{"id":2052,"date":"2020-06-25T21:36:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2052"},"modified":"2020-07-21T19:38:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T09:08:32","slug":"italian-migrants-in-the-adelaide-hills","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2052","title":{"rendered":"Italian Migrants in the Adelaide Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italian migrants and their descendants have lived in the Mt Lofty district for more than a century, stamping a presence through their skilful stonework and market gardens, their orchards and their wine, their coffee and cuisine and an exemplary work ethic. Their migration story can be traced back to three periods in our history – the second half of the 19th<\/sup> century (see <\/a>The<\/a><\/strong> <\/a>Rossini Family <\/a><\/strong>in <\/a>Our Migrant Heritage<\/a>)<\/em>, the years of the Great Depression post World War 1 and again after the Second World War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some came as\nsingle men, sometimes still in their teens, and others left young families\nbehind until they had found security in their new homeland. They retained the\nItalian traditions that bonded them together. \nThe places where they settled included the areas of Bridgewater, Basket\nRange, Uraidla and Summertown as well as other parts of the Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following stories have been\ngathered from scattered places and sources with the aim of providing an\noverview of this Italian presence. They are part of a larger South Australian\npicture of Italian migration which occurred during this time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridgewater: <\/strong>From the early 1920s Bridgewater became\nhome to a string of Italian family who had all originated from one single\nplace, namely the village of Mello near the Swiss border in the picturesque Italian\nAlps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here they\ncontinued their agrarian traditions and would retain a common bond, referring\nto one another as the paesan<\/em>, meaning\n\u2018fellow countrymen\u2019, and  gathering to\nreminisce in their centuries-old Mello dialect about the old country and talk\nabout new opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They crushed\ntheir own grapes in the traditional way to make wine, kept goats to make\ncheese, made their own salami from beginning to end and served up lashings of\nhome-cooked polenta. They relaxed at bocce and cards games and drank from a keg\nusing a communal cup. An Italian\nwedding was usually attended by large gatherings, young and old, with abundant\nfood and drink and towards the latter part of the evening the men and women\nwould form a circle and sing traditional Italian songs, led by individuals in\nturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of the early migrants led\nto others also making the journey from the same village. The next wave left\nMello in the 1940s and 1950s, escaping another post war depression and drawn by\nAustralian incentive programs. Many brought with them building skills such a\nstone masonry and carpentry and helped build one another\u2019s homes, using locally\nquarried stone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By way of a likely explanation, the\nhistorian Desmond O\u2019Connor (\u201cNo Need to be Afraid\u201d 1996)<\/em> writes that \u201ca tight\ncontrol on the migration of Italians from 1925 via sponsorship had the effect\nof creating in Australia clearly identified village, town and provincial\nsub-groups because those already in the country almost always nominated\nrelatives, friends and acquaintances from the same or nearby towns. This meant\nthat as a result of what might have been a, perhaps fortuitous, decision to\nmigrate to Australia taken by an individual from one village, a large number of\nthe residents of that village were subsequently sponsored\u201d. <\/em>A table of\nidentification of 2,493 Italians arriving in SA between 1927 and 1940 records\nthat 73 migrants came from Mello in that particular period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pietro (Peter) Manna<\/strong> arrived in Adelaide from Mello in\n1922 at the age of 26, leaving Ernesta,<\/strong>\nhis wife, in Italy. He made his home in the Hills after first working at the\nopening up of iron deposits in Iron Knob for six and a half years. He cut wood\nfor the Adelaide brickworks, raked clover seed in the Mount Barker district,\nlaboured for a builder and with two others bought a market garden between Carey\nGully and Balhannah. Working hard and living frugally, he and Ernesta, who had\njoined him with their first child in 1930, borrowed \u00a310 to buy a block of land on the corner of Anzac Ridge and Mt\nBarker Roads. It provided them with security and a place to build a home, grow\nvegetables and keep a few animals. There were jobs here and there, a day or two\nat a time. Ernesta picked blackberries to sell to a jam factory in Adelaide. In\n1941 Peter began work as a ganger for the Railways. Sunday Mass was a regular\npart of their faith lives. Initially they walked to the Catholic church in Stirling\nEast and later to St Matthew\u2019s in Bridgewater where, in 1986, they