Luigi Villella arrived in Australia August 26, 1963 aboard the ship Sydney. He went to live with his brother Giovanbattista who arived in Australia years before. Giovanbattista was living in O’Donnell Street, Port Kembla with their cousin Gennaro Curcio, who arrived in Australia in 1955.
Luigi began working at the Port Kembla Steel Works and after one month he moved to Merrylands Sydney, to live with his sister Paolina who had been living in Australia since 1959. Luigi moved to Sydney in the hope of finding a better paying job.
He worked for 2 years as a labourer with the Water Board then worked for Thomas and Coffey on the Sydney Airport Tunnel which was completed in 1967. It was the first aircraft bridge outside Europe and North America.
Luigi met Saveria Mastrionanni, who was from Wollongong. Saveria had been working since she was a teenager and in 1966 she began working for Midford clothing company. Saveria was well noted for her work and by the age of 22 she was made supervisor.
In 1968 Luigi began working with Illawarra Paving and in April of the same year Luigi and Saveria were married. The wedding reception took place at Luccarda`s in Tarrawanna. As a young newly wed couple they lived with Saveria`s parents in Figtree as they saved their money for a home. In 1970 Luigi and Saveria purchased a block of land situated across the road from Saveria`s parents` house. This made it extremely convenient for Luigi who eventually worked on building his home whilst he was working full time.
Luigi worked with Illawarra Paving for 3 years and in that time he and Saveria had their first two children. Saveria had much help from her parents as she also worked in between. After finishing with Illawarra Paving in 1973, Luigi formed his own concrete company called Amato Concreting.
Now he was ready to begin laying the foundations for his home. Luigi did all the concrete work on the house. The land that he purchased was a downward sloping block, so the house was designed as a split multi level home. Luigi did all the work on the basic structure. It was a huge undertaking but bit by bit it progressed.
At Amato Concreting it was only Luigi and his partner who were working. It was just the two of them for approximately five years before his partner left then Luigi worked on his own. It was now 1978 and the house was liveable. Luigi and Saveria moved in with their two sons and soon a third would be born. Amato Concreting was also growing with Luigi using sub contractors to help with his work load. Amato were doing domestic homes, footpaths, driveways and slabs.
One of the biggest jobs Amato did was the building of the abattoirs at Yallah for the Illawarra Meat Company. The project took 18 months to complete. He then moved onto doing formwork as well. Amato were also doing contract work for Marksman and Radnor homes.
In 1981 Luigi became president of the new San Giovanni Battista committee while working around his concrete business. He was incredibly dedicated to his role as president and it seemed to pay off because the first festival since he became president was very successful. He had worked on the previous San Giovanni Battista festival committee in the last two years that they operated in 1968 & 1969 with the first festival running in 1965. Whilst the original festival was well received it was not self sustaining and many donations came from door knocking.
With this new committee and a new attitude the San Giovanni Battista festival took on a whole new direction. In Brookvale, North Sydney, they had been running a large festival every year since 1955 and with each year they got bigger. When the first Wollongong festival finished many locals travelled from Wollongong to attend the festival at Brookvale.
The new Wollongong group got a lot of ideas from the Brookvale festival and began running their festival at the Wollongong Showground. Their first festival was a big hit with the Italians in the area. The event was filled with local and national entertainers, food stalls, Italian sweet treats, rides for the children and a fireworks display.
The festival had garnered a lot of interest in the Italian community and through sponsorship, donations, fundraising events, dinner dances, bus trips and an enormous amount of volunteer help the festival became self sufficient and generated enough money to continue year after year. Luigi held the position of president from 1981 to April 2006. The festival was held in December of each year.
Over the years Luigi was approached by friends and acquaintances in the Italian community seeking his help and involvement with their groups. He was a committee member for the Italian Social Welfare, Region of Italy and CCC. He was part of the very first committee for Marco Polo and was a board member of the Fraternity Club from 1987 - 2005.
His Amato concreting business took him to Sydney, Goulburn and Nowra. He was working a lot and involved himself with the local Italian community to help as much as he could and Luigi was well liked. Saveria was fully supportive of all that he was involved in and often did a lot of work with him.
In 1996 Luigi had a heart attack. He had to slow down for a while, but eventually went back to work for another company as a supervisor. Even though he stopped working for Amato his business was still registered and licensed. In 2002 he hurt his elbow and was assigned to light duties working for another company called Obnova Concrete Constructions Pty Ltd. In 2006 Luigi retired after injuring his back.
In 2007 he was presented with a Knighthood, an award from the Italian Government for his services to the local Italian Community. He was nominated by Efrem and Giulia Bonacina who ran It-So-Well (Italian Social Welfare). The award was presented to Luigi during Italian Week at the mall, by the Wollongong Lord Mayor Alex Darling and the Italian Consulate representative, with Efram and Giulia attending.
Luigi loves spending time with his family and his 7 grand children. He also loves his garden. Luigi and Saveria enjoy socialising with their friends and you will often see them at the club. They still live in their home that they built in the late seventies. With spectacular views from their large balcony it is a beautiful part of the Illawarra. Luigi still works on his house, he says it’s not finished yet!
In 2007 Luigi was awarded a Knighthood from the Italian Government
for his services to the community.
The above video shows both the
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at Unanderra
as well as Luccarda`s at Tarrawanna.
Both were of significant importance for the Italian Community
in the Wollongong area.
All above images from the collection belonging to Luigi Villella