Vinci Family (Antonino)

At one time he had been travelling the World with the Italian Navy. Whilst on his travels he was also on the lookout for a better home and life for his family. He was torn between Western Australia and South America, after also having worked in Peru. After a few trips to Fremantle, returning to Italy and Peru he decided that Fremantle was the place he would move his Family to. So, in 1927 along with his wife Giuseppa Pensabene and children Pietro, Antonia and Maria, they moved to Fremantle. From the 1920’s Diego had worked with Salvatore Merendino of 14 Russell Street on various fishing boats and at one point owned a half share in the fishing boat Columbia. The Vinci family also lived on Russell Street.

Diego’s son Pietro (Peter) married Maria Vinci and they had a family of their own with 4 boys and 1 girl. One of their Sons, Antonio (Tony) Vinci, was born in 1932 in Fremantle. He was the second eldest of the five children, sharing his life with Brother Dick, Frank, Ron and Sister Josie.

After spending a very short time attending Christian Brothers College in Fremantle, Tony started fishing with his Father Peter at the age of 13 out of Freshwater Point. He worked as a crewman on the Family boats including Columbia, Jupiter, Sonoma and finally, the Marpete which he later Skippered. The MAR-PETE was built in 1963 by F. Coleman and measured 52 feet in length. It was named after the Parents MARIA and PETER Vinci.

Tony retired from fishing at the age of 40. He had had enough of being away from the family. He leased out the Marpete and decided to work on land. Tony’s wife had basically raised their three kids (Peter, Maria and Antonetta) as a single mother. He had spent most years fishing for lobster from November to August, returning home for a week, before making the trip back up to Shark Bay to trap for snapper or to prepare the boats for the prawning season.

In 1963 His Father Peter was involved in the sensational rescue of Jack Drinan of the Nor 6 off Shark Bay, after Drinan had drifted at Sea on a makeshift raft for 14 days. One of the crew was giving a routine radio report confirming Sonoma's safe arrival in South Passage. Suddenly he interrupted his broadcast.

"Hang on a minute!"

There was a silence and the sound of the handset being put down with the usual statics and crackles. Then the operator resumed with a new excited note in his voice. 'Hey!' There's a bloke here on a raft!. He says he's from the Nor 6!" When Jack got on board the first thing he saw in the Sonoma's wheelhouse was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. He went down on his knees and thanked her for his deliverance.

The family’s close connections with Our Blessed Lady were never far away. His kids can remember having the Statue of Mary in their home for a week saying the Rosary after dinner.

Tony tried some other business ventures, but the call of lobster brought him back to the company where he had sold his lobsters. He joined Kailis and France Seafoods and set about perfecting the export of live lobsters. In those days most lobsters were still being processed frozen whole or sold into the US market as tails. A joint venture was established between Tony and Theo Kailis to cater for the Japanese market. Live tanks were constructed; pipes submerged in Cockburn Sound, pumps and filtration systems installed.

It was already known that live lobsters could survive many hours out of the water if kept moist and cool. Live clawed lobsters had even been canned. A Halifax, Nova Scotia company claimed a survival time of 6 days for its live lobster packed in sealed cans with cooled ice-filled exterior containers in 1949. But no-one had perfected the export of WA Rock Lobsters on a mass scale, and using airplanes for transportation.

Tony would spend hours, days and months at the factory in Coogee, trying and testing ways to keep the lobsters alive until they reached Japan. One day he went to his regular family Doctor for a check-up and was chatting to him about how to send lobsters overseas, and how it was keeping him up at night. The Doctor suggested he rent a book out from Fremantle Library on ancient methods of anaesthesia. These words sparked an idea in his mind. As soon as he left the Doctors, he went to Fremantle library to get the book. He read up on how they once put people to sleep before modern medication. One of the older methods, was dunking people in freezing water.

Tony decided to try this first, as this was the easiest and simplest way. So, he got a large tank filled it with big ice blocks and tried putting a few boxes of live lobster in there to see what would happen. To his surprise, the lobsters stopped moving, so he sat there and waited. After a few hours the lobsters started moving again. Tony was delighted, he immediately rung Theo Kailis. Theo gave him permission to send some to Japan. The next day he sent his first shipment, lobsters dipped in just above freezing water packed in a polystyrene esky filled with sawdust, to prevent damage, and a frozen water bottle to keep them cold.

The results were better than he hoped for, reports coming back that he had achieved a 95% live rate when they got to Japan. In those days this was much better than anyone else was achieving. Tony kept these methods a secret for months and the other companies couldn’t work out how this was happening. By the 1973 season he had perfected the way to export live lobster.

Eventually the secret got out, and the live market was born. Still to this day lobsters are packed the same way. Although technology has improved, and the method has been tweaked slightly the principle is still the same.

Further trial shipments of live rock lobster to Japan from Fremantle and Lancelin in the 1976/77 season indicated a potentially lucrative trade, once the practicalities of shipment could be ironed out, and thereafter the market was pursued vigorously. Initially, fishers were paid a bonus of 10%, making it worthwhile to fit water tanks on boats and widespread adoption began to occur.

In 1979 Tony was recognised for his achievements and was awarded the Export Award.

In 1982, The Fremantle Fishermen’s Co-operative trialled shipments of live lobsters being loaded into specially constructed saltwater tanks on the ship, the Martha Bakke, bound for Japan, before direct air links were available. In the mid 1980’s, direct flights from Perth to Japan were established, and the rest, as they say, is history!

In 1986 Tony became a Committee member of the Fishing Fleet Festival serving 21 years of devotion to Our Blessed Madonna. He was Vice-President for five years, and his Son-in-law John Minutillo continues on as the current President. John’s son Stephen continues with his Father in the live export trade as Fremantle Lobsters – a journey that began with his Grandfather all those years ago, and a journey WA can be proud of.