Friday, April 11, 2025

PETER MANFREDOTTI - FRUIT SHOPS AND FOOTBALL

Peter Manfredotti was born in Camperdown, Sydney on June 3rd, 1945. Both his parents were very young children when they came to Australia. Peter`s father Carlo Manfredotti, arrived in Australia in 1922 and he was only three years old. Carlo travelled with his father Giuseppe and mother Lucrezia. Peter`s mother Pierina (Rina) Pelleri, who was two at the time, arrived in 1924 with her mother Maria, April 1st, on the ship Ormonde. Maria`s husband Carlo was already in Australia arriving in 1921, August 25th, aboard the ship Orsova.

Both the Manfredotti and Pelleri families headed straight to Queensland. There they worked at the sugar cane fields in Ingham. Both families were from the town of Rovato, Brescia, Italy.

In the early 1940`s Peter`s father Carlo came to NSW looking for work along with wife Rina and daughter Diana, who was born in 1941. He took a wood turning course at TAFE and was able to get a job at a factory that made wood products such as lamp posts and even gun butts. The years rolled by and the war broke out. Because of his work he was deemed an essential worker and therefore did not have to serve in the army.

Around the late 1940`s Carlo Manfredotti purchased a fruit shop business in Newton. After sending for his family, who were still in Ingham,  they came down and lived in the back of the fruit shop. 13 family members in total occupied the space. 8 adults who all worked in the shop and 5 children. Peter was about four years old.

The shop did well and was very busy. After a few years they began doing home deliveries once a week around the Fairfield area. The fruit shop also supplied corner stores and even a boarding house, with fruits and vegetables

Carlo was very organised with the fruit shop. As it had no cool room, he purchased fresh produce on the daily at the vegetable market at Haymarket in the City. Living close to the market he would arrive there by 2am and park his truck. He would then sleep till 6am when the markets opened. He would do all the buying for the shop then would be back at Newtown by 8am. His daily method worked brilliantly for the shop.  In 1956 a second son Michael was born.

In the early 60`s Carlo renovated the fruit shop. He purchased more modern display tables, built a wrapping station with newspapers and scales and the shop now sold soft drinks. By the late 60`s only Carlo, wife Rina, sons Peter and Michael, were living at the back of the fruit shop. It was 1969 and Peter`s sister Diana had already married and was living in Earlwood. Carlo had purchased a block of land in Karella to build a new house for the family. Carlo had put the fruit shop on the market to sell and commenced building his home. He soon sold the shop and with wife Rina, sons Peter and Michael moved in with Diana and her husband whilst the new house was being constructed. Carlo devoted all his time to finishing his new home.

Peter was 24 years old. Across the road from his parents fruit shop was Gartrell White’s bakery where Peter got a job as a delivery driver. He worked for the bakery for approximately 3 years. Peter`s next job was at the Holden factory in Pagewood/ Maroubra. He worked on the line assembling car doors and boots, working at the Holden factory for approximately 18 months.

Peter then got a job at Formica`s Supermarket in Sutherland. His father Carlo was working there at the time. Carlo was the buyer of fresh produce for the supermarket, purchasing from Flemington Markets. The owners of Formica`s  knew Carlo from when he had his fruit shop at Newtown. They remember him from the market and eventually hired him to work for them. Peter began working in fruit and vegetables and then other aspects of the supermarket. He had plenty of experience in food retail and fit in very well. His father Carlo worked for 5 years and Peter stayed for 15. Peter left Formica`s in 1985.  He had now decided to retire from work.

Peter purchased a house in Towradgi and soon made Wollongong his home. He was enjoying his retirement in leisure and living near the beach. Peter soon met Dorothy and he remarried in 1997. He then went back to work securing a job at Flemington Markets. Peter was in charge of the delivery section and processed orders of fruit and vegetables for supermarkets. He worked at the market for approximately 3 years.

His next job was at Cronulla fruit and veg market for 9 years.  He would set set up the shop and did much of the sorting and cutting. The market was close to the beach. They started making fresh fruit salads some time later and if was a real money spinner. People came off the beach for fruit salads on the daily.

Peter then got a job closer to home, which he welcomed, as he had been travelling to Sydney to work since 1997.  He worked at Woonona Fruit Basket and stayed there for approximately four years before officially retiring around 2014. Peter had been working with fresh produce and retail for most of his adult life and always found work in this area. In fact, he was sort after for his good work.

