ITALIANS OF WOLLONGONG: ALBANO CAZZOLI - PORT KEMBLA SOCCER CLUB

Albano Cazzoli arrived in Australia October 6, 1962 on the ship Oceania. Travelling with him was his brother Camillo. Albano had three brothers already living in Australia. Corrado, Gianni and Lino. They stayed at First Avenue, Warrawong. The three brothers were living at a family friend`s home in a garage and Albano and Camillo soon joined them. The garage consisting of two bedrooms and a small kitchenette with bathroom facilities outside.

Albano was looking for work and would soon get a job at the Port Kembla Steelworks. Back in Italy he was a `Cromatore` (chromium/chrome plater), but this work was not available at the Steel Works. He got a job working on the railway gang for 3 months. He then moved to the NO:2 open hearth as a Fitters Labourer. All the brothers were working at the steel works at that time.

Albano received his ticket and commenced working as a welder and did this job up until he left in 1969. He then moved to EPT where he worked for the next 25 years as a welder, boilermaker and foreman. After EPT he worked for Coastwide Engineering as a Site Manager, then with LJC as a Maintenance Foreman before retiring from work completely.

In 1964 Albano met Oriana Raccogli, who arrived in Australia in 1957 with her parents. They travelled on the ship Sydney that docked August 31. In 1967 Albano married Oriana on the 19th of February. The wedding ceremony took place at the Unanderra Catholic Church with the wedding reception held at Luccarda`s, Tarrawanna. After they married they lived in Vermont Road, Warrawong underneath the house of Albano`s brother Gianni. It was a very small makeshift apartment. It had one bedroom and a kitchenette. They had to use the bathroom of Gianni`s house. Albano and Oriana lived there for 18 months before moving into their new house in Jackson Avenue. By 1976 they had three children.

Oriana worked at Woolworths commencing when she was in school aged 15. Over the course of the years Oriana worked 9 years full time. She left to have her children and returned some years later. Oriana worked casual as a night filler clocking up 20 years in total for the company.

The Port Kembla Soccer (Football) Club

As a young man Albano frequented the Marina Coffee Lounge that was situated in the Lakeview Shopping Centre, Warrawong. The Marina was a local hang out for many young people. The owner of the Marina was Rocco Annecchini who was a lover of soccer. He would often have conversations with Albano. He also knew that Albano and his friend Angelo Carusi were playing soccer for local team St. George. Rocco was very keen to put together a soccer team. Albano came up with an idea and that was to set up a friendly match as their first game. Over at Port Kembla in Wentworth Street, Italo Corradetti was running his own cafe called Italo Cafe. Rocco and Italo were friends and the two agreed to a match between the cafes. The losing team had to buy dinner for the winning team.

From there the idea came to form a team to enter the Illawarra Soccer Association league. They came up with the name Warrawong Azzuri in 1965, but they were knocked back for two reasons. Firstly, there were no spots available left in the league and secondly the Azzuri name was too `ethnic` sounding because the association wanted to avoid any potential racial issues. They then came up with the name Lake Heights Blues but they were knocked back once again as the competition had a full roster of teams.

In 1966 they were offered a lifeline. The secretary of the Port Kembla Danubia team at the time contacted Albano to let him know that they were no longer entering the league as they went into liquidation and asked if they were interested in taking their place. They said yes and the team Port Kembla Soccer Club was official. The Danubia team also gave them all their training equipment which included soccer balls and nets which was an added bonus and helped them immensely to start.

They applied to the local council for permission to use the King George V oval at Port Kembla to use as their training ground and permission was granted. The ground had a shed that they used as the change rooms and they would bring a truck to the games to sell some food on game day. They would sell items such as meat pies, sausage rolls and sandwiches, in which a local deli supplied cold meats. Drinks were also available. They had a big drum cut in half and filled with ice to hold soft drinks. They used the King George oval for several years.

In those early stages the team was sponsored by the Marina Coffee Lounge, and local barber Alfredo Pallone. The first president of the club was Giuseppe De Peron who owned a deli on King Street and you would often find him at training with the team. Emilio Gigliotti (who worked at the steel works) was another original committee member as was Albano for two years.

