By Mitchell Clarke
Two farmers who left Italy for a brighter future in Australia and set up their lives in the Cardinia shire have reconnected at market, coming to the realisation they were on the same ship, 70 years ago.
Joe Scamporlini and Vince Vincenzino have a number of things in common – both began their career picking spuds, both settled in the Cardinia shire and both left Italy for a shot at a new life – but they didn’t realise they had so much in common until recently.
Joe, 91, vividly remembers seeing Vince, 78, on the same ship almost 70 years to the day.
The pair was amongst hordes of fellow countrymen and women who were also embarking on the long voyage to their new home down under.
But Vince, who was only a naïve eight-year-old when he was sent to Australia doesn’t remember Joe, who was a mature 21-years-old when he left his hometown.
Vince’s father passed away in the Second World War and sadly he only got to meet him once in his lifetime. Following his death, Vince moved to Australia with his mother to live with his aunty in Keilor.
“After the war, it didn’t matter what part of Europe you were from, things were pretty tough,” Vince explained.
And things weren’t easy in Australia, with the language barrier proving a real struggle for the young boy.
“Things were tough here, my mum re-married and we moved to Gembrook after six months where I started work on the spuds,” he explained.
Vince left St Patricks Primary School in Pakenham at 13 and purchased his bit of land in Gembrook when he was just 16-years-old.
In 1964, he married Connie, and the pair lived in Melbourne for 18 months until Vince’s love for the land eventually drew him back. In 1965, Connie gave birth to their only child, Pauline.
A decade later, in 1976, a 43-year-old Vince moved his family to his current property at Officer South which was initially purchased as a dairy farm.
“I milked for 14 years and grew spuds,” he said.
“I had a milk contract but the contract was abolished from 33 cents a litre down to 14 cents a litre so I gave it away because it wasn’t viable.
“Spuds were the same – it got to the stage where you either got bigger and bigger or you got out, so I got out of spuds.”
He moved into beef farming, which he continues to do as well as the odd hay contracting here and there.
“There’s a lot of work in dairy but there’s probably more reward and money than there is in beef – beef is up and down like a yoyo, they say it’s a rich man’s hobby,” he laughed.
“There’s plenty of work, that’s all you get out of farming is work.
“I don’t know anything else, to me I grew up on the land, I’ve done it all my life and it’s like a disease, you know it’s no good but you still keep it.”
Vince remains confident that he’ll continue to work for as long as he has his health.
“I mean I’m 78, I should retire because I’ve got no need to be working but I’ve been doing it all my life,” he said.
“I do enjoy it (farming), the freedom and the fresh air, you’ve got nobody to answer for but yourself.”
Joe shares a similar story.
At 91-years-old, he also won’t call himself retired – instead he goes by the term “semi-retired”, where he works on his beef farm at Vervale, just south of Garfield.
“When I moved to Australia, I’d do any job – from picking spuds to picking onions,” he said.
“But now, we just look after the beef cattle – beef cattle are a lot easier because you don’t have to get up at 5am every morning for them.”
Currently, Joe and his wife Natalie have about 75 cattle and 75 calves on their property.
“I love it,” he explained.
“Because there’s not much to do,” Natalie interposed.
“You just take the hay out when it’s time and change the paddocks over.”
But before beef, farming was anything but easy for Joe, who spent 60 years of his life growing spuds.
He vividly recalls the days where he’d sit in the stifling sun, forced to hand pick spuds in a singlet.
“No I don’t miss picking the spuds,” he laughed.
“A day in the life now is very good though, I can’t complain.”
Joe, who is a foundation member of the Garfield Football Club, relocates to Queensland during the winter months with Natalie.
The pair is kept busy as parents to three children, grandparents to eight and will become great-grandparents to one, who is due in August.
Joe’s world now is literally a world away from the one he was brought up in, in Italy.
“I left Italy because there was no work there,” he explained.
“I moved here for a better life.
“It’s a good life here; to me Garfield is the best town in Australia.”
Joe and Vince still manage to catch up for coffee and a yarn every now and then, and both share the same message that Australia has provided them with “so much”.
“Garfield feels like home, we love everything here,” Joe said.
“We’re lucky to be here in a great country and I thank Australia and my aunty who gave me the chance and the opportunity,” Vince added.
“I don’t think there’s any country better than Australia – it was hard at the beginning but we’ve overcome that.”
It’s a starkly different time to the early 1950’s, when the pair was just finding their feet in their newfound lives and careers.
“Gembrook, years ago, especially on the spuds, was 99 percent Italians – wherever there was a bit of land, there were Italians,” Vince laughed.
“The days when we grew up, a bit of land was everything.”
