Adriana Pedrocchi

Story

My mother Adriana Antoniazzi (nee Pedrocchi) passed away July of 2007 at the age of 67. It is with great honour that I recount the story of her arrival to this great nation, Australia.

My mother was born in Rovetta in Bergamo, a picturesque mountain village in northern Italy. Adriana was the second eldest of four children of Maria and Alfonso Pedrocchi. Life in post-war Italy was not easy. Jobs were scarce as the country was nursing its war wounds. For this reason, my nonno (grandfather) had migrated to Perth in 1950 aboard the “Ugolino Vivaldi”. He worked hard as a builder and labourer during those first years and was able to quickly reunite his family.

In 1958, at the age of 18, Adriana together with her mother, father, two sisters and a brother set sail for the greatest adventure of her life. It was a long 3 months and the voyage, I can imagine, would have been gruelling, however, my mother, when telling me about her time spent on the ship, would always smile and fondly remember the number one smash hit song that was famous the world over which kept playing on the ship’s loud speaker system. The Italian song ‘Volare’ had recently won the Eurovision song contest and Domenico Modugno was the only Italian singer to ever reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100! ‘Volare’ means ‘To Fly’ in English quite symbolic of Adriana’s fateful journey. Whenever she heard this song she would always remember her time spent on the ship bound for Australia and her sense of adventure and anticipation for a new life in a far away land of opportunity.

During the voyage, the ship would pull into exotic ports and Adriana couldn’t wait to explore and discover new places. Her home town in Italy was small and lacked some of the excitement a young, talented, stylish dressmaker craved. Although Adriana was apprehensive about what life would be like in a foreign country on the other side of the world would be like, she knew that although she was leaving behind family and friends, there was a world of opportunity waiting for her to seize.

Upon arrival in Fremantle, Australia, Adriana quickly noted how different this isolated city was compared to her home town in Italy where St Moritz, Switzerland was a mere three hour train journey away! Her father had set up residency in Tambellup, a small town south of Perth. Adriana had thought of her hometown in Italy as provincial and lacking excitement and said that Australia couldn’t possibly be worse than Rovetta. Those early years were difficult. Adriana didn’t know a word of English upon arrival. You can imagine her disappointment as there were few opportunities for young people in Tambellup and their living conditions were tough as her father struggled to build their first home. But, Adriana faced these challenges with characteristic energy, humour and determination. A skilled dressmaker, she was talented and artistic and seemed to be able to create beautiful things out of nothing. A close friend of hers always said of her “sa fare i piedi alle mosche”. She is so clever that she could even create feet for flies!

With the help of her cousin Renato, who knew a little more English than she did, Adriana decided to put her sewing skills to good use in Tambellup. He painted a sign saying ‘tailor’ and together they put it up outside the house. Unfortunately, they had little success. Adriana was not a tailor but a dressmaker and there was little demand for her stylish clothes in Tambellup at that time.

Adriana and her older sister Bruna moved to Perth in search of work and some of the entertainments they had been used to in Italy, for they had loved music, films and dancing and had a large circle of close friends. They lived in Northbridge, the hub of the Italian community of the time. The Saturday night dances at the Italian Club were a highlight and it was there where she met her future husband Sergio, my father, an intelligent, handsome and good-hearted young man from Treviso, Italy.

Together they worked hard and created a beautiful home and had a loving family (she had three daughters, Patrizia, Viviana and Donatella) in whom they instilled their values of honesty, hard work, respect for others, a love of children, reading, learning and education; a great curiosity and interest in the world and a passion for travelling.

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