Federico Brustolin
| First name | Federico |
|---|---|
| Last name | Brustolin |
| Country of Origin | Italy |
| Date of Birth | 1/4/2008 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1928 |
| Submitted by | Sharon Ede |
Story
Federico Giacomo Brustolin was born on 4 January 1908 in Rocca D\’Arsie, Belluno, in Italy\’s Veneto province.
A skilled carpenter, he left Italy in 1928 to escape being forced to join the Blackshirts Ð he had returned from France where he was fitting the interior of planes to find his best friend hung in a tree because he too had refused to join.
Departing from the port of Genoa on the Maria Cristina, he left his parents, Giovanni and Maria, brother Giacomo and three sisters Fiorina, Assunta (Barbara) and Antoinette, his home and his country behind. The boat was unable to dock in Adelaide due to a waterside workers strike, so he instead disembarked in Melbourne, and made his way to South Australia.
Fred\’s first job was in Iron Knob, however this work ended with the advent of mechanisation. His next job was fencing in the outback on the South Australian-Queensland border, however this nearly ended in disaster when the contractor left his men without sufficient food and water, and Fred (as he had become known) had to set off on foot to find help. Fred was then employed doing carpentry work at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills, and at Second Valley.
Fred married Ruth Parsons on 26 June 1937, and then found employment with engineering company T O\’Connor and Sons in Currie Street, Adelaide (the firm moved to premises at Gepps Cross in 1961).
Because he was Italian, Fred spent 1943-45 in a work camp at Berri during the Second World War, separated from his wife and two young daughters, Florence and Irene (Lil) until he was naturalized in February 1945. Fred worked for O\’Connor and Sons until retirement, and then stayed on as a caretaker on the property, and eventually moved to Queenstown, South Australia with his wife.
After a short battle with cancer, he died in September 1983, having never returned to Italy or seen the family he left behind again. In fact, after his time in the work camp, he rarely ventured far from his home and family again even to go on holiday.
A gentle, lovely man, Fred adored his family, and was an intriguing character to his four grandchildren, Sandra, Raymond, Sharon and Tanya, with his shed full of interesting things, and his love of a joke.