Interview with Dino Piovesan [sound recording] Interviewer : Madeleine Regan, Part 1 of 4

Interview with Dino Piovesan for the Italian Market Gardeners Oral History Project. Dino was born in 1936 in Adelaide to parents who were from Treviso, Veneto region in northern Italy. Dino's father had come to Adelaide in 1927 and established a market garden on Frogmore Road, Kidman Park with his wife in the early 1930s. Dino speaks about his family: memories of his parents, his home and neighbourhood; other Veneto market gardeners in the area. He also recalls his childhood growing up on the market gardens in the area known as St James Park, family context including his father's early death; friends and celebrations including his Confirmation, and attending school at Underdale Primary School. In his second interview Dino Piovesan continues to recall memories of growing up on the family market gardens on Frogmore Road, Kidman Park; attending secondary school for two years; the significance of the family purchase of a radio and the names of some of the favourite programmes; memories of the World War II; his father's sudden death at 42 years old and the consequences which included his uncle Attilio assisting the family to run the garden consisting of 12 glasshouses for tomatoes and beans, and land for other vegetables. He speaks about his designated role of working the market gardens with his uncle after he left school at 14 years old; the processes of sowing and growing produce in keeping with the seasons; and purchasing glasshouses. He recalls the Veneto community who were on neighbouring market gardens and the relationship with the Tonellato family who lived in the railway carriage next door on the Eastern side of Frogmore Road. He describes going to the East End market to sell the produce both with his father before he died and mixing with the other Veneto market gardeners after the market sales. Dino describes the support of the Veneto community who helped to build a home for the Piovesan family on the Western side of Frogmore Road after his father died in 1949. He also describes the way that the family made the tomato seed at the end of each season and the purchase of potato and bean seeds, and moving glasshouses in summer to avoid disease. In Dino's third interview he speaks about his two dreams as young teenager: to be successful in the family market gardens and his desire to fly a plane solo which he achieved when he was about 23 years old. He speaks about learning the craft of market gardening from his uncle who helped the family over two and a half years after the sudden death of Dino's father. Dino was 16 years old when he began going to market without his uncle. He worked 12 glasshouses for tomatoes and also grew potatoes, onions; swedes and turnips. He recalls getting assistance from young single Italian men who had migrated to Australia after the war and worked in factories. Dino speaks about the closeness of the Italian community in Adelaide at the time; his social life and love of dancing and friendships with young Italo-Australians in the neighbourhood. He recalls his marriage at 22 years old and moving to the ten-acre family property newly purchased at Bolivar, and the change when he became an employee for the first time at Holden in Elizabeth. He speaks about his role in raising his children, Michael and Sandra. He describes meeting Mary, who had also grown up in an Italian family in the Lockleys area, and their marriage in 1985 and the grandchildren. He recalls going to Italy in 1994 with Mary and the importance of connecting with his father's and mother's relatives in Treviso in the Veneto Region. He speaks of the satisfaction of owning his driving instructor's business for 24 years. He begins to talk about the role he took on for his uncle driving a semitrailer to Sydney before he was 18 years old. In his fourth interview, Dino speaks about his early adulthood; working the family market gardens; driving a semi-trailer from Adelaide to Sydney and negotiating backloads for his uncle when he was not yet 18 years old; retirement and his work in his garden including sinking a bore by hand and growing vegetables. He reflects on changes he has seen in the world of mechanics; his interest in researching a range of issues on the Internet; his strong connections to his Italian heritage and his love of Australia and his life in Australia.

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