Giulia and Joe Biviano - Giulia
We arrived in Australia on April 14th, 1963, on a ship from the Achilles Lauro fleet at Melbourne harbour;
I will never forget it was Easter morning.
My father’s brothers were already all here. They told him this was a good place to live in.
In Italy, after WW2, unemployment was extremely high and we had a large family, 7 children.
My father emigrated the year before, in 1962. Soon after, he bought a small farm in Tatura, Victoria and a house.
When we joined him I was 12; all my siblings were even younger and my sister only 18 months.
Tatura was beautiful, in the countryside and it almost looked like home: I was born in Vulcano,
one of the 7 Aeolian Islands in Italy.
Unfortunately, after a few years, my father could not continue working in the fields due to a back injury.
We were then forced to leave our farm and to move to Thomastown where some found employment
as factory workers while others as clerks.
I always loved cooking, since I was a child. I used to watch my grandmother, ask her a lot of questions
and she taught me.
When I became a member of this club (Societa’ Isole Eolie - Ed.), during gatherings I would bring cakes or cookies
and they all wanted my recipes! That’s how I got the idea to write a book, in 2010.