Flaminio Fina arrived in Australia in 1960, June 14, aboard the ship Orcades and he was 21 years old. Flaminio went to live with his brother Frederico, in Cringlia, who arrived 7 years earlier.
Flaminio`s first job was with Transfield as a labourer. After three months he began working at the Port Kembla Steel Works at the coke ovens. He worked there for 4 years and due to an accident he changed roles, yet still working at the steel works. He began work as an Oxy Cutter and then learned to weld and went to TAFE for approximately twelve months for his training.
Around 1965, he left the Steel Works and went to help his brother Frederico at his shop in Cringlia. Frederico had a mixed business that sold fruits, vegetables and grocery items. Flaminio was full time helping his brother in the shop, and worked with him as a partner for 4 years.
Flaminio then travelled to the Northern Territory for a 3 month break. Whilst on his break, he got a job working at a wholesale fruit market. He was also thinking about opening his own business on his return home.
In 1969 he opened a mediterranean style delicatessan/supermarket, in Cowper Street, Warrawong. It was called Fina Brothers. There were four other delicatessens in the area at the time. Flaminio`s brothers Frederico and Salvatore worked with him along with their sister Filomena. The shop sold Italian groceries lines, as well as small goods, kitchen ware and bomboniere and even gifts imported from Italy. Flaminio had new ideas when he operated his supermarket. The Store was big and had the capacity to serve lots of customers with two checkouts and a huge display cabinet/fridge for the small goods, that Flaminio designed himself.
The shop was doing well. Fina brothers sold specialty items that appealed to a large migrant population in Warrawong and the Illawarra. With a small delivery truck Fina brothers provided home delivery, with Thursday and Friday being the most popular days.
Some of the product brands they sold were Nanda Pasta and Dante Olive Oil, with their small goods being the biggest seller in the store. The walls were lined with hanging prosciutto, salami and other cured meats. Olives, cheeses and other condiments adorned the display fridge. Their large provolone cheese weighed 80 kilos.
Fina brothers was sold in 1974 and Flaminio went on a holiday. When he came back the following year, the new owner of the shop, wanted to sell the business as he was busy with another business, and asked Flaminio if he would like to purchase the shop again, and so he did, along with his sister Filomena. In 1975 Flaminio was at the helm running the supermarket and the locals were happy. Fina Brothers was finally sold in 1981.
Flaminio went to Italy to help out his family after the 1980 earthquake killed nearly three thousand people. He stayed for six months. Whilst in Italy he had a business idea in mind for when he came back to Australia. He began looking at different types of equipment and began researching.
When he arrived back in Australia he moved to Canberra to live with his sister Filomena. He ran his own small goods business from the back of a truck, delivering and selling wholesale. Still, Flaminio had his sights set on his business idea he thought up in Italy, and soon Flaminio and sister Filomena would move back to Wollongong.
Flaminio put his business idea to work. He wanted to make and sell Pasta. Pasta Fina opened its doors in 1986. Flaminio rented a shop in the Oxford Hotel building, situated in downtown Wollongong. When they opened their doors, they were busy straight away. Pasta Fina sold dry pasta, fresh frozen pasta, and pasta sauces, all made fresh on the premises.
Flaminio made so many pasta shapes, over twenty plus. All the usual ones like tagliatelle, penne, spaghetti and various other styles of short pasta. His freezers were adorned with ravioli, tortellini and lasagna. When it came to lasagna, Flaminio offered it in 5 sizes. 500gram, 750gram, 1.4kilo, 2.5kilo and even a 3 kilo. Straight from the freezer into the ovens of many local households who just loved his food. They sold cannelloni and ravioli made with beef as well as spinach and ricotta. Beef tortellini and 1/2 baguette size garlic bread were also available.
They sold 500 gram containers of ready made sauces, which combined with their pasta, were popular for those who finished work for the day and wanted a nutritional, tasty and easy meal to prepare, on the go. Napoletana, Boscaiola, Marinara, Bolognese and Four seasons were the varieties in store. Their dried pasta was available in 500 gram packets and the flavoured pasta was available in packs of 375 grams. Wollongong had never seen such variety in pasta before. Pasta Fina also offered cooked lunches for the local workers who requested it, such as lasagna, cannelloni and even minestrone. The minestrone was also available for sale in 1kg takeaway containers.
