Angelo’s Story

Angelo’s story begins with his childhood growing up in a farming family whose history is deeply rooted in the land around Piombino Dese, renowned for its fertile soil and proximity to the illustrious cities of Venice and Padua.
His destiny is to follow his father as one generation follows the next, farming and leading a peaceful, refined and predictable existence. By the time he is twelve, Italy is at war with most of the modern world as an ally of Germany.
The Lucato family cannot ignore or escape the impact of
a war they really do not understand and it affects them
in a way they never imagined.
The aftermath of war in Italy and Europe gives rise to
a great exodus to countries across the world. It is an event
that inspires Angelo to consider a life beyond the farm. He is the first for many generations to change his destiny. What follows is a story of how a young man, full of rash enthusiasm, willing to risk all that he knows to begin a new life in a far flung country called Australia. Like many other immigrants to Australia in the 1950’s Angelo is given the impression that he is one of the lucky ones who will be helped to find work and make a home but when he arrives the reality is very different and he soon finds he has to make his own luck if he is to survive.