1.4 LIVING IN LEICHHARDT

1.4.1 Retail, Commercial and Professional Activity among Italy-born in Leichhardt in the Post-World War 2 Period

Parramatta Road for President Saragat's visit in 1967

The milestone in Parramatta Road that marked Leichhardt as five miles distant from the city and the trams which negotiated Parramatta Road in the 1950s stand out in the memory of customers of the Italian businesses and services which, over time, grew in number and variety in Leichhardt, first predominantly on both sides of Parramatta Road and spreading later into Norton and Renwick Streets.

Among the memorable Italian businesses of the 1950s and 1960s were the fruit shop in Parramatta Road, run by two Sicilian-born brothers with the family name Ancona; the Dolomiti shoe store on the Petersham side of Parramatta Road, owned by Angelo and Maria Emanuelli; the delicatessen of Sebastiano Sindone at 361 Parramatta Road; the delicatessen next to the Commonwealth Bank in Norton Street, first run by Mr Sindone and his brother and later by Mr. Cainero who passed the business on to Mr Garofalo; the imported Italian goods at Cantarella's in Flood Street, and Cesare Lucchitti's grocery store at 274 Norton Street; the real estate agencies of Mr Castiglione and Vincenzo Cammareri; the solicitors Lapaine and Bolzan, and Margiotta in Norton Street; the restaurant La Rustica in Parramatta Road, run in the early days by the Giannetto family from Castiglione di Sicilia (Catania); the Italian doctors and dentists in Renwick Street; and the Italian bakery, just off Renwick Street behind La Rustica.

By the late 1950s many businesses in the shopping strips of Leichhardt had identifiable Italian characteristics. Parramatta Road between Catherine and Norton Streets, in particular, was a bustling shopping area, especially on Saturdays, with a large number of Italian-run shops. The Meapro butchery in Parramatta Road, although run by non-Italians, employed an Italian butcher who attracted queues of Italians to the shop. Caffé Sport, at 2a Norton Street, the first Italian coffee shop in Leichhardt and one of the first in Sydney, was opened by Raffaello Raffaelli in 1956.

The growing number of Italians in Leichhardt and nearby and adjacent suburbs up to the 1970s saw an expansion of Italian-run businesses in Leichhardt to meet their requirements. Burnley notes that this expansion started "as early as 1958" (Burnley 1981: 183). Italian-speaking pharmacists, doctors, and lawyers were also represented. Lawton records that Dr Bentivoglio who practised in Leichhardt until approximately 1951 was followed by Dr Nello Farinelli who had a medical practice in Mary Street and then at 35 Norton Street. Dr Pietro Raneri who arrived in Australia in 1959 via New Guinea and Dr Peter Tomasiello were in practice in Norton Street in 1970 (Lawton 77). By the mid-late 1970s, professional services were set up by Italian Australians of the second generation who had gained qualifications locally.

Parramatta Road from the 1950s to the late 1960s was reportedly one of the three highest turnover shopping strips in the city of Sydney. It attracted the patronage of the wider local community, but was also a hub for shopping by local and non-local Italy-born in the period up to the late 1960s and beyond. Italians in business in Leichhardt in the 1950s and 1960s more frequently leased rather than owned their shops. When the boom in the Parramatta Road retail cycle began to decline in the later 1960s, more Italians were able to buy retail properties.

Valente reports that the Leichhardt commercial centre in 1962 was noted for its "two Italian-born tailors, two [Italian-run] pharmacies, one bookshop [known as Comegal, and later as Libreria Italiana], six real estate and travel agents, seven fruit vendors, one cake shop, five restaurants, two butchers, three barbers, three hairdressers, two cobblers, one baker, one service station, one music shop, one jeweller, six grocers, four cafes and one night club, the San Remo, and four social-sports clubs" (Valente 22). The larger turnover businesses such as the estate agents and grocery/delicatessen stores tended to be owned by Italy-born who had emigrated in the pre-war period. Valente's study observes that the high percentage of Italian business (estimated at 70%) in the local real estate market in the period 1959-1966 was the trigger for a subsequent expansion at the southern end of Norton Street of professionals in the areas of law, accountancy and taxation (Valente 23).