celebrated\ntheir 65th<\/sup> wedding anniversary. Pietro died in his 92nd<\/sup>\nyear in 1988 and Ernesta died in 1991 at the age of 94. Their house is today\nknown as Manna Cottage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Giovanni and Tersillia Manna <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Giovanni Manna, <\/strong>a cousin, came on the \u201cOrmond\u201d in 1924 and began by finding odd jobs wherever he could, carting stone and wood. Eventually he bought an old tip truck and became a cartage contractor and later he worked for the Highways Department. He bought land in Honeysuckle Grove, where he and his wife Tersilia<\/strong>, also from Mello, would make their home and in due course raise a family of eight. They had been married by proxy, a marriage certificate being needed to facilitate her migration. This practice was widespread among Italian migrants until the 1970s and entailed two separate ceremonies in two different countries, sometimes months apart. After her arrival in 1936 Giovanni hosted a party in the Bridgewater Institute to introduce his 22-year-old bride to his friends and the community.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was typical for the families to be self-sufficient, which meant having large vegetable gardens and Giovanni and Tersilia shared generously from theirs. Giovanni also developed a bocce rink and friends would gather there for Sunday games, as well as to enjoy the home-made wine, salami and cheese and the companionship of their fellow countrymen. <\/em>Giovanni died in 1982 and Tersilia died in 1995, aged 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Manna family: at the rear are Giovanni with young Laurie and in front left to right with their mother Tersilia are Adele, John, Lena and Elda. Three more children, born later, were Gloria, Peter and Stephen. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gabriele and Ernesta Della-Torre, <\/strong>both also of Mello origin, lived in Honeysuckle Grove too and and had seven children. They had initially met at bocce, a popular pastime among the Italian migrants, and were married in 1951. Ernesta had migrated to South Australia with her mother Massima in 1948, joining her father Ernesto and settling in Payneham. The Della-Torres always welcomed visitors with generous hospitality in their Bridgewater home.\u00a0 Ernesta also spent many hours working in her garden and, on the lighter side, enjoyed dancing to her Italian music and watching football. Gabriele died in July 1984 and Ernesta died on October 20th<\/sup> 2014, aged 89 at which time she was \u2018nonna\u2019 to nine grandchildren and \u2018great nonna\u2019 to four. Ildo Della-Torre <\/strong>of Osterley Avenue, and Ricardo Della Torre<\/strong> of Kangarilla were Gabriele\u2019s brothers.\u00a0 Another Della Torre family, unrelated, also lived in Bridgewater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Giovanni Tarca <\/strong>and his 17-year-old son Les<\/strong> home was a tent when they first lived in Balhannah in 1936. He\nworked on a dairy farm in Macclesfield while Les was cutting wattle for the Mt\nBarker tannery.  Giovanni\u2019s wife Maria<\/strong>, two other sons, Emilio and<\/strong> Erminio<\/strong> and a daughter,\nMaria<\/strong>, migrated in 1949.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les<\/strong> Tarca<\/strong> soon began working with stone, building walls and houses, and\nbecame well known for his masonry. He and his Italian-born wife Lena<\/strong> were married in 1946, made their\nhome in Bridgewater and had two sons and two daughters. Their first-born, John,\nwas the first arrival in the new maternity wing at the Stirling Hospital in\n1947. At one time Les owned the German Arms Hotel in Hahndorf and combined his\nlife as a builder and mason with that of a publican, making his own salami and\nsmallgoods in his spare time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A well-known example of his stone\nmasonry was a blue stone wall at \u2018Birksgate\u2019 on Mount Barker Road in Glen\nOsmond, built in 1956 with a team of workers, including his brothers. The wall\nstood for more than 40 years at the entrance of what would become the South\nEastern Freeway, until it was demolished to make way for road widening. Les\u2019s\nson John built a new and equally impressive 431-metre wall in its place in\n1999, using Carey Gully, Kanmantoo and Basket Range stone. Les died in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les and\nLena\u2019s son John, who attended school at St Catherine\u2019s and Oakbank Area and\nthen studied as an apprentice motor mechanic, followed in his father\u2019s\nfootsteps as a stonemason. As well as being responsible for the new \u2018Birksgate\u2019\nwall at Glen Osmond, he left his professional mark on numerous location on the\nPlains and in the Hills, including projects at Adelaide University, St Peter\u2019s\nCollege, Bonython Park, Semaphore\u2019s Palais, the Henley and Grange waterfront\nand restaurants locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erminio and Maria Tarca <\/strong>were the parents of two sons and two daughters. Maria joined\nher husband with their first two children in 1950, the year after his arrival. Initially\nthey lived at