ITALIANS OF WOLLONGONG: June 2024

Olindo Battocchio touched down in Sydney Australia, 26 February, 1961. He got a job at EPT with his brother Antonio, who was also working there. Antonio had arrived in Australia in 1955 and was living in Unanderra and Olindo lived with him. A short while later, Antonio returned back home to Italy.

Olindo`s first labouring jobs with EPT were at the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Airport at Mascot. These labouring jobs went for 3 months.

Still with EPT, Olindo had switched roles and began working as an industrial painter. Olindo worked as painter in Italy so he had some experience. He was sent to Canberra on a three month work stint to paint large industrial television antennas. When Olindo came back to NSW he was assigned to the Port Kembla Steel Works as a maintenance painter, specifically doing small jobs and offices ect.

Olindo worked at EPT for approximately 13 months before he and his friend Baffo decided to start a business together painting houses. The two of them began working and built up their business. After approximately 18 months Baffo went back to EPT and Olindo carried on. Olindo found it much easier painting houses than his previous job.

Olindo did all the work himself initially when he went out on his own and eventually the business employed two extra staff members. His house painting business was doing well and Olindo was becoming well noted for his work. On the 24th of August, 1963, Olindo married Gianna Piccolotto at the Immaculate Conception Church at Unanderra and they later celebrated their wedding reception at Luccarda`s at Tarrawanna. He and Gianna had three children, two sons and a daughter. Steven born in 1965, daughter Monica was born in 1967 and Robert was born in 1972.

Olindo`s children went to St Francis Xaviers Primary School in Wollongong. He became very involved with the school and the church. He was vice president of the school committee. Olindo was known for his good work and the fact that his brother was also a priest.

When his children attended high school he was assigned work at both Edmund Rice College and St Mary’s College. Olindo did all the school maintenance painting, the convent and the priests quarters, the new chapel and the new building at Edmund Rice.

Olindo and his crew did ongoing painting maintenance at St Mary’s, all the while still doing house painting. Olindo painted houses for approximately 20 years.

Olindo was asked to do a commercial painting job, something he had never done before. He took up the offer and the customer was very pleased with his work. It was soon that Olindo change from domestic house painting to commercial premises. Here he seemed to thrive and more commercial work came in. Bigger projects and big houses.

Trading under the name of Aymar Pty Ltd his first commercial painting job was the Illawarra Master Builders Club in Wollongong. Olindo and his team painted the club inside and out. Other places that he and his team worked on in the area were the Italian Centre Wollongong, the renovation of the Corrimal Catholic Church and the Unanderra Immaculate Conception Church. At Berkeley he worked on the Retirement Village and Nursing Home and also a Church.

One of the biggest jobs that he did was the Garrawarra Nursing home at Waterfall, NSW. The nursing home had begun major renovations. The job took him six months to complete. He was also doing apartment blocks with some of them being nine stories high, either newly painted or re-painting. He also did work at the Wollongong University which was ongoing for 18 years and he repainted government schools.

He worked on the new library at Thirroul in 2009 and after painting his last block of units after 30 years, Olindo officially retired in 2010. After he retired from painting he focused on the renovation of his home in North Wollongong, which took him 12 months to complete. Once the renovations were complete, Olindo began sketching and was contemplating taking an art class.

It was remarkable to me was when I visited Olindo at his home in North Wollongong. We had a lovely conversation and he expressed how he felt the desire to try his hand at painting on canvas. He went along to one class but felt hindered. So he just began working on his own, painting things that he saw and what appealed to him. He would get inspiration from various sources.

His paintings are scattered around his house and they are all diverse and bursting with colour and vibrance with many telling a story of their own. Personally, I think that they are worthy of being exhibited. They are quite unique. Olindo said that painting relaxes him and that he enjoys the time alone and creating art. Olindo mostly paints in the afternoon and in the evening when the place is quiet and he has the feeling to pick up the brush. He also said that he has no set time, he just paints as he is feeling good.

I originally contacted Olindo as I was looking for information about his brother Gino. Gino, who we featured in an earlier story was talented and creative with metal and it turns out that Olindo had his own creative talents too, that expanded after his retirement. His garage is his art studio and is it just a delight to bear witness to.

Olindo with one of the large projects that he did.

The tree in Olindo`s backyard. Olindo painted this to keep as a memory before it was cut down, as it did some damage to a neighboring property.

All images from the collection belonging to Olindo Battocchio

At 26 years of age, aboard the ship Toscana, Gino Battocchio left Venice April 23, 1952 and arrived in Freemantle, Western Australia May 27. He disembarked in Melbourne, Victoria June 7th. From there he moved to the Bonegilla Migrant Camp. On the 2nd of August he moved to the Commonwealth Hostel, Unanderra, NSW.

Gino was the eldest of eleven brothers and the family were struggling in Italy. This was the reason why Gino came to Australia to be able to work and earn good money to send back home. Gino’s fiancé Renata Baldissieri remained in Italy. She would have to wait a few years before Gino returned home. Gino wrote to Renata constantly never wavering from his plans.

Gino’s profession was listed as Mechanic/Turner. He began working on August 4th factory in Unanderra, `Australian Iron and Steel` that was part of the Port Kembla Steel Works. After a short stint living at Flagstaff Road, Warrawong he soon moved to Unanderra where he rented a house in Grace Street.

