Q: When did you arrive in Tasmania?
A: 9th of July, 1952. We landed in Melbourne and went to the Bonegilla migrant camp in Victoria with the governments assistance.

Q: How did you come to Tasmania?
A: By plane. All by myself. To find a job. We couldn’t find a job on the mainland. (Vincenzo’s wife interrupts in the background and says “tell him the story”…)

Q: What story is that?
A: We were without money you see… we had nowhere to go. We had a few dollars. No, Sterling it was back then. We had just enough to buy the plane ticket to get to Tasmania and return in case we couldn’t find anything. When we came here we couldn’t find any work at the Hydro. And then we tried to go back to Melbourne. Well one old man took us, we were four of us, he said “come to Butlers Gorge there’s plenty of work there”. That chap spoke with the airline, and said “I’ll take these boys if they can’t find a job then they can come back and get the flight back”. They said “alright”. So we found a job and after we got the money for the flight back.

Q: What was it like in tasmania when you got here?
A: In Tasmania? Whooo! There was nothing here then. We we got to Butlers Gorge…

Q: Where were you sleeping? IN a bed or a tent?
A: No we had a small hut with a bag of hay. I said “I don’t sleep here!”

Q: A bag of hay? Per dormire?? (to sleep?)
A: Per dormire! * Translated: There was a small bed frame with a sack full of hay. I said “wheeey… who’s sleepin here? * I want a bed! So they found a bed for us and all the other people they were sleeping on a bag of hay. When the bed came to our place they said: “where… where do you people come from??” “We come from North Africa! (jokes) We came from Bonegilla. Well after a couple of months EVERYBODY had a bed! (laughs) Because they put in a complaint.

Q: Like animals? With a bed of hay…
A: (Vincenzo’s wife Gilda) Yeah but Graziano in Italy they slept on mattresses made of leaves from the corn. Even your grandmother slept on a mattress of corn, my grandmother, Vince’s mum everybody.

*We then go into conversations about relatives and family connections from back home