Peter and his wife Dorothy began to travel. They developed such a love for it and travelled to so many places around the world. They did this for many years. Paris and Canada, just to name a few, plus all around Australia.  It really was a joy for them both.  Sadly, Dorothy passed away October 13, 2022.  She was 77.


FOOTBALL

When Peter was 15 years old he was attending St Joseph`s High School Newtown, when he was asked to be part of a team that the school wanted to put together. Football (rugby league) was a game that he loved and on sports day at school he would regularly play along with his classmates and friends. The school team did exceptionally well and made the grand final against Lewisham (High School) who won. Peter played second row.

In 1961 he finished High School and went to play football with Marrickville under the CYO (Catholic Youth Organisation). He played in the Under 16`s D grade division. The following year, 1962, he joined a C grade team with Newton PCYC and they won the grand final. In 1963, with the same team they were undefeated premiers.

Peter continued playing for the Newton PCYC in 1964 and 1965, though the team didn’t make it through/not enough players. In 1966 Peter moved teams and played for St Peters B grade who made it all the way to the final. In 1967 he played for Camperdown Dragons, B grade division. They were under 21`s, winning the premiership undefeated.

In 1969 he trialled for Newton third grade. Peter never got picked and saw this has his moment to retire from playing football. He still went to watch games and kept up his friendships with many of the players. By this stage he was working a lot and focused on his job.

In 1974 Peter came down to Ziems Park, Corrimal, to watch the Corrimal Cougars play a trial game against Newtown.  He asked the Corrimal coach if he could get a run. The coach said yes and the next thing he knew he was asked to play with the Corrimal team. In 1974 the Corrimal Cougars would win the premiership first and third grades. Peter played front row in third grade division.

At the end of the 1975 season the club organised a trip away to New Zealand.  A group of 30 people went, that included club officials, players and fans. The team played one game at Carlaw Park. It was the home ground of the New Zealand team at the time. They played Mount Wellington in a friendly match. The trip was organised by Oscar Danielson. Oscar was a New Zealand International player who played for Newton first grade from 1970 -1972. He then came to Corrimal as a player/coach for the Cougars. Peter Manfredotti played for the Corrimal Cougars from 1974 - 1977. He finally retired from football at age of 31.

Peter was an avid Illawarra Steelers and Cougars fan. He kept in touch with friends from football. They would often go on outings and they still have get togethers once a week or once a fortnight. He followed Newton, up until the club was finished.

Peter has done volunteer work at Towradgi Surf Club with the nippers and assisted Corrimal Cougars football club with their BBQ`s for many years. He often goes for a walk down to the beach alone or sometimes with friends.  Peter spends time relaxing and he is ready to take up travelling again.
 
 




 The Manfredotti Fruit Shop at Newtown. 
 
 
 

All images from the collections belonging to
 Peter and Diana Manfredotti



Sunday, January 12, 2025

LUIGI VILLELLA

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

Friday, January 3, 2025

GENNARO SACCO

Gennaro Sacco arrived in Australia June 5th, 1952, travelling on the ship Sydney.  He was born in 1924 in the town of Gizzeria, province of Catanzaro, in the Calabria region. Gennaro`s wife Teresina and their young son Domenico were still in Italy. Unbeknown to Gennaro, Teresina was pregnant with their second child.

Gennaro first went to Warragamba Dam looking for work, but was advised that the only work available was for a short period of time. Whilst at Warragamba he was told there was work at the Port Kembla Steel Works.  He soon left Warragamba and began working at the Steel Works. Whist living in a garage at Port Kembla he was soon able to raise the funds to pay a deposit on a house at Towradgi, not far from the beach. This would be his first family home.

In 1954 Teresina, along with the two children Domenico and Bruno, joined Gennaro at Towradgi arriving April 18, aboard the ship Oceania. Gennaro also had some boarders staying at his house.

Young Bruno had contracted Polio shortly after his birth and at the time there was no help or assistance either in Italy or Australia. Teresina had some help from the boarders as well as Gennaro in caring for Bruno who was totally incapacitated. Bruno spent most of his life in a wheelchair. Teresina had another three children after Bruno, those being Pasquale, Concetta and Caterina. Each time after the birth of those children, Bruno was placed in a care facility so that Teresina could have some temporary relief while she took care of her babies. In 1970  another daughter, Rosarba, was born. This time Bruno was in care but only for a short time whilst Teresina was in hospital with her newborn. Teresina`s sisters and sister in-law who arrived later in Australia, would often help out when they came to visit her and around this time Bruno was a young teenager. Also, the help given by the care facility had now stopped. Older brother Domenico and Gennaro also did a lot to help with the care of Bruno. Sadly, Bruno Sacco passed away March 22nd, 1971, five months prior to his 19th birthday. It was an extremely sad time and difficult for the family, especially Teresina.

