This fascinating radio/podcast series is dedicated to the rediscovery of characters from the Italian-Australian community of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This episode features my uncle Joe (Giuseppe Cossari) and the story of my family’s journey to Australia. I have provided an english transcript but it’s worth your while listening to the whole interview in Italian.

“From Calabria I brought the values ​​of country culture”

Emigrated from the province of Catanzaro when he was 9 years old, Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Cossari has held many institutional positions in Australia, becoming justice of the peace, mayor and councilor of two Melbourne municipalities, director of patronage and much more.

TRANSCRIPT

Born on January 1, 1947 in Borgia (“the only town in the world bearing the name of a noblewoman and a Pope”), Giuseppe Cossari was 9 years old when he embarked from Messina for Sydney.

“My father emigrated to Australia in 1952 because there was no jobs in Italy”.

“I remember my mother crying when she said goodbye to her home and her parents, my grandparents forever. But I also remember the 30-day ship trip and the great impression it made on my arrival in Sydney Bay and seeing the big bridge “, Joe reminds SBS Italian.

Leonardo Cossari in the sugar cane field.

“My father then decided to quit and move to North Queensland and work as a farmhand in the sugar cane fields on the Johnstone River.”

Then, after 7 years spent in the Sunshine state, the Cossari family packed their bags again, this time headed to Victoria, where they found a home in Tatura, near Shepparton.

“Over time my brothers and I have become more Australians than Australians”

“At first I didn’t speak English at school and was teased for that. But I always rebelled against that situation, until over time my brothers and I became more Australian than Australians.”

Joe Cossari in Shepparton

Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Cossari in these 66 years Down Under has held many institutional positions.

He was mayor and city councilor of two Melbourne municipalities – Maroondah and Knox – but also justice of the peace, president of the Ringwood chamber of commerce, director of an information office for immigrants and of the ENAS patronage.

“I have always maintained my Italian spirit and believe it is essential to preserve ones history and traditions”.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and if you’d like to discover more about my family’s journey please click the link here – FAMILY FABLES.

Thank-you SBS for archiving the stories of Italian immigrants.

For more information on other fabulous Italian programs head to www.sbs.com.au.

Listen  to SBS Italian every day, from 8am to 10am Australian time.

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