Salvatore & Gesualda Mazzarino, Italian Migrants, 1961

Summary

Salvatore and Gesualda Mazzarino and their children migrated to Melbourne on the 'Flotto Lauro' from a rural town in Sicily, Italy in 1961. Salvatore worked at the Newport railyards as a blacksmith and Gesualda in small city textile factories. They purchased their one and only family home in St Albans which became the site of Salvatore's gardening, small farming and traditional basket weaving practices.

Salvatore Mazzarino was born in Vizzini, Provincia Catania, a rural town in Sicily in Italy on 17 February 1923. His family were farmers and they were able to subsist on their own produce. He was the eighth child of 14 children. Salvatore was in the Italian army during World War II, serving in Italy and Germany and was for a period a prisoner of war in Stargard, Germany. He would later receive a medal of honour in Melbourne for his war service. He returned home after the War.

Salvatore and Gesualda [also from Vizzini] eloped and married in 1947. Like many from Vizzini, they migrated to Australia on the Flotto Lauro line 'TN Roma', leaving on 19 March and arriving on 1 April 1961. They travelled with their son Angelo (12 years old) and daughter Marianna (nine years old). Their third child Francesca was born in Melbourne in 1965. Salvatore already had two sisters in Melbourne, Antonina Randello and Giovanna Costa, as well as one brother Giuseppe, and was later joined by two more sisters Maria Ravaneschi and Concetta Polizzi. Gesualda's only brother Gregorio Ragusa also migrated to Australia with his family.

The couple rented a house in Werribee for a few years until they could purchase their own home in St Albans in 1964 where they lived for the rest of their lives together. Two years later they purchased the neighbouring block, giving them about half an acre for their extensive garden.

Salvatore worked as a blacksmith at the Newport rail yards until he retired around 1984. He learned the trade on the job. Gesualda, who learned sewing skills in Italy, took a machinist course in Melbourne and worked in small factories in the city, including in Flinders Lane. She also made all the clothes for herself and the children.

The garden was Salvatore's passion and he was able to apply all the cultivation skills he brought from Italy to growing a diverse array of fruit, vegetable, herbs and flowers. The couple, like so many migrants, smuggled seeds into Australia so that they could grow their own varieties of produce - Gesualda sewed seeds into the hems of her skirts and friends and relatives all did the same to keep Salvatore in good supply. Some of his crop included grapes [he made his own wine], tomatoes [Gesualda made tomato sauce and her own dried tomatoes], figs, eggplants, fennel, corn, olives [salted, pressed and preserved], capsicum,chilies, purple broccoli [unusual in Melbourne at the time], garlic [dried, plaited and hung in the kitchen], parsley, basil and oregano [dried and stored in jars]. The produce was primarily for family consumption but Salvatore gave a much away to family, friends and neighbours. Later he did grow and sell seedlings for a small income.

In order to collect and store the produce, Salvatore made baskets from cane that he grew himself in his garden. The baskets are woven in a Sicilian style and he probably learned the skill from his father. The cane was dried, cut into even strips and used to make the baskets in the winter months. During his lifetime he produced hundreds of baskets of varying shapes and sizes, some with handles and some without. He appears to be unique in demonstrating this skill in Melbourne and was widely recognised in the community for this ability. Salvatore received certificates for craft displays and did demonstrations for school children. He gave many baskets away as gifts holding produce from his garden.

Settlement was not easy for the family. They spoke no English when they arrived and only ever learned just enough to get by. For more complex negotiations, their daughter Marianna [who attended St Albans High School] would act as interpreter for them. They found the lack of Italian goods frustrating, little was produced locally and they were adamant at wanting fresh produce.

Gesualda returned to Italy when her mother died, and also with Salvatore who felt justified in his decision to migrate when he saw the continuing hardships of life in his home town. All their children married and have six grandchildren, Sam and Melissa Mazzarino, Leo and Debbie Rando, Christopher and Natalie Cefala and two great grandchildren Jasmine Rando and Alexndra Gilhen. Salvatore died on 30th October 2004, Gesualda contracted covid and passed away at Kalyna Nursing Home on 18 August 2020. Her beloved family could only say their goodbyes via video according to the health regulations during the pandemic.