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MACRI Fred NEW Researched & Compiled by Gordon Freegard 2020Acknowledgement is made for the enormous research carried out by Jenny Keast for her publication "Valley of Solitude" from which information has been used in this family history. Fred Macri and his wife Elizabeth (nee Palumbo) were born
in Deliannova, Calabria. Fred worked in a chestnut tree plantation. His job was
to “square” the trees, that is, to cut off the lower limbs to make the trees
grow straight. He also felled trees and cut the timber, by hand saw, into
boards. His parents had a small soap factory at their home and sold soap in the
surrounding towns. The soap was made from reject olive oil, from the many olive
groves in the area, and pork fat. Elizabeth lost her father when she was very young and she
and two sisters and a brother had a very hard childhood, with no schooling at
all. All the children eventually migrated, one sister, Rose went to Geraldton
with her husband Frank Fimano and grew tomatoes, the other sister, Giuseppina
went to Adelaide and the brother to Canada. |
FRED MACRI #1 |
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FRED MACRI (left) BOUND FOR AUSTRALIA 1925 #2 |
Fred and
Elizabeth were engaged for five years before they married, during which time
Fred completed his military service. In 1925, Fred joined his brother, Rocco,
at Karragullen, where both were employed by John Saunders as wood cutters.
Fred’s papers mistakenly said he was to go to Sydney and he disembarked at
Fremantle despite being told to continue to Sydney. Fred was
collected from Fremantle by his brother and Fred Gray, who owned the
Karragullen Store. Fred worked for Saunders for fifteen months and said
Saunders was the nicest man in town. Fred and
Rocco lived in a tent in the bush at Kangaroo Gully, where there were a lot of
Kangaroos and horses too! The horses had bred from those let loose by the
Canning Mill at Karragullen. Fred did not eat mutton or beef for three months!
The men were paid by Saunders once a month and earned two pounds five shillings
($4.50) per ten ton railway truck of wood. Saunders collected the wood from the
cutting site and carted it to the railway line. It took five cart loads to fill
one railway truck. When the railway line to Karragullen was closed, Fred used
some of the track as foundations for his house. While he was living at Kangaroo Gully, Fred, Mario Tonusso and Nick Borelo walked to the school at Karragullen to learn English. The English teacher was Mr. Oliver and he charged one shilling (10 cents) a lesson. Borello could already speak English as he had been to the USA before coming to Western Australia. Fred learned good English but his wife, Elizabeth, spoke very little, even after fifty years.
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During the
depression there was a lot of ill feelings towards “foreign” labour and mill
owners were obliged to put off any non-naturalised timber Fellers. Fred
was one of these, he was not naturalised until 1932. He was able to continue
cutting wood on private property owned by Hanbury’s and he also worked for
Stintons and Brooks, cutting wood for the brick kilns at Midland. Unfortunately,
the brick works closed down eighteen months later, due to the depression, and
Fred was out of work. He camped around Karragullen and shot rabbits and
kangaroos to survive. He sometimes found work fruit picking. When he was fruit
picking for George Simpson at Rokewood Orchard, Simpson told him he could find
him permanent work growing vegetables. Everything would be supplied, horse,
tools, manure, etc and Fred could keep half of the profits. This sounded an
excellent idea to Fred who immediately went to see Mr. Bevan, owner of the
Roleystone property where the vegetables were to be grown. Mr. Bevan owned the
Brittania Coffee Lounge in Perth as well as nine hundred acres of land at
Roleystone and a dairy farm at Serpentine. Fred stayed with him for four years
before Bevan’s construction company that was building a new causeway over the
Swan River, collapsed and he had to sell his properties. While Fred
was working for Bevan, Elizabeth came to Australia. As she was unable to speak
English, she did not understand where she was and stayed on the ship until it
reached Sydney. Fred was very worried and had to go to the Italian Consul, in
Perth, to ask him find her. Elizabeth caught the next ship back to Fremantle. By
this time Fred’s brother, Rocco, had bought a small orchard at Karragullen and
it looked as if fruit would become an important industry in the area. |
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When the
Millars Timber Company stopped cutting wood at Karragullen it sold off the land
it owned as one hundred acre blocks. Ghilarducci bought one large block and
divided off one or two smaller blocks. One lot was bought by an elderly man
named Pavlo Banducci, who could not manage the hard work clearing the block and
could not earn enough money to pay his morgtgage, so his land was sold to
Cassotti who later sold it to Fred. Of the twenty-two acres he bought only two
acres were cleared. Fred worked very hard, clearing the land and growing
vegetables. The vegetables were taken to market by Joe Lori, the owner of
Kelmscott Transport Company. His son still takes Fed’s produce to markets
(1987). Joe would bring Fred and Elizabeth anything they needed from Perth or
Kelmscott – “even if it was just a half pound of nails”. |
JOE LORI & HIS TRANSPORT TRUCK #3 |
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FRED & ELIZABETH MACRI WITH SONS DOMINIC & EDWARD 1945 #4 |
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Fred has many
bad memories of the war years. He says “Italians had a very bad name”. If an
Italian spoke up about something he could be accused of being a Fascist and
interned. Justine Cassotti and Di Marco were interned for the duration of the
war; “everyone had to be very careful”. One day, a form came for Fred but as he
did not understand it, he put it to one side. A little later the military
police came to see him. He and his wife were very scared. Fred asked them to
fill the form in for him and over a few glasses of wine, he was assured
everything would be alright. They just wanted to know if he was naturalised. He
had to go to Kalamunda to be interviewed, Bert Beard of Pickering Brook went
with him. The Beards were very helpful to many people during the depression and
during the war. As soon as Fred said he was an orchardist everything was fine. |
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KARRAGULLEN SCHOOL 1947? Back Row L - R: RAY LITTLELY, EDWARD MACRI, Teacher Mr. VALLI, BRUNO SONEGO, RON HALSE, LES SMITH, DAVID LEWIS. |
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KARRAGULLEN SCHOOL 1950 Back Row (L-R): ANTHONY FRETWELL, TOM PRICE, CARLO GHILARDUCCI, JIM SONEGO, BRIAN LEWIS, DICK NICHOLS. |
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After the war
Fred instigated what was to become a Sunday tradition in the Karragullen area –
the Nip and Sip Club. Everyone put money into a fund and each Sunday they would
meet at Fred’s packing shed for a few drinks and eats. These gatherings were
for men only! Once a year, any money left over would pay for a day trip to the
beach for the women and children. Fred and
Elizabeth built a fine orchard at Karragullen and Fred became a popular figure
with Sunday drivers who stopped for fruit. Elizabeth died in 1978. Fred retired
from the orchard which is run by his son, Dominic (Mimo). Dominic and
his brother Edward married sisters – Ada and Rose Italiano.
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Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.
References: Article: Valley of Solitude by Jenny Keast Image: 1, 2, 4 Kalamunda & Districts Historical Society
Copyright 2008 - 2020 Gordon Freegard |
