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.
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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.
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