Jibilla and then, in stages as finances permitted, Erminio built\na family home in Christie Street, Bridgewater. Like many of his compatriots, Erminio\nloved working with stone and he often joined forces with his brother Emilio in\nthe building trade. Erminio died in 1999, aged 82, and Maria died in 2006, aged\n83. One of the special memories she would leave behind was of the tasty Italian\ndishes she cooked up in her kitchen and especially her lasagne which family and\nfriends enjoyed over the years. At the time of her passing there were nine\ngrandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emilio Tarca <\/strong>and\nhis wife Rina, <\/strong>who had originally\nmet in Italy and were reunited two years after Emilio\u2019s arrival in Australia,were married in the Italian Church of\nSt Francis in Campbelltown in 1954 and made their home in Driffield Road,\nBridgewater. They had three children. Apart from his stone masonry work, one of\nEmilio\u2019s enterprises was to grow potatoes for the Army, while Rina\u2019s jobs\nincluded apple picking, cleaning and working as a housekeeper whilst also\ncaring for her family. Emilio died in 1977 and Rina died in 2010 leaving behind\nnine grandchildren and four great grandchildren.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Scamoni brothers<\/strong>, Getzemani, Angelo and Amadio, came to Australia from Mello\non the \u201cSebastiano Caboto\u201d, docking in Port Melbourne on 7th<\/sup> July\n1949 and they settled in Bridgewater. Their name would become well known in the\nbuilding trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo and Assunta Scamoni: <\/strong>Angelo was born in 1918. Times were\ntough after the First World War but he was able to attend five years of\nschooling, after which he found work in a local restaurant until he was called\nup for National Service. He served in the Italian Army, was posted to France,\nEgypt and Tobruk in World War 2 and taken to India as a prisoner-of-war. After\nreturning to Mello he and Assunta were married, in 1948.  Work was scarce and, having learnt the trade\nof stone masonry and building in France, Angelo migrated to Australia with two\nof his four brothers the following year. \nAssunta and baby Angela joined him once he had settled in Bridgewater.\nHe took on work with great determination and it was not uncommon to see him\npushing a wheelbarrow of tools from his home to the Bridgewater Railway Station\nwhere he caught the train to his jobs, sometimes as far away as Salisbury. He\ntook great pride in his work which earned him the respect of peers and clients.\nMost of his work was for the Public Buildings Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Assunta Scamoni, photographed in 2009. She was the last surviving member of Bridgewater\u2019s early Italian contingent and died in 2020.  (Photo by Brett Hartwig for the Adelaide Hills Magazine) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The family first lived in a\nthree-room shack which was often filled with family and friends. In his spare\ntime he built a family home over many years and it was not unusual to see his\nchildren helping with tasks such as cleaning the second hand bricks. In his\nretirement Angelo often returned to Italy and loved hiking in the mountains\nwhere he had grown up. Locally he enjoyed watching football at Bridgewater Oval\nand was a member of the local Dart Club. He died in the Hahndorf Nursing Home\non 8th<\/sup> May 2004. To coincide with his funeral Mass in St Matthew\u2019s\nCatholic Church in Bridgewater, the bells were rung at the San Fedele Church in\nMello where he had been baptised 85 years earlier and where he and Assunta had\nmarried. Assunta died on 13th<\/sup> February 2020, aged 97. She was the\nlast surviving member of the early Mello migrant contingent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getzemani and Amabile Scamoni:  <\/strong>Getzemani, also known as George, first obtained employment at the General Motors Holden Woodville factory, enabling him to repay his passage to Australia, buy land and build a house and to bring his wife Amabile and their four children over from Mello. Two more children were born in Australia. Getzemani began a successful business utilizing his stone masonry and building skills and examples of his work can be seen in Adelaide along the River Torrens and Veale Gardens. Fittingly, he and Amabile are commemorated on a paver in Settlement Square at the Migration Museum in Kintore Avenue. He died on 22 July 1985, aged 70 years and Amabile died in 1992, aged 71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amadio and Maria Scamoni <\/strong>and their first two children began the Australian chapter of their lives together in a tin shed in \u2018the bush\u2019 as was later recalled by their family. They had married in Italy in 1947 and Maria had remained behind with her children and Amadio\u2019s mother when he migrated to Australia in 1949. Together they built their family home which within a few years needed to be extended with the arrival of four more children. They worked hard and maintained their Italian traditions and their large vegetable garden and fruit trees kept everyone fed. Amadio passed away suddenly in 2000. A decade later Maria grieved the loss