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Australia's Italians: culture and community in a changing society; North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, p. 61.
34
Vasta, Op Cit. p. 150.
35
Miller (2011), Op Cit. p. 86.
36
Motley Rice Plaintiff’s Exhibit no. 10554: The ABA Story (1963), Chapter 8.
37
Interview with Rosa Tamburri, Perth, October 2009.
161
At the hospital Rosa worked firstly in the laundry and later as a cleaner in the wards. In
Sterpini’s bar, frequented by many young Italian men as well as those of other nationalities,
she sold coffee and ice-cream, among other snacks (see figure 68). Rosa mentioned
unwanted advances from her employer, which only stopped with her threat to tell his wife.
When Rosa’s unmarried sister, Julie, arrived in Wittenoom, she found work in the Single
Men’s mess, as did Gina Martino.
Gina and Tony Martino arrived in Wittenoom in 1963 with their five children.
38
They
shared the responsibility of raising their children so that Gina could do shift work. Her first job
was in Sterpini’s bar, but she eventually worked in the mess run by Giacomo and Lidia
Bevacqua, who employed several Italian women. Gina explained their duties:
In the mess you don’t waitress because you don’t go in
the dining room. It’s all men in there… You be too scared
to go. We were too young – myself and Lidia, we was not
ugly looking woman either.
Tony: some hungry men who couldn’t wait to grab her!
(Playfully). Always look!
Gina: There was a window… myself was in the kitchen
helping… Giannina Verini used to help Giacomo to
cook… Giacomo was the main cook… We used to
prepare the dishes…on the bench and Lidia pass them
out [to the men]. We don’t go in the dining room. We only
go after everybody go to collect and bring them to
dishwasher.
39
For the women who ran boarding houses, their lives revolved around their domestic
duties. They prepared meals for the shift workers or the men’s crib (lunch); did their family’s
and often their boarders’ washing; kept the house clean; looked after their children and
attended to the shopping locally and via catalogue orders to Perth. For genuine Italian
foodstuffs, they shopped at the Re Store in Northbridge and at Bairds for clothing and better
quality household items, not available at Wittenoom’s General Store. Another of their tasks
was to mend the men’s clothes which were torn as they brushed against the low-hanging,
jagged roof in the mine’s stopes. Nothing was thrown away. Rosa Tamburri summarised the
Italian women’s daily routine:
Cook for the men.....wash for them.....clean…..[You] up
there to work…..The house wasn’t the best…..The food
wasn’t much…..very expensive too…..but like I said
38
Rosemary, Susan, Michael, Julie and Noelle.
39
Interview with Tony & Gina Martino, Perth, November 2010.
162
when you with people you love…..you sort of…..settle
down.
40
She explained the women’s formidable task of washing their husbands’ work clothes:
Friday night they bring their clothes home for us to wash:
singlets and tops… Singlets: they were all holey because
with the…..you know when you drill…..used to
burn…..but their trousers... We used to have a
laugh…..Between the asbestos and sweat they used to
be standing up. We had to put them in the water first, just
to take some [fibre] off. Then we had to boil them for
them to wear them again.
The moral support the women afforded their husbands, brothers and boarders cannot
be underestimated. With wives and sisters present it was possible for the men to share their
anger and frustration. Rosa Tamburri remembered the stress her husband and brother
experienced:
They used to come home…..now, we know that
stressed…..we know it now…..but those days…..they
had the hardest day…..“Oh…..I had the hardest day
today…..the swearing down there!”… because the
drill…..never used to go straight or something had
happened… There always were stories…..[They] come
home very upset.
41
Valentina Giannasi recalled her young boarders:
They were young boys… You have met Arturo Della
Maddalena? I raised him. 18 years old. I was a mother to
him and there was also a Yugoslav. 18 years old…..I
called him Piccio but I don’t know his name. He now lives
in the Kalgoorlie area. I went with the social worker from
Wittenoom Trust, Judy. She took us to have a bit of a
tour to Kalgoorlie. At Wittenoom there was a cousin of
this Piccio… and she said let’s go and visit my cousin.
When he saw me, he hugged me. He was crying. “You
were a mum to me!” (visibly moved).....He was young. I
don’t know if he is still alive. I don’t know. He was sick.
Perhaps I did too much for these men. It’s not that you
made a great deal by looking after these men but they
paid something. With that money they paid me we also
ate and my husband’s money went in the bank to buy our
house. We came down and had a house. At that time, it
was two thousand sterling, pounds [$4,000].
Valentina cooked and washed for a large number of men.
I prepared meals for 12 men. Not all of them slept at our
place — there wasn’t the space but we had a veranda.
We put the beds in a row and these men would sleep
there… They were young boys.
40
Interview with Rosa Tamburri, Perth, October 2009. Around the world, where men worked in an
asbestos mine or factory, there have been reports of wives developing asbestos-related diseases from
being exposed to asbestos as they washed their husband’s work clothes.
41
Interview with Rosa Tamburri, Perth, October 2009.
163
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