ITALIANS OF WOLLONGONG: FVM, LMZ AND ZENO PIRLO

In 1961 a group of 30 banana growers from Lismore formed a co-operative to sell their bananas wholesale, direct to the retailer, leaving out the middle man (aka: the fruit markets). The Chairman of Directors of FVM (Fruit and Vegetable Market Co-Op), was Mr Florian Volpato. Florian was well known in Lismore as a businessman as well as being the Italian Consulate General representative for the area.

The co-op saw the potential that Wollongong had to offer and set about finding a property for their banana ripening plant and in 1962 they found a site at 42- 44 Kenny Street, Wollongong. It was a large parcel of land with two houses.

They built five ripening sheds and two cool rooms. The ripening sheds could house 3000 cases of bananas and the cool rooms were for other fruits and vegetables. This type of fruit and vegetable plant was the first of it’s kind in the Wollongong area. The bananas came down via rail from Lismore to Wollongong, twice per week on a Monday and Thursday. With FVM purchasing the bananas off the co-op in Lismore, the daily train would bring 1000 timber banana boxes on the day and FVM would pick up the fruit and take them back to the ripening sheds at Kenny Street.

Some of the men who came down from Lismore to help run the site were Gino Mazzorana, Dino Lorenson, Mose Pirlo, Luciano Menin, Sergio Sudiro and Louis Pirlo, though not all at the same time. The manager was Dino Lorenson. Dino Lorenson lived in one of the houses with his family and later Mose Pirlo lived in the other. Louis, Sergio and Luciano, at one stage, were all living at the Luccarda Boarding house, where Louis would eventually meet his future wife Marie Luccarda. Yet another link to the Luccarda`s of Tarrawanna. Louis would also live in one of the FVM houses at a later stage.

Others who worked there were Peter Del Ben, Armando Rubbo, Frank Lopreato and Vince Fazzolare. Vince Fazzolare had a wealth of knowledge and experience about the industry. He knew about how to purchase from growers and the markets and their systems of operation. This would become invaluable as he shared this knowledge with the crew at FVM. The Fazzolare brothers were well known in the local Wollongong area. Many Italians frequented their fruit shop at 66 Crown Street, Wollongong that they had been running for decades.

Things started to move quickly and the business was doing well. The co-op started doing local runs once per week and would travel down the south coast, from Nowra to Narooma and many towns in between. They had runs as far as Liverpool, and even Goulburn. Mose Pirlo had an important role as well. He was in charge for the Bega run down the south coast. FVM would supply all Coles stores from Helensburgh through to Bega. Louis Pirlo was another driver for FVM that would do long runs some of which included, Griffith, Batlow and Goulburn and he did a lot of the buying too!

FVM also supplied ships that used to come into Port Kembla Harbour. The ships would purchase fruits and vegetables to feed their crews.

Around 1966, the co-op purchased the shop at 66 Crown Street, Wollongong that Vince was still operating and renamed it, Tropicanza. The Tropicanza sold fresh fruits and vegetables daily, with phone in orders as well as free delivery. They had the Tropicanza for several years. Armando Rubbo and another gentleman ended up running the Tropicanza until it closed down around the mid 70`s.

In 1968 Mose purchased a house in Mathews Street, Wollongong, for him and his family. The co- op was in good shape, so Mose decided to go Italy for a three month holiday in 1969. When Mose came back he felt that things had changed.

In 1970, his brother Zeno arrived in Australia with his wife and they lived together with Mose at his home in Wollongong. Zeno had worked in the farming industry back in Italy and also had his truck licence, which would become invaluable later on. Zeno got a job at the Port Kembla Steel Works, but also helped out at the co-op.

Luciano Menin would go to Batlow, Orange and Griffith too! He was the buyer for those areas. In 1971, Luciano helped in the commissioning of a new RFW truck to be built for the many long trips that he would make back and forth. The truck had a more powerful engine and could take heavier loads. RFW were a Sydney based truck manufacturer that not only built road trucks, but trucks for construction, the mining industry, as well as other specialities. The new RFW truck had a sleeper cabin as well, so the driver could stop and rest. This helped the situation for a short while, but it was still too demanding work for many of the men and eventually he would leave around 1974, as did others.