Gino was very creative and loved to take many photos and he learnt to develop and print them as well. Though his incredible gift was working with metal and he was a master craftsman. Gino created amazing designs and soon they would be on display for the public to see.

In 1954 the Immaculate Conception Church was officially opened in Unanderra. Many people donated items to commemorate and Gino built and donated a Lectern of the Altar to the value of 50 pounds at the time. It was made of sheet metal with semi-gold plated bronze frames and fretwork that he machined. He also made a chalice and the gates of the altar. These works he carried out in the garage of the rectory in Unanderra. Gino became quite acquainted with the church.

On the 10th of November, 1955 his brother Antonio arrived in Australia traveling on the ship Surriento. Antonio lived with his brother Gino in Grace Street and he soon got a job at the Port Kembla Steel Works.

Across the road from his rented house at number 8 Grace Street was a house own by the church at number 3. It was situated at the back of the Unanderra Church that faced the Princes Highway. Gino rented out a room, moving out of the rented house at number 8. Gino, whilst still working was always dedicated to his metal creations.

In 1959 Gino began working on a new piece for the Immaculate Conception Church at Unanderra. It was the Tabernacle and it was truly beautiful. He noted that on Holy Thursday, it was almost complete. September 27 of the same year Gino Battocchio returned to Italy after staying in Australia for seven years. Brother Antonio returned five months later. Gino began working in the Madras shoe factory in Bassano del Grappa as a maintenance officer for the production machines. But his intent to repatriate was very decisive. In 1960 he started, in his own basement, his first independent business.

Soon after Antonio`s arrival in Italy the two of them had their house built with two apartments. They immediately began working on the basement garage that became their first workshop. In 1961 Gino married Renata. Renata began working as the secretary for the company `BB OFFICINE BATTOCCHIO`.

Prior to leaving Italy, Gino began working at the age of 14 at the F.IIi Arise company in Bassano del Grappa. At the age of 17 he moved to the Gasparatto shoe factory where he learned the trade of maintenance mechanic with his future father-in-law who was a master mechanic. Knowing the shoe industry and manufacturing Gino created and patented machines that fastened the soles and the uppers. These machines were created for shoe factories and quickly became popular. Gino and Antonio built an adjoining workshop as they needed to expand. The machines were exported over time to nearly 50 countries around the world. Antonio worked with Gino for 15 years.

In 1975 Gino and Renata built a new house. In addition to the shoe machines Gino carried out other precision mechanical work for various companies including those in the goldsmith sector. Gino’s son Andrea would end up working with him.

Gino ran his factory with his son Andrea till he retired in 2005. The shoe machines along with the patents were sold off and are still in circulation today. Gino Battocchio passed away on March 12, 2010 and he was 84 years old. Renata passed away ten years later on March 19, 2020. Renata was 82.

Gino Battocchio certainly left an incredible legacy behind. He is survived by his three children Riccardo, Andrea and Cristina, two Grandchildren as well as several siblings. He visited Australia another 3 times with Renata who got to see Australia, the country that he so often wrote to her about and the stories that she heard. Gino had many fond memories of his time here. In 1993 he was Knighted by the Italian government for his services to the community. He was also a local councilor and was instrumental with the launching of the group ANEA. `Associazione Nazionale Emigrati ex-Emigrati Australia Americhe`. The ANEA association was dedicated to cultural and social purposes for immigrants and repatriates. They are still operating today with many members world wide.

Gino has blessed us with his marvelous metal works which are still in use and on display at the Immaculate Conception Church, Unanderra. Gino had strong ties to the church. Two of his brothers became priests as well. Egidio who was of the Scalabrini order went to Brazil and Tarcisio who went to Ecuador is of the Salesiano order.

Lastly, his son Monsignor Riccardo Battocchio, is the president of the Association of Italian Theology and the Rector of the Almo Collegio Capranica in Rome. It is a college of seminarians and young priests. He also took on the role of Special Secretary of the Synod of Bishops 2021-2024.

As I spoke with daughter Cristina we had several conversations in the middle of the night and I was just amazed at the story of her father. I first found Gino’s name in a newspaper article from 1956 that was brought to my attention from the staff at the Wollongong Library. From there I began my search and found connection after connection. Without Cristina and the Wollongong Library this story would not exist. My heartfelt thank you goes to them both.

I would like to share a moment of personal thought here. As a person growing up in Australia there were times when I was discriminated against for my ethnicity. Both of my parents were immigrants and even though they had moments of discrimination too, they often spoke about the great opportunities that Australia gave them and the wonderful people that they met along the way.

I feel the same way and do not see myself as a victim at all. The reason that I write this is for you, the reader, to take a moment and think about the many immigrants who came here. Gino was obviously an incredibly talented and creative individual who gave so much here to Australia and his beloved Italy. Yet, so many times I heard ` just an immigrant` from the mouths of many. As if `just an immigrant` were those who filled in the gaps because Australia didn’t have the population and needed people for its growth.

How many New Australians as they were often called, were never able to share their gifts and talents because they were thought of as second class citizens? We have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to bring in those people who shared a part of themselves with good intention and honesty of who they were. How courageous they were in the face of hardship as well as non acceptance by some.

Gino came here and worked as a mechanic yet his creative side yearned to be expressed and we are so very blessed that it did. Gino is still here in Australia and in Italy too. His legacy is strewn throughout the world and it truly is wonderful!