The Journey Begins

Luigina was born on 3 February 1949 in the small mountain village of Prezza, Italy. Like many families in post-war Italy, her family faced difficult times. Yet her early childhood was surrounded by the love of her parents, her sister, close friends and a close-knit community where everyone knew one another.

When Luigina was just six years old, her family suffered a devastating loss. With little work available in Italy, her father travelled to Venezuela to find employment and provide for his family. Tragically, just two days after arriving, he was killed in a workplace accident. He was working on the construction of a road when a large rock fell on him.

His journey, undertaken in the hope of giving his family a better life, ended in heartbreak. Luigina lost her father while still a young child, leaving her mother to raise their daughters without him.

A few years later, Luigina’s mother remarried. Her second husband was her late husband’s brother, who was single and had been working alongside him in Venezuela at the time of the accident. He became Luigina’s stepfather, and together they had a daughter, Giuseppina, giving Luigina another sister.

At just seventeen years of age, shortly after marrying Antonio, Luigina made the life-changing decision to leave everything she had ever known. In 1966, she and Antonio boarded a ship bound for Australia. The journey took nineteen days, carrying them across the ocean and far from their families and the village they called home.

Luigina said goodbye to her mother, her stepfather, her sisters and lifelong friends, not knowing when she would see them again. She arrived in Australia with Antonio, carrying hope for the future and a determination to build a better life together.

With no immediate family in Australia, the young couple initially stayed with her father’s first cousin, Maria, and Maria’s husband, Antonio Castiglia, in Melbourne. They lived with them for around two weeks while they began finding their feet in their new country.

Soon afterwards, they rented their first home together—a small flat at 7/44 King Street, North Fitzroy. It was here that they began establishing their own home and life in Australia.

In 1967, their first child, Giuseppe, was born. Luigina used her sewing skills to help provide for her young family, working as a machinist in the clothing industry. For many years, she worked in Glenlyon Road, including making pyjamas, while Antonio worked long hours as a taxi driver.

Like so many migrant families of their generation, they worked hard, saved what they could and gradually built a secure future. In 1971, they purchased their own home in Campbellfield. Their daughter, Angelica, was born soon afterwards, completing their young family.

In 1982, after sixteen years in Australia, Luigina and Antonio returned to Prezza with Giuseppe and Angelica. For Luigina, it was an especially meaningful homecoming. She returned to the village she had left as a seventeen-year-old, bringing her two children to meet her mother and connect with the family and traditions she had carried with her across the ocean.

During their visit, Luigina’s younger sister, Giuseppina, married Remo Marolli. Tragically, just one month after her wedding, Giuseppina suffered a stroke and spent a month in a coma. She never fully recovered and was unable to have children.

After returning from Italy, Luigina and Antonio entered another chapter of their working lives. Antonio stopped driving taxis and began working at Pinolo, a grocery store on St Georges Road. He later worked for Gully Wines in North Fitzroy, where he remained until retiring at the age of sixty-five.

Luigina continued working as a machinist for many years. Her final job was with a clothing company that manufactured garments for Nike, and she worked until the age of fifty-two. Her years behind a sewing machine reflected the steady effort and determination with which she helped support her family.

Through decades of work and sacrifice, Luigina and Antonio created the life they had hoped for when they boarded that ship in 1966. Their home was filled with warmth, kindness, strong family values and a deep connection to the Italian traditions they had brought with them.

In 2002, they moved from Campbellfield to Roxburgh Park, beginning another chapter of their life together.

As the years passed, their family continued to grow. They were blessed with four grandchildren—Francesco, Emily, Antonio and Isabella—who became part of the family’s next generation, connecting its Italian beginnings with its Australian future.

On 16 July 2024, Luigina’s younger sister, Giuseppina, sadly passed away, aged sixty-seven. Her memory remains a treasured part of Luigina’s family story.

Luigina’s journey is a story of quiet courage, hard work and enduring love. Having experienced the loss of her father as a child, she later faced the enormous challenge of leaving her family and homeland at just seventeen to begin again in a distant country.

From those first two weeks staying with relatives, to their little rented flat in North Fitzroy, to raising their children and purchasing a home of their own, Luigina and Antonio built their life step by step.

What began with a young woman leaving a small mountain village in Italy became a family story spanning countries and generations. Her story reminds us of the people whose courage and sacrifices helped shape the lives we enjoy today—and whose love continues through the families they built.