Diego & Giuseppina Ivis

Story

My Parents, Diego & Giuseppina Ivis (nee Loscialpo) met and were married in Taranto, in southern Italy where Mum was born. Dad was born in the north near the Yugoslav border in a town called Pola. He served with the Italian army during WWII and always said that the only good thing that came of it was that he received a posting in my mother\’s home town so that they could meet (he never said much else about the war). After the war they remained in Southern Italy and worked at many different jobs to try to support themselves. Work was scarce.

After the war ended Yugoslavia laid claim to the then Italian territory of the Peninsula of Istria, and in 1950 a formal settlement was reached. Istria officially became part of Communist Yugoslavia, and my parents were officially refugees. With this status they could apply to migrate from Italy without a sponsor. Dad liked the cold so Canada would have been his first choice but Mum said that the cold would kill her, so Australia became the ‘Chosen Land’.

They arrived in 1950 aboard a ship called the ‘Nelly’, to find that their one case of worldly possessions had been ravaged by rats in the hold of the ship and nothing other than ceramic material had survived the journey. They were placed in a migrant camp – a tent city in Dundas, NSW and fed Aussie food Ð Dad said that the porridge tasted like glue – he couldn\’t stomach Australian food, but Mum didn\’t worry about the taste so much, she had lived without food in her belly for so many years in Italy that she was grateful to have anything they were given.

The hardest thing for them at the very beginning was the language barrier and the animosity that greeted them at every turn. After many instances of ‘why don\’t you dagos go back to your own country’, Mum decided that she would learn English if it killed her, but she still cried at the end of each day that it happened. She quickly achieved her goal, which was pretty impressive considering she had only had 5 years of primary school education in Italy.

Not long after their arrival they were put to work, Mum sorting rags, and Dad in a furniture factory mixing glue. Dad was a qualified accountant in Italy but his qualifications weren\’t recognised here. Before too long he was a foreman in the factory and a master cabinetmaker and French polisher.

They bought a block of land in Auburn, in the suburbs of Sydney, and a kit home which Dad built himself with help from some workmates. Dad was very proud of his veggie patch and fruit trees Ð his own little piece of Australia. They also sponsored a number of Mum\’s brothers and a sister to join them here.

Although both came from large families (Dad one of 13 and Mum one of 17) they weren\’t able to conceive a child. They watched their nieces & nephews arrive into the world and desperately wanted their own child. In January 1963, when I was one month old, with the support of their family, church and the adoption agency, they brought me home from hospital to be their daughter.

Dad died of cancer in 1981 and Mum followed him in 1985. I still miss them terribly and am grateful for every moment I had with them. They loved Australia and were very happy here.

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