Pittorino Family (Guiseppe)

After arriving in Australia most of Beno’s childhood years were spent living in Howard Street of Fremantle with his family. He attended South Terrace Primary School and CBC Fremantle. Beno’s first job was delivering milk by horse and cart throughout the streets of Fremantle.

At age 15, his first fishing job was onboard the Emmalou. This saw him leave home for about 6 months before returning home every 6 weeks for only a short period of time. During this time, he worked and lived on his uncle’s boat on Beagle Island, close to Leeman.

During the winter months, when he was not cray fishing, Beno joined his cousin’s prawn fishing in Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. He often spoke fondly of these years and credits himself and his cousins for luring the dolphins to Monkey Mia.

A few years passed which later found Beno fishing out of Carnarvon, developing into the scallop fishery. As his enthusiasm and love of fishing and boats grew, he obtained his skipper’s ticket in the early 1960s. Not long after this he obtained his engineer’s and refrigeration ticket which saw the beginning of his skippering career onboard the Eolo.

In mid 1960s, Guiseppe met the love of his life, Irene. They were engaged 18 months later and married in April of 1967 at Saint Patrick’s Basilica in Fremantle. Giuseppe proudly built a brand-new home in Hamilton Hill in which they welcomed three children, Guiseppe (Joe) born 1968, Maria born 1969 and Mark born 1973, completing their family.

During the early 1970s, Beno worked away intermittently in Carnarvon and Jurien Bay skippering and relief skippering for extended family on prawn trawlers and cray boats.

In 1976, Beno and his younger brother Felice (Phil) bought their first cray boat together, a 36-foot plank boat ‘Rondine’. After one season they decided a new boat was needed. The following year together, they built their first new boat Interceptor, the pride of the fleet in Fremantle! Over the next 20 years, Beno, Phil and their family continued to build another 5 boats named Interceptor. His family have had a long association with the Fishing Fleet Festival, carrying both Madonna’s at various times.

From 1985 onwards, Beno’s two sons, son-in-law, and nephews joined in the fishing business. During these years he passed on his strong work ethic and lifelong fishing knowledge, which saw the family business expand into two new fishing vessels. They explored new fishing ground from Two Rocks to Bunbury, during the fishing seasons from November to June. During the winter months, Beno and his family would fix and mend fishing gear.

In 1995, Beno welcomed his first grandchild and over the next 14 years welcomed another 7. In 2004, he semi-retired, continuing to work the deck even at the ripe age of 60, with his son Mark and with Joe skippering. During the off seasons he would enjoy travelling and spending time with his wife and family, continuing to fish with his sons until he retired in 2015.

In his later years, Guiseppe enjoyed gardening, but he would still spend hours in the back garage splicing and mending fishing gear. He would enjoy being surrounded by his family cooking pasta, crumbed prawns and cray cutlets for all. Throughout his life, Beno had a keen sense of humour and was a kind and generous man. Guiseppe sadly passed away in September 2022, missed dearly by all his family.

Today, Guiseppe’s efforts in the fishing industry is continued by his two sons, Joe and Mark and his grandsons, Jayden and Ryan onboard the Illusion. His son-in-law, Nino, owns and skippers the Larissa C. Both boats still fishing the same grounds and passing on their skills, they learnt from Guiseppe, onto now the fourth generation.