Interview with Diana Panazzolo (nee Santin) [sound recording] / interviewer, Madeleine Regan, Part 4 of 5

Diana was born in Adelaide in 1951 and begins by providing biographical details of her family; her paternal grandfather arrived from the Veneto Region, Italy in 1927 and was joined by his wife and four children in 1935; and they first settled in Wellington on the River Murray where he worked on a property. The family moved in 1941 to Valetta Road, St James Park (now Kidman Park) and lived in a house with the Berno brothers, market gardeners from the Veneto area, who grew celery. Diana's father met and married her mother in Italy in 1950. The three Santin brothers and their wives purchased 12 acres of land on Frogmore Road and moved there in 1952. Her grandparents lived with her family and she grew up with four cousins close in age. She speaks about the birth of her two siblings; Allan and Lisa, who were nine and 18 years younger than her, and her memories of her close relationship with her grandmother.  She recalls details of her early years and life on the market gardens; features of Frogmore Road; her parent's business partnership with her aunt and uncle's (Virginia and Oscar Mattiazzo) grocery shop in Croydon.  Her earliest memory of the market gardens was of hoeing around the glasshouses and working with her cousins; earning pocket money training the tomatoes on strings; whirly winds which broke glass in the glasshouses; watering. She recalls the dimensions of the glasshouses; numbers on the doors; the range of vegetables grown in the family business both in the glasshouses and outside; processes of planting potatoes; picking and preparing tomatoes for sale and the Italian men who worked in Holdens assisted with the grading on Tuesday nights; packing cucumbers and artichokes; weighing beans; stamping the half cases; sales of vegetables; roles of the Santin brothers; experience of going to market; memories of men from the same province who helped with the work and played bocce on the green behind the packing shed every Sunday and the sense of community. She speaks about the daily work that her mother and her aunts did alongside their husbands in the gardens and the ritual of sharing coffee at 4.00 pm with different people; fumigation of the glasshouses; ploughing; watering via the bore that the Santin brothers built; bee hives for pollinating cucumbers; financial arrangements of the Santin Brothers business. She speaks about memories of other market gardeners on Frogmore Road; the railway carriage that belonged to the Tonellato family; describes the expanse of market gardens and small numbers of houses. Diana provides information about the Santin Brothers' family market gardens on Frogmore Road: memories of events; animals including chickens and pigeons; shedding and equipment; annual traditions such as killing the pig to prepare salami; and bottling the wine. Diana speaks about the preparation of food; three Santin families taking a holiday at Victor Harbor; strong memories of a six month visit to see relatives in Italy in 1962 when she was 10 years and trips her other two uncles and aunts took to Italy; celebrations of birthdays; first communions; christenings; the role of her godparents; the first TVs in the families. Diana describes the layout of the first house that the family shared with one of the other Santin families on Frogmore Road and the other buildings that serviced the market gardens; the close relationship with her paternal grandmother with whom she shared a bedroom and the sadness of the family when her grandmother died in 1970. Other areas covered include: memories of the friends and relatives with whom her parents socialised; important lessons her parents gave her; the circumstances of the death of her mother in 2005. Diana begins the third interview explaining about her father's death in 2007; her recent discovery of her grandfather's documents that trace his life from 24 years old when he left Italy to work as a miner Canada in 1910; his arrival in Australia in 1927 and work at Wellington; his second wife and four children (including Diana's father) joining him in 1935.  Diana speaks about going to primary school with children from other market gardening families; riding her bike along dirt tracks beside market gardens on the way to school; describes the vagon where her aunt and uncle lived for a time. Other areas covered are her secondary education; first job working in the office Onkaparinga Woollen Mills at Thebarton from 1968 - 1972; social life and friends; meeting her future husband, Robert; engagement on her 21st birthday; going with her parents to Italy for three months while she was engaged; buying a block of land near Frogmore Road; description of the changes and the development of the subdivision near Frogmore Road from the late 1960s; details of the steps towards her marriage to Robert in 1974; the wedding; moving into their new house at the end of 1974; working; overseas trip in 1978; birth of their three children.  She explains that the Santin brothers and their wives bought 33 acres of land at Bolivar in 1960 and explains about different cost of land taxes along Frogmore Road and they worked at both Frogmore Road and Bolivar at first. Diana begins her fourth interview explaining how her parents and uncles and aunties began expanding their market gardening business to Bolivar where they purchased 33 acres in 1960s.  She explains the different crops that were grown at Frogmore Road and Bolivar; retirement of her parents and her uncles and aunts; the new houses built for the three families in 1972.  Other areas covered include the circumstances that led to the compulsory acquisition of the Santin marketing garden land at both Frogmore Road and at Bolivar by the respective Councils (Woodville and Salisbury) and the ensuing Court cases that the Santin brothers experienced; they lost the case with Woodville Council, and won with costs against the Salisbury Council. Diana recalls the kinds of changes in the use of land she observed over time in Kidman Park; Frogmore Road before it was fully bitumenised; boxthorn bushes and wild artichokes and fennel that grew along the road; the various market gardens that were on the way to school at Flinders Park; outings to the City and Murray Bridge and connection with two families who were from the Veneto in the Murray Bridge area and summer days spent at Grange Beach with the three families. She reflects on the significance of living in the area in which she grew up; the importance of her Italian heritage and its significance for her children; her gratitude to her Nonna and mother who spoke the Veneto dialect to her; pride in maintaining the traditions of her grandmother and mother; importance of religion and the Catholic parish at Mater Christi at Seaton and the contribution that the Veneti made to the building of the Church in the 1970s; familiarity with the local community of Veneti, and the connections with relatives in Italy and her deep roots through her parents and grandparents.

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