of a daughter, Rosemary, and Maria herself died in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The De Simoni family: <\/strong>Emilio and Olimpio De Simoni were also from Mello in the Italian Alps. Their father, who was already in Australia, sent for them after their mother had died from a long illness and they docked in Australia on the ship \u201cRomulus\u201d just a month before the start of World War 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information we have is mainly\nabout Emilio, thanks to the neatly hand-written eulogy his wife Gladys had\nprepared at the time of his death in 2007. In this she relates that Emilio was\nnot quite 17 when he arrived in Australia and would live with foster parents in\nNorth Adelaide, helping with their wood and ice round. He also worked with a\nterrazzo firm, at a sandpit, a salt mine and in Blanchetown making\ncharcoal.  And he was called up by the\nAllied Works Council (founded in 1942 to oversee and organise military construction\nworks) to cut wood in Barmera until the end of the War. Eventually he followed\nthe building tradition of his fellow Italian migrants, learning most aspects of\nthe trade while working with a Housing Trust contractor. He joined forces with\nother Italian-born builders on a number of well-known Adelaide land marks that\nincluded the restoration of the Constitutional Museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emilio and his brother Olimpio, who\nwas by then married to Carla, jointly built a home in Blackwood and whilst\nthere he was in constant demand for retaining walls and constructed several\nhouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health problems forced Emilio to\nretire from building at 58 and he and Gladys moved to Longwood in 1968 to grow\nstrawberries and vegetables and breed Poll Hereford cattle. Their property was severely\nburnt in the Ash Wednesday fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emilio made friends easily and was a\nlife member of the Bridgewater Inn Social Club. He played darts and eight ball,\nowned his own eight-ball table and also played lawn and indoor bowls in\nHahndorf.  He was in the Hahndorf Nursing\nHome for more than four years until his death on 27th October 2007, just one\nday after his 85th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ernesto and Maria Baraglia<\/strong>, also Mello-born, lived in\nLittlehampton and Nairne. <\/strong> Ernesto came to Australia in 1924, at the age\nof 18, was naturalised in 1935 and served for Australia during World War 2. He\ndied on 4th<\/sup> March 2008 at the age of 101 and his grave is in the Mt\nBarker Catholic Cemetery. Maria died in Mt Barker on 17th<\/sup> April 2018\naged 96, survived by three daughters, a son plus two further generations of\nchildren. In her death notice her family recalled the passion with which she had\nworked on the land during her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giuseppe Mercorella <\/strong>came from Italy in the 1930s and\nworked in the market gardens of the Adelaide Hills. In 1949 he was joined by\nhis wife Antonia <\/strong>and sons Georgio,\nNazzareno and Francesco, from La Molara north-east of Naples. They bought land\nin Uraidla and grew potatoes, onions, cabbages, lettuces and leeks and would become\none of the oldest market gardening families in the Adelaide Hills. Giuseppe\ndied in 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giorgio Mercorella <\/strong>was Giuseppe\u2019s oldest son and in due\ncourse became the patriarch of this market gardening family. In 1962 he bought\nhis own property in Piccadilly and moved there with his wife Reparata and their\ntwo daughters. Georgio was well known at the Adelaide Markets where he was a\nfrequent presence. He had also been there on the morning of a fatal day in\nDecember 2007 when, by then 80 years of age and still farming, he was\ntragically killed in a tractor accident whilst working on his Piccadilly Road\nproperty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Virgara family<\/strong>, market gardeners,were the public face of Stirling\u2019s\nmain street fruit and vegetable trade for 30 years until Tom and Vickie Virgara\nsold up in 2013. Tom\u2019s parents had initially settled in Uraidla in 1953 and\nfrom the age of 17 he had worked with them in their market gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antonio Ceravolo Snr, <\/strong>whose name is today associated with\nthe expansive and well-known  Ceravolo\nOrchards and juicing business,came\nto the Adelaide Hills from Calabria in 1950. He rented a house in Uraidla and\nbegan working in the Nicols family orchard. \nA few years later he was joined by his wife Maria, <\/strong>and their four children with six more children born in\nAustralia after their arrival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
