Interview with Giancarlo Marchioro [sound recording] Interviewer: Madeleine Regan, Part 1 of 3

Interview with Johnny Marchioro who was born in Adelaide on 17 August 1940; father arrived in Australia in 1927; mother married his father by proxy and joined him in Adelaide, father aged 32, mother 22; they worked a market garden in Frogmore Road and then moved to White Ave Lockleys; father had 14 glasshouses, used horse and cart until 1947; grew tomatoes; he went to Flinders Park Primary School; spoke Italian at home; father had three acres at Lockleys, pumped water from the Torrens; eventually had 21 glasshouses; Johnny went to East End market every morning at 3am; grew beetroots and onions and tomatoes; worked 12 hour days, all work by hand, no tractors; left school at 15 to work with parents; won McCallum medal in football in 1957 and 1959; played League for West Torrens until 1963; glasshouse dug by hand, 112 by 15 feet; some growers had to send tomatoes to Melbourne as Adelaide market too small; half case (24 pound) tomatoes sold for 1 pound to 1 pound 10; 14 glasshouses was enough to make a living, now it is 30; at Bolivar, bought tractor and rotary hoe; worked at Bolivar for 38 years; land originally barren and took 4-5 years to establish good soil; 5 acres; after parents retired they helped at Bolivar 2 days a week for 20 years; from 1965 -1970 properties at Lockleys sold for housing; 1940s land at Findon called 'St James' - 14 glasshouse gardens; good quality soil; gardening continued to 1990; in 1920s all families came from northern Italy; father and others interned in WWII - worked in mines and Adelaide Railway Station doing terrazzo floor; mother managed garden; all growers used bore water; glasshouses had to be moved every 10 years; annual fumigation; frost management; got married in 1965 and moved to Bolivar, land cheap and Findon not big enough; moved 12 glasshouses from Lockleys in 5 months; put in bore; put in 6 inches of topsoil; May 1966 first tomato crop planted and daughter born; 800 plants per glasshouse, 2 crops per year, got $4 a box for first class; left at 2:30 am for East End market; picked 200-300 boxes a week, got to 21 glasshouses; put in a cool room in 1974; grew several other vegetables; best years 1973-1980; Pooraka market opened in 1987; this cut out little growers and supermarkets with cold storage took over; food grown by companies such as Coles and Woolworths; Vietnamese and Cambodians moved into Virginia, selling to friends and locals; worked over 50 years at Bolivar and Lockleys in glasshouses.

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