In 1976 there were reportedly 175 Italian-run businesses operating in the Leichhardt area, located along a two-kilometer stretch of Parramatta Road on both the Leichhardt and Stanmore/Petersham sides of the road and in Norton Street (Burnley 1981: 184). As Burnley observes, the intersection of Parramatta Road and Norton Street and "adjacent Italian businesses and services" became "an important icon for the many thousands of Italians who . . . settled in metropolitan Sydney" (Burnley 1995: 178). Only a small number of these businesses catered exclusively to the Italian community or sold solely Italian products. There was interaction between the Italian and Australian business communities. At this time there were Italian-born members of the Westgate Chamber of Commerce, the local business association linked with Leichhardt and the Parramatta Road strip from Camperdown to Taverner's Hill. The Chamber created a network of different kinds of businesses and associations and encompassed also professional services and clubs.

As Di Nicola reports, John Gambotto was president of the Westgate Chamber of Commerce in the late 1960s (Di Nicola 1984: 165). After a lull in activity the Chamber was reactivated, and from 1976-1983 Joe Cernigoi was successively secretary and president. During that period Italian membership was around 20% of the 250 or so members. As Di Nicola recounts, the Chamber sponsored a number of candidates in the 1968 municipal elections in order to challenge the A.L.P.-dominated Council, capitalising on the local Italian-born concentration and aiming to provide representation for Italy-born in the Municipality. Gambotto was campaign manager for the wards of Leichhardt, Lilyfield and Annandale, in each of which there was one Italian candidate. One stood in each of the three wards with the largest Italian population, Anthony Monticciolo for Leichhardt, Len Bolzan for Lilyfield and George Lapaine for Annandale (Di Nicola 1984: 171). While none of the three was elected, Monticciolo and Lapaine were excluded only at the final count. The Westgate Chamber of Commerce was, in Di Nicola's view, the only local organisation on which Italians ultimately had any impact that "was ultimately felt in the political arena" (Di Nicola 1984: 165).

In the later 1960s, the economic downturn in the Parramatta Road shopping strip meant that Italian businesses were able to consolidate as shops were sold and property prices began to decrease. By the later 1970s the commercial focus had begun to shift towards Norton Street. However, the Italian presence in small business continued along Parramatta Road, on both sides of the thoroughfare. By the mid-1990s, however, the situation for Italian-run businesses in Parramatta Road had become almost untenable. As The Sun Herald reported on 4 June 1995 (p. 11), "Joe D'Angelo, who has operated a furniture and electrical business on Parramatta Road since the 1960s, recalled the time when it bustled with people-not traffic". In the same article, Antonio Lampasona of the Riviera Coffee Lounge observed that "business is dead. Everybody is closing down because they cannot afford to pay the rent". The imposition of a clearway as well as traffic congestion contributed to retail decline in Parramatta Road.

Some Italian-born business people who had lived in or near Leichhardt for a period up to the late 1960s, especially in the early days of their business, moved on other suburbs. So did their customers. Haberfield and Five Dock were among suburbs chosen for larger houses and bigger blocks of land as families grew in size. (Burnley makes some interesting observations on the residential differentiation of the Italian-born population of Sydney in 1971-see Burnley 1981: 186-190.)

From the 1970s to 1980s, however, established services as well as continuing small businesses went on attracting an Italian-born clientele to Leichhardt. Those who no longer lived in the suburb frequently returned for banking and other professional services and to that extent continued as regular customers of the Italian-run businesses in Parramatta Road and Norton Street. The Italian quota of business at the major banks in Leichhardt was high, and while the banks were well represented in Leichhardt, other businesses benefited.

