Laura Mecca [nee Dal Borgo] was born 20 May 1943 in the Pieve d'Alpago, Belluno, in the region of Veneto, Italy. In 1952 she moved to Milan with her parents, who had lived there before the war. In the late 1960s she met Dante Mecca, an architect who was in Milan looking for work, and the couple married on 19 October 1968. Dante was originally from Genoa, however his parents had moved to Naples where Dante completed his tertiary studies in architecture. Laura and Dante's daughter Lucrezia was born in Milan on 3 July 1969.

In 1970 the Mecca family applied to migrate to Australia on an assisted passage. They left from Genoa on 10 September 1970 on board the Guglielmo Marconi, arriving in Melbourne on 12 October 1970. The ship circumnavigated Africa as the Suez Canal was closed due to the conflict involving Israel.

In Melbourne they rented a flat in Punt Road, South Yarra, and Dante found work with a Melbourne architectural firm. Unfortunately his qualifications were not recognised in Australia, so he could only work as a draughtsman. This led them to leave Australia in 1974 for Singapore where Dante worked as a local government architect for three years.

They returned to Melbourne in 1977 and Laura joined the Italian Trade Commission where she worked until 1987. In 1979 Dante left Melbourne to work for the PNG government in Port Moresby. He returned to Melbourne in 1982 and was finally able to register as an architect and open his own practice in Hawthorn. In 1986 Laura joined the Italian Historical Society CO.AS.IT where she remained employed until July 2006.

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