Cicerello Family

This story is based on the oral history of Carmela Cicerello (nee La Rosa)...

I was born in Sicilia in 1902. My mother was Domenica and nearly died during pregnancy. My father was Calogero, a fisherman. We lived in a good house in Capo D'Orlando. Not flash, a good house made of stone with everything we needed. Life was very simple. I did dressmaking and went to church every Sunday. My father went to Western Australia in 1915 because somebody say, "More better, make a little bit of money, fourteen pounds in the year." He worked fishing in Rockingham. My mother was sad. I was very sad because I was by myself, me and my mother. He would send money back but it was very scarce. I met Salvatore Cicerello when I was thirteen. He lived nearby. His mother had seen me and wanted him to marry me. When he was twenty-one he went to war for five years - Montepiara, Terisse, Centalcieste. I was worried and frightened because my boyfriend go to the war. He would send me postcards and I would write to him. We married when I was eighteen I think. He asked for my mother's permission. He say, "Me want Carmela to be my good wife."

We were married in a church, and I wore a veil and white dress. Not many people because we never got much money. Just a friend, my husband, and mother, and me, my mother, my grandmother. That's all. Because it was the war my father could not come.

After we were married, Salvatore went to Western Australia. His first job was in a barber shop in Geraldton. I came in 1921 on the boat Arcadus with my mother, my friend Gormina and my nine-month-old Nina. "Nina was born five pounds, small one, very nice. The hair very good, the face just an angel." I did not enjoy the trip.

"No, no. I no like, in the sea - vomit. No eat, no go for dinner, no go for supper and I go, I'm away, stop, sit down all the time. If you move - vomit."

When we got to Fremantle my auntie and cousin met us. My husband was working so he couldn't come for eight days, and my father was working also. My father had bought two semi-detached houses. In one lived my auntie, on the other lived my mother, Nina, and me. We took a horse and carriage from the wharf. Inside were beds, a table, and a saucepan to make dinner, that's all! (laughs) There was also an ice box and every morning a man would pass with a block of ice to put in there. I did not have much English and when the Sister at the Catholic Church offered to teach me I was willing but Mamma said "no" because she would be left by herself. Mamma and I were very close, like two sisters. If one didn't want to go the other one was quite happy to stay home. We were like peas in a pod or something like that.I felt very good when I saw my husband again. He stopped for one week but then had to return to his shop in Geraldton because money was scarce. Then my father bought a boat and they went out fishing together. My father and my husband, around Cervantes, the Abrolhos and Salina for Schnapper and dhufish. I don't think my father could swim. My husband not much either. Our second daughter, Domencia (Mica) was born in Fremantle in 1924 only three pounds. The doctor told me "No more children because it is very dangerous for you," and I call my husband and say, "Be careful, no make more children. If you make another one I could die." But after nearly three years, my son was coming. I was frightened.

The doctor told me to, "Go to bed and stop quiet. No eat nothing, just milk - four pints a day, and after make a baby boy very nice." I was not even allowed to sew for my children.

"I stop in bed, no make nothing. Me go in bed, get up, stop and sit down. I make nothing. My mother, everything my mother make (emotion expressed in voice) for me."

I tried my best for my children, but everything was hard for me. I remember one month my husband only made one pound but all the people would say, "Your children look very nice," because I made everything good and proper. When I went to the hospital to make Nino born, I nearly died. Again, the doctor told me not to have any more children but my husband "listened in one ear and forget the other one." (laughter)

In 1929 me, my husband Salvatore, my children, my mother, and father went back to Sicily.

My father sold the fishing boat and the houses we were living in because too much expense. We were very poor. Money come not much. After three months my husband returned to Fremantle, no work, no job for him in Italy. He say I better come back, but me not want to leave my mother. I stayed in Sicily for three years then come back to Fremantle on the Ormonde with my mother. I was seasick again even more than the first time, the children no, not much sick. Nina eleven years, Mica seven, and Nino (Tony) five years.

We rented 16 Arundel Street in Fremantle. At first, I pay one pound. After me growl, I pay seventeen shillings. The stairs were very steep. One day my mother fall down the stairs, "poom, poom, poom," down twenty-one steps!

My father buy a boat called it Diazo. Go fishing. My husband buy another one, called it Progress. In summer Salvatore work in Fremantle, in winter he'd go to Geraldton for dhufish and schnapper. I would sew his clothes and flannelette underpants, long ones for winter for the sea. Me make linen jacket and my husband paint it with linseed oil to make it waterproof. When Nino was six he wanted to go in the street and I was frightened that he could become a bad boy (get in bad company), so me say, "You go, more better you learn the shoes." So Nino would go to a boot shop in Fremantle in the Arcade after school. The boss say, "Polish these shoes," and after they give him twenty cents. Me say, "This twenty cents I put it down in moneybox and after you put it down in the bank."

In 1936, I bought a house in Arundel Street for £395. I had saved the deposit a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time. I put it down in the money box and then we got to £100, say more better buy a house. I look at this house. I like buy because it double frontage. I want to buy, and I buy the house. Not very much and I'm not flush, just all right.

Out of one house, I ended up with seven. When my husband was working and I managed to get 50 dollars aside, I'd put it on a house, and let the house pay itself. If anything was up for sale I'd go look at it, and if a little bit cheap, I try to buy, then rent out.

Some tenants were all right. Some not too good. One time the lady live in my house shift and some people went inside and made a fire on the floor. After that, I didn't want too much trouble so I sold it. Big house, big block. Somebody say the block made another three houses. Me buy three thousand six hundred dollars and sell it for forty thousand.

