Ricciardi Family (Natale)

In his first few months he worked in the market gardens and then on the wharf, where he quickly learnt enough English to secure his first fishing job as a deck hand on a rock lobster boat in Lancelin. In seven months as deck hand he had earned £1,100, which was a small fortune in those days – enough to buy land.

But more than anything, Natale wanted to bring his family to Fremantle, and so sponsored his brother Giuseppe to join him. Working together, Natale and Giuseppe were soon able to bring a third brother, Umberto, out from Sicily. (Within the next five years came their parents Ignazio (Ian) and Antonia, two brothers Salvatore and Cesare and two sisters Sarina and Luisa. The youngest sister Italia was married and stayed in Sicily.)

By 1953, just four years after leaving Sicily, Natale had sponsored his two brothers to Australia; purchased his first house in Manning Street, Fremantle; became a naturalised Australian and married; got his skipper’s ticket and, together with his brothers, bought a half-share in their first boat, the beautiful Silvery Wave, a 35ft vessel powered by sail and engine.

The Ricciardi family fishing business had been launched. Natale and his brothers worked hard, and quickly acquired half- shares in two more boats, Miss Maria and Florence Nightingale. They fished in summer for lobster out of Fremantle, and in the winter, Natale went to Shark Bay to fish for snapper and netting whiting, mullet and tailor from the beaches in Denham. It wasn’t long before the brothers had saved enough to buy out the partners in all three boats.

And soon they could afford to replace the Miss Maria with the Alba Marina, a larger vessel that also enabled them to fish for sardines, pilchards and herring to supply lobster bait. It was a tough life. The boats were slow – the top speed was six to seven knots and there was no such thing as a GPS – charts and knowledge gained by experience were the keys to safe navigation. A typical day in the lobster season started at midnight and finished around five in the evening.

In 1966, the brothers built the Sea Pearl, a 64-foot timber vessel capable of fishing for lobster and rigged to trawl for prawns. With a small freezer hold and blast freezer below deck, Natale took the opportunity to venture off to the Gulf of Carpentaria and trawl for banana prawns. The Sea Pearl steamed all day and all night for 14 days, only stopping in Darwin for fuel and fresh supplies before crossing to Groote Island.

It was a gruelling and dangerous voyage. Both the weather and the banana prawn season were bad; Natale decided that the future was in Shark Bay and its burgeoning prawn industry. He negotiated a three-year contract with Norwest Whaling Company (now Norwest Seafood’s) to trawl for prawns under their license. At the end of each lobster season, Natale sailed the Sea Pearl to Shark Bay to go prawning. He was away from home for many months. In 1970 Natale and his brothers approached the then Minister for Fisheries, Graham MacKinnon, and applied for a Trawl license – it was granted on condition that it would be swapped for their lobster pot licenses.

In an interesting flash back, the lobster catch effort was up and the government was trying to reduce the number of licenses in the fishery. The Ricciardi’s decided to commit to the prawn industry and made a straight swap - their 200 lobster pots for a Shark Bay Trawl license.

The fleet of boats grew to include the Rosaria Madre, Florence Nightingale II, Sea Pearl (Darwin) and Sea Pearl II. By 1985, after more than 30 years in business together, it was time for the Ricciardi brothers to separate and for each family business to grow at their own pace. Natale, with sons Ian and Claude, created Ricciardi Seafoods and Coldstores, while brothers Giuseppe and Umberto, with their immediate families, formed Ricciardi Ocean Products.

In 1986 Natale and sons developed a cold storage facility in Bannister Street Fremantle, which included a processing and wholesale facility and a fresh fish retail outlet that also served fish and chips. They also replaced the Sea Pearl (Darwin) with the state-of-the-art trawler Premium – a vessel that would ensure supply for their retail, wholesale and export markets. It was a world away from Natale’s first vessel, the humble but beautiful, Silvery Wave.

(The family went on to secure a 50% of the Nada, which operated in the Northern Prawn Fishery, a 50% interest in Alliance which operated in the Kimberley and NPF and later the Camden, replaced by Matilda Bay, and Mary Jane Stella to work in Shark Bay). They launched Premium Quality Seafoods, the new brand name for their seafood harvest, which was to be marketed to both the domestic and export markets. The opening of the retail shop fulfilled one of Natale’s lifelong passions to make his harvest available to everyone. Natale saw the opening of the retail outlet as completing the circle of the fisherman’s destiny to catch and supply. The retail outlet was not as successful as hoped and was closed to concentrate on the processing, wholesale and exporting of the Premium Quality Seafood brand which thrived and expanded under the leadership of Ian and Claude.

However, today you can drop into the processing factory at Emplacement Crescent or the Mt Claremont Farmers Market on a Saturday and buy the fisherman’s harvest direct ... something that still makes Natale proud.

Natale has made a substantial positive difference to the Australian seafood industry:

1. Family businesses are the backbone of the Australian fishing industry. Natale, with his two brothers, created a successful family business based on a small fleet of lobster boats and later trawlers;

2. Over the years Natale provided employment to many young migrant and local fishermen;

3. In the 1950’s he fished 12 months of the year, potting rock lobster, snapper fishing and net fishing;

4. In the 1960’s he helped pioneer the prawn industry in Carnarvon, working away from his young family for many months at a time;

5. He successfully and amicably orchestrated the split of one successful family company into two successful family companies – another mighty achievement;

6. In the mid 1980’s in association with his sons Ian and Claude, formed Ricciardi Seafoods and Coldstores, and expanded the fishing business to incorporate processing, wholesaling and exporting;

7. Established the Premium Quality Seafoods brand; and

8. Empowered his sons to build on the solid foundations he laid and to successfully expand the business into the new century. The company’s diversified business now employs close to 50 people.

Natale Ricciardi has worked, strived and thrived in the Western Australian commercial fishing industry for over 40 years. The living conditions were tough, the vessels were basic, the working hours long and it took him away from his young family for months. The Ricciardi name is firmly carved into the history of the Western Australian fishing industry. In the year 2000 Natale was a finalist in the medium / large business category of the National Australia Bank Ethnic Business Award.

Natale has instilled in his sons, Ian and Claude, a love of the fishing industry and a commitment to his work ethic. Together they have built on the foundations their father laid; the Ricciardi family business continues to flourish. The fishing division has continued to prosper along with the processing, wholesaling and exporting divisions; they have entered into a joint venture with the Paino family to construct the Fremantle City Coldstores, and with the MG Kailis Group to establish - One Sea Pty Ltd – that delivers fresh Rottnest Island scallops and prawns to the local market; they support the MSC program to ensure the sustainability of their lifelong trawl interest in Shark Bay and are playing a major role in pioneering abalone aquaculture in Augusta. Natale Ricciardi is a man with vision and integrity, a pioneer of the prawning industry who laid the foundation of the Ricciardi family fishing dynasty.

Natale passed away in 2013, aged 86, a proud man with pioneering roots in rock lobster and Shark Bay prawns.