Interview with Adrian Tonellato [sound recording] / Interviewer : Madeleine Regan, Part 1 of 6

The interview records the voices of Adrian and his mother, Italia, Tonellato. At times they speak in Veneto dialect. Adrian, born 3 March 1948, begins by explaining his family background including his maternal grandparents and his paternal grandparents and families. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers arrived in Adelaide in 1927. Adrian's mother, Italia Bergamin, was 13 years when she arrived [1939] and his father Lui, arrived in 1935 when he was  ?13 years old. His parents were married in 1947, and lived first with the Bergamin parents in Brompton and they started the market gardens on Frogmore Road, Kidman Park in 1949. Adrian speaks about his Tonellato grandparents who lived on Frogmore Road and the activities on the farm; discusses the reasons that his grandfather, Secondo Tonellato, migrated to Australia in 1927 and records the names of other Veneti market gardener families in the Kidman Park area; his father's early working life; accommodation in the railway carriage which had been built for the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of York and was purchased for when Secondo's wife and five children arrived in 1935. He describes the use of the carriage for accommodation for young Italian men who arrived post World War II from the same region and accommodation for single Italian men built by other Veneti market gardeners in the area. Adrian describes the small house like a shed that he grew up in on Frogmore Road and the way it was extended to accommodate relatives who arrived from Italy. Adrian describes living on Frogmore Road in a house that had been the home of another Veneto market gardening family, the Marchioros; his father built another house on Frogmore Road and then a third house and family land ownership; the fire that destroyed the vagon that had been accommodation for his grandparents when his grandmother arrived with her five children and joined her husband in 1935. He recalls the condition of Frogmore Road that was not bitumenised until he was a teenager; his school years at St Michael's and the boys from the local Italian families; cars he owned; social life with his friends; leaving school at 15 years; beginning working full-time in the family market gardens; other jobs in the trucking and carting industry. He outlines an overseas trip when he was in early 20s; getting married at 31/32 years.  Adrian recalls some important family traditions including making wine and killing pigs each year to make salami. Adrian begins by talking about his grandparents' market gardens on Frogmore Road, Kidman Park and the partnership with two of their sons, Lino and Orlando; the property was 15 acres with 25 glasshouse and they grew crops of tomatoes, beans and outside vegetables such as potatoes, cauliflowers and cabbages. He describes buildings were on the property; use of horses and introduction of tractors. He recalls the Italian market gardeners in his grandfather's generation and his grandparents' houses, the old shed that had been their first home and the new house they built; changes in the family partnership when his grandfather stopped working when he was 73 or 74 years; and one son, Orlando, who took over the market garden. Other topics include: his parents' working life before they married, taking over the Marchioro's market garden on Frogmore Road; his mother's illness which prevented her from working for a while. The market garden was about seven or eight acres. Adrian describes the jobs he was responsible for in the market garden when he was at school: packing tomatoes in boxes; driving the tractor at 14 years; the routine of pulling the strings on every tomato plant in the glasshouse - about 120 plants in eight rows. He describes the dimensions of the glasshouses. Adrian and his mother discuss the hours of working days; tomato and bean growing seasons; the process of fumigating the glasshouses; cooperation between three market gardening families with planting and sowing seeds; planting 21 glasshouses; preparing soil for planting outside vegetables; pruning tomatoes and tying strings; employing local friends who assisted with pruning and picking; jobs in winter months; processes to prevent frost damage in glasshouses; maintenance work. He recalls that he was the only one of his friends who left school after second year of high school to work with his parents; enjoyment of some of the work; borrowing equipment from Santin brothers; processes involved with caring for the soil; working six and seven days a week; meeting at Doro Ballestrin's for social gatherings on Sundays. He explains that he worked with his parents until his dad was 58 years old in about 1980; they sold land; kept equipment and leased land at Bolivar with brother-in-law and grew potatoes and explains what other jobs he took on after that. Other areas discussed are: how it was possible for several market gardeners in the same area to make their living; the family being one of the last two Italian market gardeners on Frogmore Road in 1979; Santin family growing potatoes at Bolivar for about ten years after they sold Frogmore Road; importance of land for the Veneti market gardeners particularly for the pioneer market gardeners; significance for him of having Italian heritage.