PART 1
A THEMATIC HISTORY OF ITALY-BORN IN LEICHHARDT AND THE LEICHHARDT MUNICIPALITY

The Thematic History was written by Dr Anne Reynolds, except for the part on the Melocco Brothers which was written by Bruce Lay.

Post - War Italian migrants leaving the SS Marconi

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for information and advice received from Bruce Lay, Vera Zaccari, Meredith Walker, Guido Zuliani, Ralph Raffaelli, Ivo Clagnan, Enoe Di Stefano, Gio and Patricia Fin, Bob Giezekamp, Joe Cernigoi, Fabian Lo Schiavo, Margaret Penson, Fr Atanasio Gonelli, Fr Romano Franchini, Jim Andrighetti, Linda Nellor, Susi Schio, Max Solling, Frank Galluzzo, Sam Campisi, Francesca Merenda, Armando Tornari, Louise Bayutti, Pino Migliorino and John Melocco.

Many others expressed a keen interest in collaborating in the research, but time and funding for the current work were not sufficient to address all the issues and the important stories that remain to be told.

The thematic history as it now stands refers extensively to the work of other researchers who blazed the trail in the history of Italians in Australia. W.D. Borrie, Richard Bosworth, Tito Cecilia, Gianfranco Cresciani, Robert Pascoe, Ilma Martinuzzi O'Brien, Caroline Alcorso, Ian Burnley, Stephen Castles, Jock Collins, Mauro Di Nicola, James Jupp, Robert Pascoe, Frank Panucci, Charles Price, Gaetano Rando, Ellie Vasta, Helen Ware, Roslyn Pesman-these are just some of those who have contributed to an understanding of the history of Australia from Italian and Italian-Australian perspectives.

Special thanks are due to Guido Zuliani, Ivo Clagnan and Francesca Musicò who generously shared their personal archives. Information provided by Francesca, Ivo and Guido and all the others mentioned was vital for the way it helped establish or confirm details, especially in those areas for which primary documentation was not available or had been lost.

The Thematic History is a work-in-progress and makes no claims to be comprehensive. Feedback and comments are sought. Opinions on how the work could or should be developed are actively sought by the author who can be contacted via Leichhardt Council, tel. 9367 9228.

1.1 PREAMBLE

The brief was to investigate the following themes in building a picture of Italian - Australian influence in the Leichhardt Local Government Area, as well as the suburb of Leichhardt :

· The Migration Story

· The working life - the business achievement

· Living in Leichhardt

· The role of St Fiacres

· The Italian language media

· APIA

· Italian community organisations

· The Melocco Brothers

1.1.1 Introduction to the Thematic History

Fifty years on from the immigration program which led to the arrival of the largest number of Italy-born in the history of Australia, what is the Italian-Australian community in the year 2001, and who constitutes it? What is Italian-Australian identity?

The Italian -Australian community, a collective term for Italy-born (men, women and children who emigrated to Australia from diverse regions of Italy and their descendants born in Australia) is "linked to specific forms of Italian-Australian culture and identity". It "originated partly out of the need for solidarity in the face of discrimination and racism in the early period of settlement" (Castles 1994: 359). As Stephen Castles has observed, the "Italian presence coincides with two major changes [in Australia]. The first is the growth of ethnic diversity and the resulting search for a new national identity, no longer based simply on British heritage" (Castles 1994: 342).

Italian-Australian identity and Italian-Australian community are fluid concepts. Their contemporary meaning is informed by the history of immigration and settlement of Italy-born in Australia over 150 years, with a special emphasis on the second half of the twentieth century. Both reflect the traditions and cultures of many different Italian regions of origin. Both are an expression and a consequence of the cultural, social and other transformations which, with the significant catalyst of immigration, characterised Australia over the second half of the twentieth century. Both have been shaped by transformations in Australian society in the era of multiculturalism. Both have been influenced by informal, individual contacts over time between Australia and Italy and the diverse regions of origin of Italy-born. They also have meaning in the context of the links established between Australia and Italy in the post-World War 2 period, through bi-directional migration and settlement, tourism, trade, and diplomacy. Italian-Australian community and identity in the year 2001 are, in addition, a product of the experience of two to three generations of Australian-born who have an Italian-born parent or grandparent, as well as of the history of at least five generations of Australian-born who can trace an Italian-born ancestor.

Italian-Australian community and identity at the end of the second millennium have individual, local, national and transnational characteristics. They are the sum of all this, and more.

Italy-born have settled in Leichhardt and the Leichhardt Municipality for more than one century. It could be expected, therefore, that a study of the history of Italians in Leichhardt will throw some light on the meaning, past and present, of these much-discussed terms, Italian-Australian community and Italian-Australian identity.

In research for the thematic history, it became clear that the time frame of the late 1940s to the 1970s was pivotal to an understanding of the history of the Italian presence in the Leichhardt Municipality. Over the period from late 1940s until the 1970s, the substantive core of the contemporary 'Italian' identity of Leichhardt was formed.

In this thematic history, the suburb of Leichhardt has a particular significance. In the post-World War 2 period, Leichhardt was one of the suburbs and municipalities in Sydney where the presence of Italy-born was marked. A sizeable Italian-born community settled in Leichhardt and adjacent suburbs. Leichhardt today is close to other suburbs and municipalities in which there are significant concentrations of Italy-born and their descendants of the second and third generation.