L-R: Joyce Ceravolo, Tony Ceravolo, Sandra Ceravolo, Josephine Ceravolo, Elvira Capogreco, Ralph Ceravolo Jr, Raffaele Ceravolo, Vince Capogreco, Bruno Capogreco, Mary Capogreco (nee Ceravolo), Anna Ceravolo, Joe Ceravolo. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The family enterprise began with the\npurchase of a property in Ashton, initially known as Valle di Sant\u2019Antonio, <\/em>where they grew potatoes, onions,\ncauliflowers and cabbages and also planted their first apple trees. In 1978 Antonio\u2019s first son, Ralph, and his wife, Josephine, bought a property\ndown the road from the first family farm and soon after took over the reins of\nthe families operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Granny Smith apples in the Ceravolo orchard<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By 1982 a third generation of Ceravolo\u2019s had entered the family business and in 2013 and 2018 the fourth generation also began to work alongside their parents and grandparents. Today their orchards are spread over eight properties, mostly in the Adelaide Hills, producing a variety of fruits and juices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality of their products has gained the family multiple awards.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francesco (Frank) De\u2019Angelo <\/strong>was born in Casacanditella in Abruzzo,\nCentral Italy, in 1930, one of five siblings. His family was forced to leave\ntheir house early in the Second World War to shelter in a farmer\u2019s barn for the\nduration.Tragically, two of his\nsiblings died during this period. He resumed school after the War but, because\nof family poverty, left at the end of his fifth grade. After working at home\nand on the family\u2019s land he was an agricultural labourer in Switzerland for\nthree years. There he met his wife to be, Vilma, and they were married in 1955.\nFrank migrated to Australia that year and was joined by Vilma in 1957. Already\nfluent in Italian and French, Frank rapidly acquired his third language at\nEnglish classes and found a position at John Martin\u2019s, where he remained for 18\nyears and became an expert in the area of carports and verandahs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved his family to Summertown in\n1977, establishing a vegetable, fruit and nut producing property in tandem with\nhis day job in town. He also grew grapes and had an olive grove from which he\nproduced olive oil. Frank remained quietly proud of his Italian heritage and he\nand Vilma were regulars in the Italian social clubs. He spent his final year in\na retirement village in McLaren Vale to be close to family and died in May\n2017. His funeral was held in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Stirling\nEast, and he was laid to rest in the Summertown Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evasio (Wally) and Ada Viezzi <\/strong>were from Udine in northern Italy.\nWally came in 1949 and was contracted as a rural worker to a farmer in\nCoonalpyn. Ada followed a year later and they were married on the day that she\nhad disembarked in Adelaide. They moved to Stirling when their son Gary was\nabout one year old, with Wally building their first home. A master stonemason\nand cement maker, he became well known for his trade and much sought after by\nlocals, building the frontages of many free-stone houses around the district\nand the eastern suburbs, including the imposing stone pillars at Seymour\nCollege. Wally would work laboriously at home to hand-chisel the huge stones to\nmanageable sizes. In later years he was also in demand as a landscaper and\nincorporated his talents into stone features in many Hills gardens. From their\nown much-loved garden he and Ada supplied family and friends with fresh\nvegetables for many years. Wally and Ada had one son Gary and a daughter, Dely.\nWally died in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Bellosguardo <\/strong>first came to Australia as a *prisoner\nof war in World War 2 and during that time he worked on a farm in Mylor. He\nreturned to Italy at the end of the War but returned in 1951 with his wife Paola <\/strong>and their first-born child,\nSebastian. Five more children were born to them after their migration. Peter\nwas a noted stonemason and his work can be seen in many places around Adelaide\nand the Hills. Their home was in Milan Terrace Stirling until 1989 when they moved\nto the Plains. Peter died in 1992. Some of their family continue to live in the\nAdelaide Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*When Italy entered the Second World\nWar in 1940 Italian prisoners of war who were captured in northern Africa were\nsent to Australia and some of these were assigned to farms in South Australia.\nThey generally formed a good relationship with the Australian farmers and some\nItalian POWs chose to return to South Australia as migrants after the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastoral care:<\/strong> The Italians traditionally belonged\nto the Catholic faith and when the Catholic Parish of Stirling was established\nin 1957 one of the concerns of the Parish Priest, Father Gavan Kennare, was the\nspiritual wellbeing of these and all people in the market gardening community,\nwho walked considerable distances for their Sunday worship in Stirling or\nBridgewater. In the late 1950s the Summertown Institute and from 1968 till 1975\nUraidla\u2019s Anglican church were used for places of worship and for about two\nyears an Italian Mass was celebrated monthly at Uraidla. The Italian Vice\nConsul and his wife and staff were present on one such occasion. A visiting\nItalian-speaking Scalabrini priest from Seaton spent a week in the Hills in\n1986. He visited 64 families and found that about 43 percent of them had\nretained Italian as their first language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:  SA History Hub, Adelaide Hills Magazine 2009,\nLaurie Manna, \u201cThe Courier\u201d Newspaper, the Migration Museum Newsletter (2008), \u201cThe\nBridge\u201d Catholic Monthly,  https\/\/ ashtonvalleyfresh.com.au\/our\nhistory, \u201cViews from the Hills\u201d (Mt Lofty Districts Historical Society).