Louis, who was also unhappy, decided to leave, returning to Lismore to help his father on the farm. The men were working extremely hard, under strenuous and stressful conditions. They would do long runs, having to load the trucks with the produce and bring them back home all without rest. The trucks then had to be unloaded at Kenny Street, a lot of it being manual labour. Mose, even though he was disheartened, continued working for a while, but that didn’t last long. After dedicating himself to the business and even having lived on site for some years, Mose too made the decision to leave.

In the meantime Mose, Louis (who was Mose`s cousin) and Zeno had discussions about the possibility of opening their own fruit stores. Zeno was apprehensive at first, as he already had a good job at the steel works and he was concerned that his knowledge of the English language wasn’t very good. Mose and Louis convinced him and he agreed. With Louis, moving back to Wollongong in 1972, the three of them set out to start a new venture opening two fruit shops. One was in Warilla Grove shopping centre and the other was in Parkside Plaza, at Dapto. The business was named the Pirlo Brothers.

Zeno ran the Warilla store and Mose ran the Dapto store. The store at Warilla was already established at Warilla Grove Shopping Centre and it had a good sized cool room. Zeno rented a house in Warilla with his family so he could be close to work. A year later he purchased a home there, one street away from the fruit store. The Dapto store was a new store that they established themselves.

They would purchase most of the produce for their stores from the Sydney markets, but they would buy their bananas from the Kenny Street Co-Op. Both of the stores were doing well. They also did fruit runs down the south coast.

In 1975, Florian Volpato met with the Pirlo`s and asked them to return to the Kenny Street site. By this time four of the key guys who worked at FVM had left, including the manager Dino Lorenson, who retired from the co-op. The business was not doing well and was in debt. After much deliberation the Pirlo brothers agreed. Approximately six months later, they sold both their stores at Warilla and Dapto. Zeno also sold his home in Warilla, and purchased a home in Wollongong. Peter Del Ben and Vince Fazzolare would stay on as employees.

On their return to the Kenny street site, they rebranded under the name LMZ. LMZ stood for Louis, Mose and Zeno. The three of them did a lot of the driving as well. They took out a loan, got to work and went even bigger. There were more fruit runs and they even supplied some local Woolworths and Coles supermarkets. They had four delivery trucks from the original FVM and they purchased two large Volvo semi trailers.

Steven Pirlo, who was Mose`s son, would often work there after school whilst growing up. As Steven got older he drove the trucks delivering produce to shops and cafes. Aside from purchasing seasonal fruits and vegetables, LMZ made many trips to Griffith, as well as the Sydney markets, to purchase tomatoes as well as wine grapes, when they were in season. With the many people of European heritage in Wollongong, LMZ would sell large quantities of tomatoes and grapes to those in the community who wished to make their own tomato sauce and wine. Catering to the many Italians and Greeks especially.

Around 1980 they opened a retail section, demolishing one of the original houses to make space for parking. They opened to the public, trading three and a half days per week. The trading hours were early morning till around 6pm, closing at 7pm on Thursday for late night shopping and half a day Saturday. Locals could purchase fresh fruits and vegetables as well as eggs, bread and honey. Home delivery was also available.

They had between 7 - 8 people employed at LMZ with the wives of the Pirlo men helping out as well. The Pirlo men (LMZ) had made the co-op a success and when it was sold in 1983 they all walked away with money and a business that was debt free. Mose and Louis returned to Lismore. Zeno remained in Wollongong and stayed on with the new owners for approximately three months.

After his short stint with the new owners of LMZ, Zeno then worked for about 7 months at a mushroom farm in Helensburgh. Part of his job at the mushroom farm was to take the mushrooms to the Sydney Markets and sell them.

Around 1985, Zeno thought about opening his own fruit store. The new owner of LMZ had one of the original trucks from FVM just sitting on his property, out in the weather and not being used. The new owner didn’t use it at his fruit and vegetable business as he felt it was too old. Zeno purchased the old truck from him for $500, fixed it up and the truck ran really well. He opened a fruit shop and called it Zeno’s Fruit Market. It was situated in a small complex in Gipps Road, Gwynneville. After 18 months at Gwynneville, Zeno had received an offer on the shop, he accepted the offer and sold the shop together with the truck.

Zeno Pirlo went back to work at the Port Kembla Steel Works as a truck driver, finishing all together in the fruit and vegetable industry. Zeno stayed at the Port Kembla Steel Works until he retired in 2018.