Anthony Scicluna, Maltese Migrant, 1964

Anthony Scicluna was born in Cospicua, Malta in 1947. At the age of three Anthony, his three siblings and his parents moved to Vittoriosa, Malta. His father Remigio was a tailor who worked for the British Royal Navy sewing dinner suits and naval uniforms. When the navy left Malta, Anthony's father was out of work, so he decided to immigrate to Australia with his family for a better life. The family immigrated when Anthony was 16 years old, departing Malta on 27 September 1964, travelling with the Flotta Lauro Line via the Suez Canal. They arrived in Melbourne on Friday the 22nd October 1964.

The family lived with Anthony's uncle for a few years in Carlton before moving into their own home in Keilor. Anthony obtained work on the afternoon he arrived in Melbourne at Sands & McDougall printing factory in Spencer Street, and started there on Monday 25th October 1964. His wage at that time was 8 pounds 16 shillings and his work entailed getting morning teas and lunches for staff and assisting the printers. His father and brother were employed at Krafts Foods in Port Melbourne.

Anthony worked at Sands & McDougall for three years before moving on to another printing factory, McCarron Bird, in Lonsdale Street as an assistant printer. Printing then became Anthony's trade. He remained at McCarron Bird for seven years before securing a job with the Department of Agriculture, Plant Research Institute, in Swan Street, Richmond in the human resources section. Anthony remained there until 1991 when he left to care for his ill father, who passed away in 1998, and his blind mother Carmen. He never married.

Anthony comments that his father found Australia to be a better, more prosperous place to bring up his family, and that the whole family adopted Australia as their homeland from the very first day they arrived. They found Australia a better place to build a future and they have been 'happy here ever since.' Anthony's father never wanted to return to Malta, not even for a holiday, and Anthony and all his siblings took out Australian citizenship.