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about other migrant families in the Adelaide Hills<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have stories or memories of any of these families or other Italian immigrants and their time in the Adelaide Hills? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact us at mldhsgateways@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au<\/a> or drop into the History Centre at the Coventry Library, 63 Mount Barker Road, Stirling.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson Italian migrants and their descendants have lived in the Mt Lofty district for more than a century, stamping a presence through their skilful stonework and market gardens, their orchards and their wine, their coffee and cuisine and an exemplary work ethic. Their migration story can be traced back to three … Continue reading “Italian Migrants in the Adelaide Hills”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaNLq6-x6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1605,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1605","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":0},"title":"Our Migrant Heritage","date":"March 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Return to Gateways Topics In this section we explore the impact of those people who have come from other countries to make the Hills their home and we tell their stories from past and present. Italian Migrants in the Adelaide Hills Fr Frank Manak Joseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski My 1951 Sea\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2137,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2137","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":1},"title":"Our Migrant Heritage","date":"July 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Return to Gateways Topics In this section we explore the impact of those people who have come from other countries to make the Hills their home and we tell their stories from past and present. Italian Migrants The Rossini Family The Good Neighbour Council Fr. Frank Manak The Rutte Family\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Manna-2a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1734,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1734","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":2},"title":"The Rossini Family","date":"April 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson and Judith Lydeamore When the railway line was built through the Adelaide Hills in the 1880s, stone masons were brought from Italy to help build the tunnels for the first section. One of the surnames was Rossini and the three brothers on whom this story\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Rossini.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2360,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2360","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":3},"title":"The Good Neighbour Council","date":"November 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson The memorial to Mary Williams MBE, Milan Terrace, Stirling In a fenced enclosure opposite the Stirling Hospital in Milan Terrace stands a rounded rock bearing a simple plaque, dated 1969, to commemorate Mary Williams MBE and her untiring work and help for overseas newcomers to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2075,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2075","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":4},"title":"The McGregor Family; Gardeners","date":"June 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text and Images: John McGregor In the Adelaide Hills, mention of the word \u201cGarden\u201c might well conjure a picture\u00a0 of\u00a0stately homes surrounded by rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and mature trees which have an annual\u00a0 show of bright autumn colours, all growing over a carpet in spring of daffodils, jonquils, snowdrops and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/McGregor-a-adjusted-a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3800,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=3800","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":5},"title":"Thomas Foods in Lobethal","date":"July 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Thomas Foods facility in Lobethal is situated on Ridge Road, on a large site on the eastern side of the town. In 2003 the old Lobethal abattoir was bought by T & R Pastoral. This company had been founded in 1988 by Chris Thomas and Bob Rowe. By 2007,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/botanic-gardens-Glimpse-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2052\/revisions\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}