Nina was fourteen or fifteen when she went to dressmaking school. I no like, so just she just go one year. She stay home. Did a lot of fancy work for her (glory) box and she help make dress for the kids. She did not want a job because I no like.

One day a cousin who come all the time my house say, "Me like Nina. Me want to marriage to Nina. "When my daughter become engage, a couple of months before marriage me go to Perth to buy something more better. My mother stop in the verandah, wait for me to come back. About half past five I got home she say to me, "Too long! Me wait for you. You not coming." She worried for car accident and because me her only daughter. My mother stop with me 83 years. No separated a day, one week, no separated, all the time. Nina married at seventeen in 1938. A dressmaker made her dress in silver lame. She wore a long veil and tiara. They had a very big party in the RSL Hall on High Street. It was catered for 250 guests. Half organised by me, half the boyfriend. In those days it was one of the biggest weddings there was. A lot of liqueur - Cocciadore and Benedictino. A lot of beer, antipasto, ham, pieces of chicken, sugared almonds (confettis) and beautiful butterfly cakes. Oh very nice.

Nobody in my family fought in the war. Me frighten for lot people. I want peace. I like peace, everybody. In 1942 we went to a small house in Safety Bay for six months, because somebody say aeroplane coming, drop the bomb and finish. Me want to buy the house because a good house, but they no sell the house. Before my father Calogero died (in 1943), our family go to Garden Island for a picnic. I like but I was fright because the dingy was very small and my mother very heavy, big. The boat tipped and my mother sunk right down and had to be pulled up by the hair by the young ones. My father think the fright shocked his heart... because after a couple of months, or one year pass, or more years he feel sick with the heart. My father was buried. All people, all people, too many people. We've got lots of friends. This friend, we've got another friend, a lot of people coming with the motor car. My mother was very sad, they were devoted to each other.

In 1955 I think, my husband won first prize for decorating his boat for the Blessing of the Fleet - five gallons of beer - they make a party on the boat. It was the year the Pope died and there was his photo and I made the Italian flag out of flowers. The second year he won a big clock. The third year another big clock. In 1958 they got this trophy.

My husband Salvatore died in 1968.

"Me, at the table make dinner, he say "Very good dinner, you make it very nice." Make schnapper with tomato. Then he go to bed because of the headache. My husband, I say, "What you think wrong?" No answer. "Oh you fright me, because you no hear, no say nothing, no answer." Make hands in the neck, in the head and he finished."

I dress black because my heart no glad, very sad.

When my mother turned 100 years old I make a party in Perth. All my friends and friends of my mother and Dr. Abel, must be 250 people. She received a telegram from Queen Elizabeth. The Mayor of Fremantle make a big flower more longer than my mother! She felt very good about the party. She understand everything, very glad. My daughter one hand, and the other daughter the other hand, and come and they cut the cake.

My children and my granddaughter, very friendly. All the time they come to my place when they are small and when they are big and when they married. They didn't follow the old ways of staying at home, they used to go out. Me before go say, "You come back early home."

Now I am 89 years old. I like reading Italian books. Never got the chance before because make a dress and fix it up the petticoat, make underpants, me make and no buy in the shop to save a little bit money, and now me got the chance. In the night me read the romance. I stop about eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock. I look at television, especially the serials. Mother, she used to love Days Of Our Lives. I understood just a little bit. Sometimes easy, sometimes no understand much. If you see every day, you understand.

Salvatore Cicirello was born 10th January 1894, died 27th August 1968 – aged 74. Salvatore left Sicily at the age of 13 to go to Peru. There he worked as a lumper on the wharf, 1907. He then came to Geraldton, Australia and worked as a barber, later turning his hand to fishing. He also enjoyed playing soccer as a pastime. He returned to Sicily and married Carmela La Rosa. They both then came back to Australia, where Salvatore fished with his father-in-law. He was a pioneer of the West Australian fishing and crayfishing industry. He bought is first boat 28ft Progress and sailed north to unexplored territory around Shark Bay, Abrolhos Island, Jurien Bay and Cervantes. The boat was confiscated when the war broke out and he was interned, but able to work with a permit and go home to his family at night. He worked building fuel tanks for the Government; corner of Duro Road and Hampton Road, it is now a shopping centre. After the war he managed to get a ketch from Thompson Bros. Manacura and fished for a couple of years. Later he was able to purchase a lugger with two partners, Vince Lombardo and Frank Raffaele. The boat was named Ida Lloyd and had been used by the army to transport material from Fremantle to Rottnest Island. It was a two-mast lugger that originally had been a pearl lugger in Broome.

While fishing with Ida Lloyd, Salvatore explored Shark Bay and found numerous schnapper patches. Fremantle fishermen always knew these as “Ida Lloyd patches”. At the Abrolhos Islands, crayfish were so plentiful, one could put craypots on the water line at low tide and next morning the pots would be full of crayfish. Salvatore also fished at Jurien Bay and Cervantes where he discovered numerous jewfish patches (55 patches). He made a good living from fishing. Later he went crayfishing, which was even more profitable. He decided to go to Lancelin as it was closer to home. He arranged for a truck to take his catch twice a week to Fremantle, which took 8 hours travelling through bushland and farms. He was the first crayfisherman to transport crays by road. Later Vince Lombardi sold out his share of Ida Lloyd and son Nino (Tony) bought a share in LFB Ida Lloyd.

We celebrate both Salvatore and Carmela as true pioneers of the WA Fishing Fraternity! One of Salvatore's cousins (Steve) started selling fish direct to the market in 1958 from the landing jetty in the harbour.