Car parking was growing problem over the 1980s and a critical problem after the clearway was instituted on Parramatta Road. From this time the Italian presence in the retail economy of Leichhardt began to shift more towards Norton Street. Progressively from the early 1990s there was a growth in Italian-run businesses, particularly concentrated on Norton Street, where, in the strip of Norton Street from Parramatta Road to Marion Street, for example, the majority of the predominantly food- and beverage-oriented shops now have an Italian character, if not an Italian owner. This growth in the later 1990s was preceded by a relative decline over the 1980s. Burnley 1995 notes that by 1991 the number of Italian-run businesses in Leichhardt had fallen by "almost a third" compared with the mid-1970s (Burnley 1995: 183). Re-location of businesses occurred during this period.

Stephen Castles' 1991 survey of 45 Italian small businesses in Sydney provides valuable insights into the important aspects of their activity in Leichhardt. The survey focuses predominantly on retail businesses in the Leichhardt area (see the report on Castles' survey in Panucci et al. 1992: 77-82). For some Italians, going into small business meant a continuation of a family tradition in Italy, while for others it was in response to negative experience in the workforce in Australia. Castles' study, given that it surveyed only current businesses, was biased in favour of the successful. Over half of the sample stated that the business was profitable. Almost half of the sample stated that Italians made up over 70 per cent of their clientele. A further seventeen said that Italians constituted 50-70 per cent of all customers. Almost half of the businesses claimed they had bought their enterprise from an Italian. The majority of businesses surveyed in 1991 were run by husband and wife. Children worked in all but one of the businesses. As Panucci notes, the comparative success of Italian small businesses is is possibly linked to the significant role of the family in the lives of Italians (Panucci 1992: 79).

Commercial activity was not the only focus for Italian-born enterprise in Leichhardt. By the 1960s, many Italians living in the Leichhardt area were employed in the construction industry. Companies such as De Martin and Gasparini, later of Norton Street, Melocco Pty. Ltd. in Annandale were among employers of Italy-born. The brothers-in-law De Martin and Gasparini worked first for Melocco Bros., branching off independently in concrete construction, first in a small way and finally employing around 300 workers.

Many specialist workers in areas such as terrazzo were employed by these firms or worked as contractors for others. The history of the Italian contribution to the postwar major construction industry in Sydney remains to be written. However, the many Italian features in the urban landscape of Leichhardt are striking evidence of the Italian influence on domestic property. As one long-term resident of Leichhardt recorded in 1992: "There have been many changes in Leichhardt since I came in 1959, because before it looked a bit abandoned. Now when you look around the streets the houses are nicely painted and renovated, some with new windows like I have done to mine. My house was all old and run down so I got it fixed up . . . with new windows and doors"._

1.4.2 A Snapshot of Italian-run Retail Business in Leichhardt in the Year 2000
( Appendix E contains a summary of the survey)

In 2000, a limited interview-based survey conducted by Leichhardt Council of businesses and shops in Norton Street and Parramatta Road revealed some significant continuities. Some of the Italian-run businesses established in the 1950s and early 1960s were still flourishing. Some businesses remained on the same site, and some were in the hands of the second generation of the same family.

Continuity of family names also characterises professional services in contemporary Norton Street. Lapaine and Bolzan's legal practice, now known as Lapaine and Pomare, has operated in Norton Street since 1960. The solicitors Nesci and Romano at 39-45 Norton Street, much more recent arrivals, have a second-generation profile. Silvano Pomare, brother of the solicitor, has practised in Leichhardt as a dentist for twenty years and is at 44 Norton Street. The doctors' surgery at 36 Norton Street, Montanari and Sassi, has been in business continuously since 1965.

In spite of a trend of relocation of Italian-run businesses to areas such as Haberfield and Five Dock in response to the location and relocation of their clientele, Leichhardt has retained a special, ongoing significance in the history of Italian-run businesses and services in Sydney.

