Sgro Family

Memories of Oceania Trading by previous Employee, Maria Paratore

“…Walking along Arundel Street recently, memories of my first job at Oceania Trading Exchange took hold of me along with the people I worked with. Some now, unfortunately, no longer here. I was young when I first started to work at Oceania Trading, (the “Sgro’s" as they were known). In many ways, working with this company owned by Cono and Vince and all the Sgro family, shaped my future. I was employed mostly because I could speak, read and write Italian as most of the clientele of Oceania Trading Exchange were Migrant Italian families just like my parents.

Cono and Vince Sgro along with their siblings were also children of a Migrant family. Their father had been successful with vineyards and wine making and they later expanded their business to a liquor and wine store, ships providores and supplying families and Rock Lobster Boats with food and home provisions for many in the Fremantle and surrounding areas. Families were struggling back then. The Rock Lobster Boats weren’t paid weekly and often ran on “pool” payments. Credit cards were not an option fifty years ago, so Cono and Vince supplied boats and migrant families with an opportunity to buy now and pay later. By the time the new season rolled around in November, most families had not seen a fishing income for months. Most boats would order food supplies for their trip up to Ledge Point and Lancelin – enough to last them a month until they came back home. I was only fifteen at the time and I didn’t think of the importance that this company played in helping the Rock Lobster Fishery and the migrants back then. They never charged interest, they treated all the Italians migrants and all the Rock Lobster Fishermen as friends and the fishermen knew that they could rely on Vince or Cono.

Cono was instrumental in helping the Italians of Fremantle have their own Italian Club. I remember the very first letter which Cono asked me to write in Italian asking all the community to donate for a future Italian Club. At the time it seemed like a dream, but this became a reality and consequently Cono became the very first President of the Fremantle Italian Club. Of course the Italian Club in Fremantle at that time, was like a home to many Lobster Fishermen. They had found a place outside the jetty where Fishermen could meet and share stories. Unfortunately many of the fishermen that knew Vince and Cono, have now passed away, but I know that if somehow they were able to speak, they would be eternally grateful to these two brothers who did so much for the Italian Community, the Rock Lobster Fishery and Fishermen in Fremantle….”

The History of Oceania Trading and Arundel Street

Lot 613 in Arundel Street was acquired in the 1920s by Italian migrant Cono Sgro. He built no. 25 as his residence and no. 27 as his business premises. This changed the landscape of the Street and the social fabric for 3 generations and contributed significantly to the migrant population nearby.

By the late 1930s, Arundel Street was known as the centre of ‘Little Italy’ and, with its neighbouring streets, as a focus for Sicilian and Italian fishermen. During this period the Italians on Arundel street included the Sgro Family living at no. 25 and the Cicerello (Salvatore) family occupying no. 1 and 5. Giacomo Iannello from Capo D’Orlando brought his newly arrived wife and child to no. 8 in 1931. In 1963, of the 32 residents who registered an occupation other than ‘home duties’, 11 reported themselves as fishermen, 4 as labourers and 2 each as carpenters, storemen, painters and tailors. The Council had to recognize the need to use Italian in communications: ‘It was decided to erect a notice in Italian at the foot of Arundel street, to stop the depositing of offensive matter over the sea wall. A notice in English is already erected there.’

While in early days the fishermen were seen as a poor section of society, by the late 1970s many were quite prosperous, with for example the Cicerello’s managing a substantial business and Florence and Angelo Merlino at no. 21 able to buy no. 23 as a rental property. Nunziatta Miragliotta roasted coffee beans and sold them from her house at no. 24. Later Fred Raffa lived on the street and owned the fishing boat Nunzia, and so did the Blogna’s. Erminia Polidori ran a boarding house for migrant workers for many years from no. 30 – These days no. 30 Arundel Street continues on as a boutique accommodation rental known as @MaandUp.

Over a long period the most substantial commercial enterprise in the street was Cono Sgro’s Oceania Trading Exchange at no. 27 (the current premises of @TheFreoDoctor). Cono Sgro had arrived in Australia in 1912. He established a business supplying Italian food and beverages to the local Italian community and to the passengers and workers on ships that berthed in Fremantle. The business, Oceania Trading Exchange, was registered in 1920 and operated from a variety of sites until the construction of the warehouse at 27 Arundel Street in 1928. He moved his main business there from Mouat Street in1937.From these premises, Cono Sgro concentrated on a home delivery business supplying his customers with groceries, pasta, wine, and imported Italian products such as olive oil – Many migrants would remember Ernie Minciullo with his cart coming around to their homes every few weeks to take orders and deliver their goods.

During the 1930s, the business expanded through the purchase of a market garden in South Coogee and a winery in Maddington, which supplied vegetables and wine for the shop. Cono Sgro was interred as an alien during World War Two and Matilda Sgro and her son, Cono jnr continued to operate the business. Cono Sgro died in 1949 but the family business continued and expanded in the 1960s with the purchase of properties at 29 and 31 Arundel Street. In 1994, the properties at 25, 27, 29 and 31, which were all owned by the Sgro family were sold. Supplying ships was a core part of the business, so they dealt in bulk goods, and two of their wine vats still survive today in @TheFreoDoctor – a boutique bottle shop that also offers home delivery, just like Oceania trading did for the Migrants of Fremantle all those years ago.