On the Grapevine

John was born in 1940 and attended school at Moorabbin State School and Sandringham Technical College before starting a six-year apprenticeship in printing.

John worked in the industry all his life, from general printers to a packaging house for McRobertsons chocolates and later Standard News, where they printed four local papers, much like the Cobram Courier.

“A mate who did his apprenticeship at the same time as I did eventually became Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man overseas,” John said.

In his final job before retirement, John again worked for a packaging company, but later called it quits when the business changed ownership.

John married the love of his life, Kaye, in 1963, and the couple raised two children, Fiona and Ashdon.

Fiona lives and works in Cobram for Gallaghers Insurance (previously Edgars) and has three children.

Son Ashdon, a father of three, is the regional manager of Victoria and Tasmania for the Bendigo Bank.

At the age of 13, John had a serious incident which was to have a profound effect on much of his life.

He had a love for horses and dogs and was on the back of a draught horse owned by a friend when his horse nipped the horse in front, and it lashed out with an almighty kick, which smashed John’s kneecap and the surrounding muscles of his right leg.

John missed a year of school, with several bouts of surgery and months of physiotherapy in an orthopaedic hospital in Mount Eliza.

He was provided with some basic schooling to keep him busy.

When John began his printing apprenticeship in the city, he rode his bicycle each day from the family home in Highett.

“It was as beneficial as physiotherapy; I was exercising the damaged area and building up the muscles,” John said.

John’s love for golf began as a young chap, and he became a regular playing member of Patterson River before retiring from the workforce in 2006 and having a ‘tree change’ with a move to Barooga with Kaye, where he took to the Cobram/Barooga course with enthusiasm.

When walking the fairways became too difficult, driving golf carts eased the pain, and John was able to play three times a week, and he loved it.

While he enjoyed playing competition, he is happy to admit, “I was a pretty average golfer and have no claim to fame, but the companionship of my fellow golfers was fantastic and is still alive today.”

The Veterans’ Charity Golf Day, held in October each year, has become a passion for John.

Started by Fred Kent, it was to raise funds and awareness of men’s health, and today, John assists in organising this major fundraiser for Cobram Hospital.

MMGCC provides rare mateship for this group of 12, who offer one another amazing support, and while they no longer hit the course, they relive their moments of glory and perhaps embellish them somewhat.

It just adds to the fun each Monday morning when the gang meets up for coffee.

Giuseppe immigrated to Cobram 70 years ago

Giuseppe Raco was born in 1940 in Molochio in Calabria, Italy, and at 13 years old, boarded the ‘Oceania’ at Messina, Sicily, for Australia among 2000 immigrants from various parts of Europe and four young men from his hometown.

It was January 1954, and Giuseppe was to join his father Rocco, who had left his family behind three years earlier to create a better life for the family in Australia.

The devastation caused by World War II had left millions of people homeless, and with virtually no infrastructure and so few jobs, there was little hope of providing for one’s family.

Leaving behind his wife and family in Molochio, Rocco sailed to Australia on a migrant ship, the ‘Ovalina Vivaldi’, sponsored by his father-in-law in Cobram and encouraged by his paternal grandfather, who had migrated in the 1920s to settle in Cobram.

Rocco and his wife Maria-Concetta had six children, and Giuseppe, the eldest son, was to pave the way for his siblings to follow.

Possessing very little English, Giuseppe went to night school to learn and improve while working alongside his Dad seven-days-a-week on Jack Young’s orchard in Campbell Rd.

Rocco offered wise words to his young son, “Giuseppe, we have to work hard and make money during the week to send to Italy for the family, and we keep for ourselves whatever we can make on the weekend.”

Giuseppe opened a State Savings bank account, regularly banked 10 shillings or sometimes one pound, and soon had enough to buy his first wristwatch.

In the often-said words of his Dad, “Any fool can make money, but it takes a good fool to save it.”

“I was happy working alongside my Dad and having other relatives around me and being paid one pound a day,” Giuseppe said.

Three years passed, and the second son, Pasquale, arrived in Australia and attended school briefly before working alongside his father and elder brother on the orchard.

“In 1959, when I was 19, Mum arrived with the rest of the family, sister Maria and my brothers Antonio, Sam and Carmelo, and we were all so happy,” Guiseppe said.

Rocco eventually purchased a house on the corner of Wirbill and Boorin Sts, which was to become the family home.

In 1960, the family sharefarmed for Ron Ritchie, where they grew 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of tomatoes for Heinz Soups. Initially driving stubborn Clydesdales, they eventually had a small grey Massey Ferguson, making the job far easier.

Sometime later, the family purchased 64.7ha (160 acres) on the Koonoomoo Rd, planting 4ha (10 acres) of tomatoes, again supplying Heinz, while the company supplied plants and fertilisers.

The income from their endeavours later enabled the family to establish a stone fruit orchard.

By 1967, life had begun to change for the family through hard work and careful planning. Giuseppe was introduced to an attractive young woman, Pasqualina Tassone, whom he married 12 months later.

The couple built their first home in Wondah St, where they would raise their family of four: son Rocky, named after his father, daughter Marianne and later, twin sons Joseph and Gerome.

Footnote: It will be 70 years in February since Guiseppe’s arrival in Australia, and there is so much more to his story and that of his family that we will run over the following two weeks to give a clear view of early life for this Italian immigrant family and their hard worked success over the years in their adopted country.