In 1951-1952 Carmelo Scarcella set up a watchmaking and watch repair business at 12 Norton Street, Leichhardt, next to the Italian shoemaker, Tony Milazzo. The Glebe of 28 September 1972 reported that Mr Scarcella, at that time retired, had opened his business "three days off the ship" (p. 8). Two succeeding Scarcella generations (Giuseppe and Eugenio) have been involved with the business.

12a Norton Street, Norton Footwear, is still a shoe repair business. There was reportedly a shoe repair business on the site of 12 Norton Street as early as 1916. The Milazzo family connection with a shoe and boot repair business at this address dates to the mid-1930s and was of considerable longevity, as has been pointed out in section 3. The Glebe of 28 September 1972 records that Tony Milazzo who "arrived in Australia in 1930 . . . four years later set up a shoe repair shop [at 12 Norton Street] where he still is" (p. 8). No. 12 Norton Street is possibly the oldest retail site in Norton Street with a continuous Italian connection and a continuing business type.

2a Norton Street is one of the oldest sites with an Italian connection, dating at least back to the tailor Mr Renno around the turn of the twentieth century: see section 3. Caffé Sport at 2a Norton Street is the oldest Italian-style coffee shop in Leichhardt, and no doubt among the oldest surviving Italian-run café businesses in Sydney. Italian-born proprietors have conducted the business over time, beginning with the founder of Caffé Sport, Raffaello Raffaelli, in 1956: see part 2.

The business at 169 Norton Street, now known as Bar Italia, was established in 1959 by Mr Calcagno who named it Bar Trinacria. Around 1970 it was re-named Bar Italia by Michele Scandura. Over the past ten years, it has been under the proprietorship of the Cama family.

The Bar Italia - one of the icons of Norton St.

Vincenzo Cammareri's travel agency at 120 Norton Street, once a real estate agency, has operated since 1957. The Lucchitti family name has been associated with Norton Street since the 1950s, beginning with Cesare Lucchitti: the name is still associated with the liquor and delicatessen outlets at 190 and 127 Norton Street. At 127 Norton Street, Sandro Lucchitti took over the business from his father Dino.

10 Norton Street, the Cainero building, is the site of what was once the Sindone delicatessen business, before its transfer to Parramatta Road. The Mezzapica pasticceria (cake shop) at 130 Norton Street has been a reference point for Italians since it was first established in 1952 by Angelo Mezzapica, from the Aeolian Islands. Frank Portelli, Angelo's nephew, joined Mezzapica's in 1964, at the age of 15. Frank took over the business in 1975, and sold it to his nephews in 1988. Frank now owns the business again, in partnership with others. Another famous local pasticceria, no longer in existence, was La Fiorentina on the Petersham side of Parramatta Road, which flourished in the 1960s heyday of Italian retail business on the Parramatta Road shopping strip.

Monteleone Bros. footwear shop at 125 Norton Street is a family business in operation for at least 25 years. Buon Appetito pasta shop at 141 Norton Street is run by a brother and sister team, whose parents opened the business in 1965 and ran it as a babywear shop. Gina Bortolin Papa's children's and babywear shop, at 167a Norton Street since 1973, was previously at Five Dock for five years.

In Parramatta Road, the Santoro (ex-Sindone) delicatessen has been operating at no. 361 since 1965. The restaurant La Rustica at 435 Parramatta Road has been an institution over the same time frame, and was already operating as a restaurant when La Fiamma set up its first office in Parramatta Road, in the hands of the Giannetto family. It is possibly the oldest surviving Italian restaurant in Leichhardt. The current proprietor, Tony La Rosa, took over from his father Sam who ran the business from around 1965, having arrived in Sydney in 1955, from Barcelona in Sicily. Christian La Rosa, of the third generation, now works in the business.

