Giovanni Gambale

Story

I AM GIOVANNI ANTONIO GAMBALE, BORN IN PATERNOPOLI (AV), ITALY

The morning of the 6th of January 1956, I arrived at Fremantle in Western Australia after 13 days of navigation from Colombo Stanco (a port in Sri Lanka) and one month\’s travel from Napoli, Italy. And so, we had arrived at the new Land! I was with two ‘paesani\’ (fellow town\’s folk). We left the ship, after having our passports sighted, feeling anxious. There was a wooden bridge leading from the port that we had to cross in order to get to the city. When we arrived at the city we walked around a bit, it was very hot and there was nobody about. At around midday we returned. As we started to cross the bridge we noticed that someone had thrown a cigarette butt and it had landed between two palings, which had started a fire. There was no one about and so we put the fire out with our drinks. And so, this was our first accomplishment in the new land!

The next day we left for Melbourne. We had many ideas and dreams of what to expect, we were like pigeons. And so, we arrived in Melbourne on the 9th of January. We were very impressed with Melbourne because there was a calmness about the city. After staying for one day we left for Sydney. Sydney was the port where I was to get off and where I was meeting my cousin who was coming to get me. After Melbourne our ship, La Sorriento, had become half empty and at Sydney almost everyone else disembarked. The few that remained were going to Brisbane. After I met my cousin, we took my suitcases to the train station to send them to Queanbeyan, which was my final destination. I was confused, as I knew nothing of where I was but I admired the peace and calmness. The next day we went to Queanbeyan and my cousin said, ‘you will come to work in Canberra next week\’. The first time I went to Canberra I was surprised because Canberra was the capital of this nation but it was not a big city. I said, ‘but where is the city? There are a few fibro buildings spread out in a large bush\’ÉÉÉ.this was my first impression of Canberra.

I immigrated to Australia because of work. When I was young, after the war, Italy was in great disorder. All that my father had saved was now reduced to nothing and so the whole country was in an economic disaster. As a young person one does not know how to deal with such a situation so we ran towards immigration. Certainly, our intension was to form a family in conditions better than what was offered to us in our motherland. My family had 7 offspring one of which had died at an early age. Before the war we lived a discrete life and so everything was lost after the war. I was the eldest born the 30th of January 1930 and so when I emigrated I was 25 years old and I was also the first in my family to emigrate. So why did I choose Australia? Well, because there was propaganda to come to a rich and spacious country with a low population. But I also had my cousin who had been here for a few years who made a request for me to come, so after preparing the necessary documents I came as a free immigrant. The trip was paid for a bit by my father and the rest was a debt that I slowly paid back.

When I first arrived, I didn\’t like it much because I was expecting something better but I could not go back because I didn\’t have enough money. So slowly, slowly after being here for a few years I started to get used to life here. Certainly, I had left behind my parents, relatives and friends along with my country that I knew and loved, therefore I was always a little sad but one must accept ones destiny because the world has always gone forward this way. So early on, I sent money to my parents because I was sad about their very difficult economic condition.

My first job in Canberra was as a labourer. It was for only five days per week, which meant that the earnings were not enough to save any money. Six months passed and my brother Lorenzo came and he found work with me under the same conditions. We continued to look for a job with better conditions until we finally found one where we worked six days per week, still as labourers. In the September of that year I found a job at a barbershop, which is what I was trained in, at O\’Connor shops. I was a bit afraid because of my poor English but the boss was happy with my work and so I worked there for 5 years. After 5 years I decided to go back to Italy and marry my childhood sweetheart. It was the year 1961, I arrived in Italy in March and married, Maria Celeste Di Siena, on the 28th of May and after this we returned to Australia.

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