In the last blog you would have read about Margherita and Francesco Marchioro, the first of the Veneto market gardeners to arrive in Adelaide. This time, the story of the Marchioro family continues through the memories of Frank Rismondo, grandson of Margherita and Francesco.
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The image above features the Marchioro family on Lina’s wedding day L-R: Mary, Margherita, Ruggero Rismondo and Lina and Connie Marchioro,
1 March 1952.
Frank Rismondo was born in Adelaide in 1953, the eldest of three sons of Lina nee Marchioro and Ruggero Rismondo. Ricky was born in 1956 and Michael in 1958.
The Marchioro family
As outlined in the previous blog, Lina was born in Adelaide in 1927 and her parents were peasant farmer families in Vicenza, Italy. Her father worked as a terrazzo labourer in Adelaide and Margherita worked market gardens which she owned with her brother-in-law, Vittorio Marchioro. Later, she owned her own glasshouses in Lockleys which she worked for many years with her daughter, Mary. Lina was the second of three daughters; Mary was born in Italy before her parents migrated, and Connie was born in Adelaide, 11 years after Lina. Their father, Francesco died in 1945 aged 44 years, and Margherita raised her three daughters and worked hard as a market gardener to keep her family.
By 1950, Lina was working with a friend in their own fashion design shop on Prospect Road, Prospect. They had met when they worked together in factory that made dresses for Myers. They took the risk and opened up their shop and Lina explained in her oral history interview that they did very well, “We had lots of nurses from the Children’s Hospital and doctors’ wives that lived in the area. It was quite a wealthy suburb. We only got the rich ones.” (Lina Rismondo nee Marchioro OH 872/9, 2010, p 29). Later, Lina worked at the Adelaide airport.
The Rismondo family
Lina’s husband, Ruggero Rismondo was born in 1928 in Rovigno in Istria which then was an Italian territory. His family were wine merchants and owned a picture theatre in Rovigno. Ruggero was the youngest of ten siblings, all of whom had been educated in Trieste and Austria. Ruggero’s education had been disrupted by World War II and the German occupation.
After the war ended, the Paris Peace Treaty incorporated Rovigno into Yugoslavia. The times were difficult for families who considered themselves Italians and Frank recalls what his father told him about the situation – “my grandfather and father went to a refugee camp. My grandfather died and my grandmother paid a bribe for him to leave. So, my dad and three friends took five days to row to Venice and were sent to a Displaced Persons camp and given the choice of going to Canada or Australia and they chose Australia.” Ruggero was the only member of his family to migrate to Australia.
Ruggero, not quite 22 years, arrived in Australia with more than 1,300 other refugees in April 1950. The Government assigned him a work contract at the Australian Sheet Metal Works in George Street, Thebarton. He remained working there for many years as a metal spinner. He also worked at home and in later life, worked as a security guard at Underdale College of Advanced Education.
Marriage of Lina Marchioro and Ruggero Rismondo
A friend of Lina’s who had an Italian boyfriend, introduced her to Ruggero who lived in a boarding house in Prospect. They met at a wedding and Ruggero took her home to her mother’s home on his motor bike.
Lina made her own wedding dress for the marriage which took place on 1st March 1952. At first, the couple lived in accommodation in Torrensville but after a motorbike accident in which they both got injured, Lina and Ruggero went to live with her mother and two sisters and Frank was born there in 1953. They lived there until they built a house of their own in 1958 at Henley Beach Road, Brooklyn Park.
Nonna’s house at Lasscock Ave, Lockleys
Because of her hard work and the assistance from Lina and Mary, Margherita accumulated enough capital to build her own house on a block she purchased within walking distance of her market garden at 19 Lasscock Ave, Lockleys. She built the house about 1950 and her daughter Connie remembered that she was one of the first in the Veneto community to build a brick home. She also remembered that Lina, who had an eye for style, decorated the house and chose the furnishings.
In her oral history interview, Lina recalled her mother’s achievement of being able to pay to have her own house built:
She built a lovely house and I suppose she had that satisfaction that she’d got what she wanted, a lovely house, furnished it nicely, so … after living all those years in a wooden/iron place, you can imagine. A joy to have it!
Lina Rismondo nee Marchioro, OH 872/9, 2010: 50.
Frank remembered his nonna’s house with great affection. It was a gathering place. He said, “After Dad got married, other friends from Istria were still single.
On a Sunday evening the young men would go to Margherita’s house and she cooked for them. She cooked pasta, sometimes the men roasted chestnuts and there was always singing. Nonna was a rock.”
Neighbours in Lasscock Avenue, the Vieceli family, became very close friends with Margherita and her family including her grandchildren. Rosie was bridesmaid to Lina. Frank and his brothers played in Lasscock Avenue with the Vieceli children.
Cousins and other relatives
Margherita’s third daughter Connie married in 1957 and she and her husband Tony Legovich lived with her mother and her two children, Paul and Amanda were born there. Lina’s sons and Connie’s son, Paul, born in 1957 and daughter, Amanda, born in 1962 were very close. Frank said that their cousins were more like siblings to him and his brother – “Amanda was like our little sister.” Paul died in 2015.
The extended family
The Marchioro families lived close to each other in Lockleys. Vittorio hadimportant role to play because he was the brother of Francesco. He accompanied both Lina and Connie at the church when they married. Although they were older, Frank remembered Vittorio and Angelina’s sons, Johnny and Romano. They were part of the extended family in Adelaide.
Margherita continued to grow vegetables on the land on the southern side of the River Torrens until the late 1950s. She enjoyed bringing her family together on Sundays. She cooked for her family – one week she made gnocchi and the next, it was ravioli. Mary loved her nieces and nephews. The extended family was close and loved spending time together at 19 Lasscock Avenue. Mary died in 1986 and Margherita died in 2001 aged 97 years. Ruggero died in 2008 and Lina died in 2022.
The close ties: Marchioro – Rismondo families
The strong family bonds formed in the Marchioro families continue into the generations. When Lina was living in a nursing home, Connie and Frank with his wife Marie and their grandson Logan visited her together every week. After Lina died, Frank and Marie and Logan have continued the tradition and have coffee with zia Connie and her partner, Sergio, every Monday morning. Frank calls Connie, his seconda mamma or second mother.
Frank also keeps in regular contact with relatives on his father’s side of the family in Italy.
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Frank Rismondo, Connie Legovich and Madeleine Regan
9 March 2025
All photos supplied by Frank.