Maria Rosaria Mazzarella

Story

Maria Rosaria changed her name to Mary when she arrived in Australia in the hope that this would help her to fit in – if only it were that easy…

In 1964 when Mary was 12 years old she left Naples, Italy with her family; her mother and five younger brothers and sisters to join her father in Australia. He had left the previous year after borrowing money for his ticket and travelling for 30 days by boat. He found a job and saved his money so he could bring his family over.

In Italy, Mary lived in the city in an apartment on the 7thfloor with her family, her grandparents and aunties and uncles. They all lived in one room. There was no TV and no games. In that one room they ate and slept.

The apartment had a small balcony that looked out over the bay of Naples, which was where Mary enjoyed gazing at the ships coming and going each day. On the other side of the bay she could see Mount Vesuvius.

Mary’s father worked hard in Italy in a factory making wood panelling, but no matter how hard he worked he still could not afford to buy his children fruit. Sometimes it was hard to buy vegetables, meat and milk. There was no money for lollies, ice-cream and soft drinks. So Mary’s parents decided to move to Australia for a better life, more food, the opportunity to make more money and provide a more hopeful future for their family.

When Mary first heard that her family was going to move to Australia she thought – where is Australia? She decided to investigate. She found it on a map and was amazed by far away it was from Europe. Mary felt apprehensive yet thrilled all at once. At school she told her friends and teacher. They were all very happy and excited for her.

Mary’s family only packed a few items of clothing each and her mother’s favourite pots and pans. When it was her time to leave, Mary was absolutely devastated to say goodbye to her grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins. She sobbed and sobbed. As the ship (Galileo Galilei) left the dock she could see her apartment. Mary stayed on the deck and viewed her old life slowly fade away into the horizon. She had always watched the ships come and go never dreaming she would be on one of the ships herself one day sailing away.

Even though life was hard in Italy with the lack of space and food, Mary felt a great sadness in leaving her family, friends and the view from her old balcony.

Before she knew it she was out in the open sea wondering what her future in Australia held.

The cabin her family shared was tiny and considerably uncomfortable, as well as this, everyone experienced seasickness at some stage of the trip. However, the travel on the boat was filled with much fun, games and food for Mary and her siblings. Each day there were activities organised for the children, which they all enjoyed very much.

The ship took Mary via Sudan, through the Suez Canal and over open sea for 14 days till it reached Fremantle. Mary was overwhelmed by the heat and flies. There were flies everywhere. But the beautiful, clean, open spaces where breathtaking. The ship sailed onto Melbourne crossing the Great Australian Bight. It arrived at Port Melbourne at night and Mary was taken in by all of the lights. When she saw her father waiting for them at Station Pier she was very emotional and filled with joy.

The first thing Mary’s father did was to take his family home to his sister’s house in Coburg and feed them lots of fresh food – fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and nuts. Everyone celebrated. The following day the family took a trip to the city by tram. It was so quiet compared with Naples, hardly any people walking around or cars in the street. They had a happy day sight-seeing, however when Mary and her family spoke to one another in Italian (and usually loudly), they realised people were staring at them.

Mary’s parents had to work very hard to pay off the money they had borrowed to get to Australia and to set up their new life. Her mother worked 6 days a week and her father worked two jobs, arriving home at 11pm most nights. This left Mary, the eldest, to organise the household and her younger siblings. For their first day of school Mary led her 5 siblings into Fitzroy Primary School and knowing hardly any English she pointed to her siblings and said to the lady at the front desk ‘school’. She then left and walked alone to Fitzroy High School, walked in the front door, pointed to herself again and said ‘school’. She was led to a classroom where she sat in the last chair at the back of the room.

Initially school was extremely tough for Mary. She did not understand a word the teacher said and she found it impossible to make friends. Sometimes she would get teased for being different.

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