When it came to raising funds for the team monthly dances were held at the Warrawong Community Hall. Drinks and sandwiches were available on the night. Local band The Latin Beats entertained for the evening. The night usually commenced around 6pm finishing around 11. So many local youths attended and for them it was an outing they looked forward to each month meeting up with friends, family and soccer fans alike who made up the numbers. They even held a Miss Port Kembla pageant at the dances. The monthly dances were held for approximately two years at the community centre before moving to the Fraternity Bowling Club at Fairy Meadow.

E.P.T. (Electric Power Transmission) had a workplace-sponsored soccer team that operated from the 1950`s through to the 1970`s. They trained at the Coomaditchi soccer oval (Kemblawarra Park). They won back to back championships in 1975 and 1976. Soon after the team disbanded and their training ground became vacant. Port Kembla took the opportunity and moved their training to Kemblawarra Park. The grounds were well set up with dressing sheds, nets and parking.

By the early 1980`s Port Kembla had to find another training ground as Kemblawarra was reclaimed and would become a reserve. In 1984 the Port Kembla Soccer Club put in an application to join the Illawarra Premier League: which also meant that they now needed to have a second team for inclusion. They found some vacant unkept land at Primbee and submitted an application to council for the ground to be used as a soccer oval with a lease for 99 years. Now with a Reserve and First grade team their application was accepted and soon work began on the modification of the land to build their soccer ground from scratch which is now known as Wetherall Park, Primbee.
 

The first things that were addressed were the grounds and the exterior hills, parking, dressing sheds and an amenities block. They even used the fences and goal posts that were used at Kemblawarra Park. Over the years a grand stand was built and lights were erected for night time training. They had one major game playing field as well as a smaller training one.

With a lot of hard work through fundraising, grants, sponsors and community support, Wetherall Park Primbee, became a well organised and utilised football ground. To achieve this many local supporters put in tremendous amount of hours to get everything up and running. Two people in particular need mentioning. Bruno Recinelli and Frank Marinelli who were truck drivers with Brambles at the time. The two of them (in their spare time) delivered tons of coal wash (which was given for free) to the grounds to prepare for the new field. From starting with one men`s team the club grew where it now has three mens teams, those being Under 20`s, Reserve Grade and the 1st Grade team.

Albano along with Oriana volunteered with the club for over 20 years with the running of the canteen and help with the maintenance of the grounds, amongst others things. They would also attend every home game and begin their day at 9am. Providing service for the three teams, the day would finish at 5pm. Albano was president of the club from 1995 to 1996. In 1996 Oriana joined the committee and was a member for two years. After a few years Oriana took over the running of the canteen.

Typically there are 22 games per year with 11 played at home and 11 away. The football region spans from Helensburgh to Shellharbour. In 2000 Australia finally caught up with the rest of the world where Soccer was officially known as Football, a name that was its true definition. They officially became Port Kembla FC (Football Club). This year the Port Kembla Football Club will be celebrating their 60th Anniversary with a dinner at the Fraternity Bowling Club, Fairy Meadow.

Over the years the club has won 7 premierships and appeared in 9 grand finals. Two of their players were named Premier League Player of the year and three of their players have received 4 Golden Boot Awards between them. Fantastic achievements.

In 2016 Albano received an award for `Lifetime of Service to Football South Coast` of the year, from the Illawarra Soccer Association. Not long after this Albano and Oriana retired from volunteering with the club, due to Albano`s health but he does tries to attend as many games as he can in support of the club. Other members of the Cazzolli family were all involved on some level with nephews Franco and Robert, playing for the club.

Albano and Oriana were involved with the Trentini Italian social club in Wollongong and attended other community group activities. They have five grandchildren. You will often find Albano doing Pyrography (etching onto timber), creating lovely art pieces in his garage. You can also see his talent of welding b
y the lovely furniture pieces throughout his home, original designs that make statements.