One of the oldest Italian businesses in Parramatta Road is the Castorina butchery at the corner of Hay Street and Parramatta Road, now in the hands of the son of the original owner, Sam Castorina, and first set up some forty years ago. The oldest Italian-run café on the Parramatta Road strip is Antonio Lampasona's Riviera Coffee Lounge at 367 Parramatta Road. Another business which has catered almost exclusively to Italian needs is the gift shop, La Bomboniera, set up in 1971 by Laura Cattaruzzi on the opposite side of Renwick Street and now at 415 Parramatta Road. Lucky Tom's bomboniere and homewear store at 351 Parramatta Road and 7a Norton Street, run by Phillip Muratore, is another institution.

Italian or Italian-inspired restaurants, cafés and trattorie are now a striking feature of Norton Street. Up to the 1960s, there were relatively few established Italian restaurants in Sydney. Le Tre Venezie in Stanmore, Chianti in Surry Hills, Miramare and Moro on Parramatta Road, and La Veneziana in East Sydney were among well-known and lasting Italian venues during the years of the postwar migration boom. In Leichhardt, Rugantino and La Rustica are among the oldest restaurant surviving business names. In 2001, many Leichhardt venues are of recent date (early-mid-1990s), including L'Epoca, Trevi's, Farsaci, and some are run by members of the second generation who grew up in Leichhardt. Trattoria Rugantino, at 5 Norton Street, has relocated along Norton Street, and is next door to Vince's Continental Hairstylist which has been in operation for 22 years. Second-generation Italian Australians have contributed to the growing trend in Italian-inspired cuisine in the restaurant and café scene of Leichhardt (and across the city of Sydney), relying in many instances on culinary traditions passed down by their parents and grandparents.

In 1993 the Leichhardt Council promoted a competition calling for designs for improvements to the appearance and amenity of Norton Street, as well as the preservation of its Italian character. Press reports of the period referred to Norton Street as Sydney's most famous "Italian" street. This reputation has certainly been associated with Norton Street for some time, and it has been enhanced over the last decade by an increasing number of Italian-inspired elements in the built environment of the street. The Norton Street festa and the prominence of the street, for example, when the Italian National soccer team played in the World Cup final in 1994, and in more recent times when the Italian Olympic team paraded down Norton Street, are among factors that have helped to promote Norton Street as the Italian heartland of Sydney.

The development of the southern end of Norton Street has been central in this process. The opening of Co.As.It's new premises in late 1998, in conjunction with the 1990's resurgence of Italian-run food-related businesses along the street-which could be seen to have culminated in 1999 with the opening of the Italian Forum, close to the Parramatta Road intersection-have heightened a general perception of the Italian character of Norton Street.

The Italian Forum

The construction of the Italian Forum was part of an extensive commercial and residential re-development of this block of Norton Street in the second half of the 1990s. The Italian-style eateries and restaurants in the Forum piazza have created a space that could only be described as Italian in inspiration and realisation. The idea for the Forum, first mooted in the late 1980s, changed considerably over time. The land, previously owned by the Water Board, was donated by the N.S.W. State Government to the Italian community as a Bicentennial gift. A Forum plan by Romaldo Giurgola, the renowned Italian-born architect of the Federal Parliament, was never realised. Nor were the cultural facilities that the terms of the land handover set out. The cultural aspects of the development, in the form of a new Leichhardt Municipal Library and an Italian cultural centre, have not yet come to fruition.

The roles of commerce and individual and collective Italian business enterprise in establishing Leichhardt as Sydney's version of 'Little Italy' are fundamental. The Italian character of Leichhardt began to be promoted in mainstream media since the 1980s. Leichhardt was referred in the following terms in an article titled "Little Italy" in the Eastern Herald of 19 May 1988:

Leichhardt is the undisputed centre of Sydney's Italian community. For forty years and more, Italians have settled in the area, bringing with them their food, culture and language. Their influence is readily visible; a walk down Norton Street reveals a plethora of businesses with an Italian heritage-optometrists, accountants, glassworks, funeral directors and just about all of the food outlets. Almost every business displays the sign "Si parla italiano" (p. 4).