From the later 1940s, the Italian-born community of Leichhardt and further afield supported and was supported by a growing number of Italian-run retail businesses. The commercial and professional activity of Italy-born in the suburb of Leichhardt is a distinctive feature of the Municipality's history.

Created over time in the post-war period, there were also clubs and associations with social, sporting, religious, educational and welfare aims, as well as Italian-language media based in or with connections to the suburb of Leichhardt, many of which are still in existence. The Italian-born community was also assisted by Italian-speaking Capuchin Friars at the church of St Fiacre's in Catherine Street, Leichhardt.

Essentially because of this range of structures, organisations and services which had a strong Italian membership, leadership or Italian-speaking component, from the 1950s the suburb of Leichhardt became a reference point for Italy-born from all over Sydney. A history of Leichhardt and its Municipality is not complete without an understanding of the social, commercial, cultural, religious and, in the broad sense, political structures and organisations which Italy-born were responsible over many years for creating and maintaining in Leichhardt.

The structures and organisations highlighted in Section 5 of the thematic history are presented as fundamental indicators of the postwar history of Italy-born in the Leichhardt Municipality and wider Sydney. These structures and organisations also have a significance in that they were formative elements of Italian-Australian community and identity.

Note: Any report on Leichhardt has to deal with the confusions that can arise because of the eponymous names for the suburb and the Municipality. Where the suburb of Leichhardt is intended, the text or immediate context makes this clear.

1.1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Thematic History

The thematic history has a number of interrelated aims. It aims to present some distinctive aspects of the settlement of Italy-born in the Leichhardt Municipality from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. It is intended to provide a background for an evaluation of Italian heritage in the Leichhardt Municipality. It is intended also to provide a background for understanding some of the reasons why the Leichhardt Municipality and, in particular, the suburb of Leichhardt have come to represent a zone of italianità or "Italianness" in contemporary Sydney.

1.1.3 The Time-Frame and the Major Focuses of the Thematic History

The thematic history focuses frequently on the suburb of Leichhardt while also dealing with the wider area of the Leichhardt Municipality. It emphasises the period 1945-1975 but does not exclude reference to earlier and later periods.

On current evidence, the presence of Italy-born in the Municipality dates from the second half of the nineteenth century. For well over one hundred years, Italy-born have played an important part in the Municipality's history, particularly in commerce.

1.1.4 The Sections of the Thematic History

The thematic history is divided as follows. Section 2 presents a summary account of Italian immigration and settlement in Australia. Section 3 focuses on Italy-born who lived and worked in the Leichhardt Municipality in the pre-World War 2 period and early postwar period. Section 4 presents a general overview of post-World War 2 settlement of Italy-born in Leichhardt and its Municipality, as well as of Italian retail and commercial activity in the suburb of Leichhardt. Section 5 accounts for some structures and organisations in the suburb of Leichhardt which could be seen as formative of Italian-Australian community and Italian-Australian identity. The remainder is mostly dedicated to accounts of living and working in the Municipality, provided principally by Italy born residents or ex-residents of the Municipality.

1.1.5 An Overview of Research and Research Resources in the Fields of Italian Immigration and the History and Lived Experience of Italy-born in Australia

The settlement experience and reception of Italians in Australia in the period up to the World War 2 have been accounted for in seminal studies by W.D. Borrie, Richard Bosworth, Tito Cecilia, Gianfranco Cresciani, Robert Pascoe, and Ilma Martinuzzi O'Brien, among others. The history of post-World War 2 Italian immigration and settlement in Australia is accessible through the important work of Caroline Alcorso, Ian Burnley, Stephen Castles, Jock Collins, Mauro Di Nicola, James Jupp, Robert Pascoe, Frank Panucci, Charles Price, Gaetano Rando, Ellie Vasta, Helen Ware, and many others.

Perspectives on the second generation and inter-generational relations, from a feminist perspective or focussing on women's issues, can be found in the fictional works of Enoe Di Stefano, Melina Marchetta, Anna Maria Dell'Oso and Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, and others, and in collaborative publications such as Growing Up Italian in Australia 1993, Who do you think you are 1992, and Give Me Strength, Forza e coraggio 1989. Autobiography and fiction have been instrumental in bringing to the fore the insights and experiences of women and the second generation.

For Leichhardt itself, the studies by Livio Benedetti, Ian Burnley, Constance Cronin, Rina Huber, Max Solling and Peter Reynolds, and Mark Seymour are fundamental.

Within the last decade, the collection of personal archives and documents undertaken by Jim Andrighetti of the State Library of N.S.W. for the Italians in New South Wales project 1989-1994, the ongoing primary research projects by members of the Co.As.It. Heritage committee, and research by individuals (such as Joseph Giovenco) have all made significant contributions to a growing fund of primary resources available to those who wish to study the history of Italians in Australia.

In recent times, the N.S.W. Heritage Office has sponsored studies, including the recent publication by Catherine Kevin, A History of Italian Settlement in New South Wales, as well as other projects.

For the principal subject areas explored in this thematic history, it was apparent that, while substantial research on the history of Italy-born in Leichhardt and its Municipality had been carried out, there were areas for which primary documentation had not been preserved or was no longer available.

Much history is preserved in the memories, photographs and personal documents of the individuals who lived it. Co.As.It. has played a leading role in promoting awareness of the importance of individual memory and experience. A great deal of research remains to be done in this area.