene, is of course, famous for Prosecco and is about 5 kms from Bigolino.

 

Brunone Rebuli, a brother of Johnny’s grandfather, travelled on the same ship to Adelaide with 3 of his Rossetto brothers-in-law, Gelindo, Adeodato and Angelo, arriving in July 1927. Brunone’s wife, Giovanna Rossetto and 3 children, Dorina, Vito and Elvio arrived in 1931 and a fourth child, Guido, was born in 1938. The Rossetto brothers and sisters are great uncles and great aunts to Stefania whose grandfather, Eugenio, was the one son who remained in Bigolino.

Ponzano Veneto – 28 kms east

Angelo Piovesan migrated from Ponzano Veneto on the same ship as Secondo Tonellato and Giovanni Santin in 1927. Angelo and his wife Rosalia had three sons, Nillo, Dino and Bruno. Angelo died suddenly in 1949.

 

 

 

Relatives of the Piovesan family, Gusto and Armida Mattiazzo migrated to Adelaide after the war and spent time on the mica fields in the Harts Range in the Northern Territory. Their daughter, Adelina, lives in Ponzano Veneto.

 

Province of Vicenza

 

We have yet to visit relatives of Johnny and Eleonora Marchioro in the Malo district of the province of Vicenza – about 55 kms north-west of Castelfranco Veneto.

 

 

 

Johnny Marchioro’s father, Vittorio arrived in Adelaide in December 1927 called by his brother Francesco who had disembarked in Adelaide in March 1926 with  his wife Margherita and infant Mary.

 

 

 

Other images from the Veneto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people you meet…

Life is strange! We travelled to the Veneto region and met up with  the President of the Veneto Club,  Adelaide in April!

It was a pleasure to have lunch with Piero Fioretti and his wife Mary and their friend, Sonia Berra who was born in Adelaide and now lives near Bigolino.

 

 

 

 

 

We have been warmly welcomed by the families we have spent time with here. We really enjoy being in the Veneto region and feel very comfortable here because of the connections we have made over the years.

Biographies and interviews

A reminder that on this website you can read biographies of the Veneto families who made their lives in Adelaide as market gardeners between the wars. You can read stories of other families and also listen to recordings of oral history interviews and read transcripts of most of the interviews.  The search function is very helpful.

 

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I’d like to acknowledge two Veneto men who have been supporters of the Veneto market gardener oral history project and who have recently died in Adelaide – Vittorio De Marchi and Mario Rodato.

Madeleine Regan
16 May 2026