Maria Masseni (nee Dorigo)
Town/City | Melbourne |
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First name | Maria |
Last name | Masseni (nee Dorigo) |
Country of Origin | Italy |
Date of Birth | 8/6/1932 |
Year of Arrival in Australia | 1952 |
Submitted by | Sharon Pendal |
Story
I was born Maria Dorigo, of Rovigno and this is my story.
It was a cold February day in 1947 when together with my Mamma, a War Widow and my sister Gigliola we left Pola in Istria forever; our Dad had died in 1945.
At the time I was too young to understand why we had to leave, but of course Yugoslavia was under Communist Regime which was in contrast with the freedom we where born under.
By now nearly 350 thousand Istriani had already left, some by boat others bus or train. We were on the last boat, the ‘Toscana\’ bound for Trieste. From there people were put into groups and relocated to different cities around Italy. We went to Vicenza, our accommodation was in an old girls college; two years later the lease expired and we were on the move again.
This time we were going further away from Pola. We arrived in Bari, a beautiful city. We quickly however realised that the chance for us to start a new life here was remote and maybe impossible. Italy was destroyed by the bombing during the war, targeted were cities where industry helped support the economy for example car and ship manufacturing and Bari was one of these.
More and more one word was on the lips of people with tears in their eyes ‘migration\’. Mamma started crying – she refused to move again especially at the mention of far away places like Australia, Canada or Brazil. We finally convinced Mum with the promise that when the two year contract expired we would come back to Italy.
We applied and were interviewed and did our medical in Napoli. Once accepted we packed our possessions and waited for the long trip to Bremen (Germany).
We stayed in Germany for nearly three weeks where we enjoyed our last white Christmas. In that time I met Antonio Masseni (Nino), we became good friends and we spent a lot of time together on our way to Australia on the ship ‘Nelly\’. Nelly was an ex-war ship so the accommodation left a lot to be desired and the food.Éget used to it or die of starvation. Half the passengers spent their time in bed with sea sickness; we were the lucky ones as we did not suffer.
On board where 120 Istriani and about 700 young Germans who were sent to Australia for work under contract, they were tradesmen as well as university graduates. We became very good friends with two from Berlin but lost contact. When the sea was calm they organised a night dance which we never missed. During the day everybody was on deck looking for a sunny spot to stay warm. We reached Spain and the weather was warmer, then Cape Town for a brief stopover, it was hot.
We were half way to our destination after 36 days of only sea and sky. We were excited to finally walk on terra ferma when we reached Melbourne but we had to wait a day as the country was in mourning for the death of King George IV. From the ship we couldn\’t see the city but all around was a long strip of little single front houses that we later learnt were built for sailor\’s families.
We left for Bonegilla the next day by train; it was old and the weather was hot, for hours all we saw was dry desert land infested with flies. Bonegilla was an ex-army camp it had tin huts and the smell of the food was not inviting – we lived on bread and butter for a few days. We had never had sliced bread before but it was all that was available. We could only dream of crusty Italian bread.
Two weeks later we were sent to SPC Cannery in Shepparton (VIC) until the end of the fruit season. Nino went to Swan Hill, we kept in touch by correspondence or phone. When we came back to Bonegilla they told us that our contract was not valid anymore because of the high unemployment, we were free to look for work and accommodation. In 1953 we were together again in Melbourne – Mum, Gilgola, Nino and myself. My Sister and I worked at Dickies Towel.
I married Nino in 1953, my first son Denis was born in 1959 and married Margaret Wood. They have two sons Michael and Tim. My second son Alessandro was born in 1965 he married Sharon Pendal, they have a son Tyler. My Mum left Australia after nearly two years, she found it hard to start a new life here due in part to the language. I knew from the first day that Australia would be our permanent residence.