Enrica Vanzella - This Is My Life: Autobiography of Enrica Vanzella nee Boscariol, Apr. 1999

MLMSS 7123

fonds

1999

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs

210410

Photocopy : MLMSS 7123

1 folder - 0.01 Meters
Textual Records - (computer printouts)
Photographs - (colour photocopy)

Enrica Vanzella was born in the village of Silea on the outskirts of Treviso, Veneto, Italy, in 1915. Her widowed father, Tony Boscariol, a mechanic, emigrated to Australia in 1921 and married Felicina Mercando in Sydney three years later. Enrica arrived in Sydney in 1929. She visited Batlow in southern N.S.W. for the first time at Christmas 1933, a guest of fellow Trevisani, the Vanzella family. She married Bill Vanzella in 1936 and the couple settled on his family's orchard property, Alta Villa, at Batlow. Although naturalised, Enrica's father was the only member of both families interned during World War II. The thriving family farm had been contracted to supply fruit and vegetables towards the war effort. In the postwar years the Vanzellas became increasingly involved in the commerce and social life of the district. Enrica and Bill were founding members of the Batlow Bowling Club, she later becoming President of the Batlow Women's Bowling Club and of the Southern Highlands District Women's Bowling Association. In 1960 she assisted to establish the Batlow and District Garden Club, of which she was President during the 1980s.

Account of an Italian girlhood with reference to various customs, emigration to Australia, and life on a farm in southern N.S.W. with an extended Italian Australian family.

Research & study copies allowed