In 1992, Flaminio moved to a bigger premises, almost double the size of his previous store. He was still on the same side of the street, just a few doors down. The original shop was in need of major repair work on the roof, so they moved Pasta Fina to a better location, and purchased more equipment. The new equipment enable them to produce a much larger volume of pasta. Flaminio would often cook 350 kilos of bolognese sauce for the lasagna at one time, to stock the shop and the ravioli and tortellini would be made in batches of 100`s of kilos on the day, when needed. Beef lasagna was one of the biggest sellers in the shop.
Pasta Fina continued to excel. They began to expand their range and created flavoured pasta such as saffron, chilli, spinach, celery and even squid ink. Their flavoured pasta was well received. Pasta Fina sold their flavoured pasta to David Jones, Sydney, as part of their gourmet grocery lines. They also sold their lasagna to David Jones in Wollongong, to sell for their lunches. They also made a koala shape pasta noodle in three colours and exported these tri coloured koala pasta shapes to Japan. You could pick them up at the airport.
Pasta Fina also supplied local restaurants and cafes. You could purchase Pasta Fina products at local retail shops. They had a large store room to hold their dry goods. Flaminio went through 1 x ton of flour each fortnight. He purchased the flour from Sydney and it was an Australian durham wheat semolina.
Pasta Fina would also make ravioli and tortellini for Nestle to sell through Findus Frozen Foods. Findus also approached Pasta Fina to make some tiramisu, for a three day promotion that was being held. They needed a lot of tiramisu, a whole pallet full! Not fazed, Flaminio and team went to work and made 1000 x six serve containers of tiramisu and they did it all in one night!
In the year 2000, Past Fina was invited to enter their pasta products at The Royal Easter Show, in Sydney. Flaminio sent in 9 products to be judged. Needless to say he won first prize and was presented with a plaque, certificate and a ribbon. It was judged on the quality of his products. He entered for a number of years and won many gold, silver and bronze medals.
In 2005, Flaminio was inducted into `the Sydney magazine` Food Hall Of Fame. It was such an honour for him to be included. The criteria was based on excellence in food, that excluded chefs and restauranteurs. He was the only pasta maker in the group and the only one from Wollongong. All the others inductees were Sydney based.
On a well known Australian morning television show Flaminio was asked if he would be interested in a competition that they were going run. Australia versus Italy, who makes the best pasta? There would be two Australian pasta makers, Flamino being one of them, and two Italian pasta makers. There were three judges, and Flaminio was expecting the Italian pasta products to win, but was so happy when his pasta was awarded the best out of the four. The judges all agreed on how good his pasta was.
Flaminio said that Australian`s were his best customers. Many families purchased his pasta, ready made sauces and meals. Customers would tell him that even their children knew the difference between his pasta and that from the supermarkets.
When Flaminio began his Pasta business, Wollongong’s Crown Street, was incredibly busy. Then, in the same year, the Mall was constructed and half the main street was closed to traffic. With the half of Crown Street closed off, Flaminio relied on the passing trade downtown in Wollongong. Though once parking meters were introduced around 2010, Flaminio saw a rapid decline in the business. The parking meters only allowed 15 minutes parking. If anyone went over the time limit, it was a $70 fine. With no extra parking allocated for customers, trade dwindled quickly. In 2013 Flaminio sold the business and Pasta Fina closed its doors for the last time.
Pasta Fina produced award winning pasta that was internationally recognised. A local manufacturer that exported their products, created a gourmet range and supplied the local consumer all from the shop in Crown Street. Flaminio Fina, along with his family, had worked for over 50 years in the retail industry, bringing fresh food to the people of Wollongong and surrounds. What a wonderful contribution. Australians has been blessed with the introduction of Italian cuisine that now graces so many of their family table gatherings and pasta appeals to nearly all of them!
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Flaminio drying the pasta.
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