Their first house in Towradgi had a very large front yard so Gennaro turned it into a vegetable garden. Gennaro never drove and he never owned a family car. The family’s mode of transport was always public or sometimes family friends would drive them if they were visiting relatives.

Daughter Concetta (who everyone knows as Connie) remembers the many stories that her father told her. She remembers when he told her how he met another Italian man called Domenico who lived around the corner and they became friends. Domenico and Gennaro were basically the first Italians in the Towradgi area. Gennaro was explaining to Domenico that he was concerned about making his loan repayments and Domenico told him not to worry. He didn’t want Gennaro and his family to move away. He assured him that if he were ever to get into any trouble he would help him out. He was happy to have Gennaro, a fellow Italian in the neighbourhood and didn’t want him to leave. Genaro’s concerns were short lived as he was able to pay his mortgage. Not only that, he moved homes a few years later (only up the street) keeping his first house and renting it out.

Gennaro`s son Pasquale recalls how his father bought a black and white TV when they first lived in Towradgi. He remembers how friends and neighbours would often come over to watch TV as not many people had a TV set in those days. It was quite a treat for them.

All of Genaro’s family lived overseas except his sister Concetta. She came  to Australia around 1972 to visit him and ending up getting married and lived in Brookvale, Sydney. Gennaro was happy to have his sister Concetta living here as she was the only family relative in Australia. Family was very important to both him and Teresina. Many years later Concetta returned to Canada to be reunited with the family.

When the children were younger much time was spent with Teresina`s side of the family who lived in the local area. They would have many family get togethers at Christmas time and on specific holidays. As the family got older it had all stopped. 

Connie also said that the family never really went on holidays, but would often go to Brookvale to visit family and friends. When Gennaro had retired he took his first overseas trip since arriving in Australia. He went to Montreal to see his mother, brother and sister who were living here. His brother who lived in Brazil, also joined them in Montreal. The only one to miss out on the family reunion was his sister who was living in Argentina. She was unable to go.

Connie also remembers her father going to so many funerals.  Having hardly missed any.  She recalls how he would buy the newspaper daily and get her to read any funeral notices. He didn’t want to miss paying respects to anyone that he knew.

In the early sixties Gennaro along with some other Italian friends got together and formed a social group. They wanted to hold a yearly festival celebrating Saint Giovanni Battista (St John the Baptist). Back home in Gizzeria he was celebrated every year in the local town as he was the patron saint of Gizzeria.  At Brookvale in Sydney they held a festival annually and after seeing that, Gennaro was keen to hold a festival in the Wollongong area. With a lot of hard work the festival came to life and ran from 1966 - 1969.

Gennaro was a hard working man and some may say a workaholic. He did countless double shifts and wanted to provide everything his family needed. He promised Teresina that she would never need to work. Christmas Day was the only day he wouldn’t work and he would sit in the lounge room and sing Italian songs. 

He also spent a lot of time in his garden and it was a large garden that required maintaining. There was much harvesting to be done and it was constant, especially having Olive trees as well. His garden was split between both houses. Gennaro and Teresina lived a lot of their lives as they did back home in Gizzeria. Salami and tomato sauce making were annual jobs that involved the whole family.

Gennaro involved himself with the Italian community and had many friends. He helped to organise a new crypt at Kembla Grange Cemetery, as Wollongong Cemetery was quite full and Kanahooka was a longer drive further south. The petition for Kembla Grange was successful. It was closer for the Italian community to bury their loved ones.

Teresina passed away on September 30, 1996. She was 68. Three weeks later Gennaro had a stroke. As the years went by he found it increasingly harder to move around. Gennaro passed away Feb 6, 2016. He was 91. Teresina and Gennaro are survived by their 6 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

Connie expressed how in her eyes both of her parents sacrificed so much to come to Australia. They knew no one, they couldn’t speak the language and with no support for Bruno it was extremely hard. Connie said she was surprised that they didn’t pack their bags and go back home with all the struggles and heart aches in the beginning. But they came to Australia for a better life for their family and without mum`s support dad couldn’t have done anything!





Gennaro Sacco`s last photo.

 

All images from the collection belonging to the Sacco family.
 


PETER MANFREDOTTI - FRUIT SHOPS AND FOOTBALL

Peter Manfredotti was born in Camperdown, Sydney on June 3rd, 1945. Both his parents were very young children when they came to Australia. P...