As one of the employees interviewed for the article reportedly commented: "many Australians are coming to buy continental foods now". Assimilation in the era of multiculturalism of the 1980s had a very different meaning from assimilation in the 1950s. Elements of Italian and Italian Australian customs and culture have been progressively appropriated and assimilated, a process which multiculturalism drew attention to and possibly also fostered.

Contemporary Leichhardt has an "Italiannness" (italianità) which Italy-born and local Leichhardt residents experienced on a daily basis years ago, over at least a thirty-year period, an "Italianness" which in those times was certainly less commercialised. First and second generation Italian-run business and commerce subsequently had an ongoing role in promoting the perception of the italianità of Leichhardt and of Norton Street in particular.

1.4.3 Summary Conclusion : Living in Leichhardt - the continuity of small business

In the post-World War 2 period, there were discernible trends of continuity of business type and family continuity in Italian-run businesses in Leichhardt. There was also a trend in Leichhardt of retail activity by second-generation Italian Australians. There has been a constancy in the type of retail business associated with Italy-born in Sydney over the twentieth century. According to the 1986 Census, for example, in the retail industry across Sydney, there was a comparatively high Italian presence in clothing, fabric and furniture; men's clothing; shoe repairers; grocers, confectioners and tobacconists; fruit and vegetable shops (this category constituted the major Italian concentration, with Italy-born almost a third of all self-employed and employers); liquor stores; bread and cake shops; fish shops; take-away food shops and milk bars.

Despite a decline after the high point of the later 1960s in the Leichhardt area's Italian-born population, Italian-run businesses and services persisted in Leichhardt since they served the needs of Italy-born living locally and in other parts of the city. Some who had at one time lived or worked in the Leichhardt area returned to Leichhardt for professional and banking services and continued to patronise the businesses which they had established contact with.

Over the second half of the twentieth century, against a background of the increasingly diverse Australian population and growing numbers of second and third generation Italian Australians, Italian goods and products not only became popular but were promoted by publicity campaigns financed by increasingly wealthy and enterprising Italian commercial and business interests. By the end of the twentieth century, Italian goods and products had a high level of desirability which has had a spin-off for Italians in Australia. The international success of the Made in Italy campaign made it "trendy" to be Italian.

The commodification of Italian style and culture, which has over the last decade or so created a world-wide, transnational market for "made in Italy" (including Italian fashion, style and cuisine), has not only favoured the discernible 1990's Italian trend in Leichhardt but, to an degree, helped to create it. Leichhardt has become, according to Pino Migliorino, a place where second- and third-generation Italian Australians measure their Italian identity. The italianità of contemporary Leichhardt is certainly more familiar than the suburban culture which their immigrant parents and grandparents encountered in the early 1950s.

Fifty years on, Italian and Italian-Australian customs and products are no longer the province of Italy-born. Perhaps the most conspicuous example is the Italian-style coffee bars/coffee shops, where Italian and Italian-Australian coffee is regular fare. They have proliferated in Leichhardt and across Sydney, beyond the wildest imaginings of early post-war immigrants.

Norton Street, in the 1950s and 1960s a relative backwater in comparison with Parramatta Road, in the year 2001 is not only a place where young Italian Australians congregate but it has come to represent to many Sydneysiders a zone of "Italianness" in the city. Can Leichhardt be thought of Sydney's 'Little Italy'? Possibly not. The term applies better to New York or other cities in North America which have a different history of Italian immigration and settlement.

Jock Collins has suggested that there is a 'Little Italy' character in Leichhardt and it relates to the "continued presence of small businesses". He also notes "the importance of small business ownership in the 'cultural' identity of suburbs within the large metropolitan areas of Australia's capital cities" (Collins 1995: 66). Businesses run by Italy-born and their descendants are one of the essential markers not only of the identity of the Leichhardt Municipality but of contemporary Leichhardt. As Collins points out, Italian-born shopkeepers were "pioneers . . . of the changing face of multicultural Australia" in that "they were often the first contact that Anglo-Australians had with [Italians] in the early decades of the postwar immigration program" (Collins 1995: 81).