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Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project
The Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project tells the story of a group of 17 young Italian men and one woman who arrived in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia between 1926 and 1928. They came from the Veneto region in the north-east of Italy.
Within a few years, they established commercial market gardens in the western suburbs about eight kilometres (approximately five miles) from Adelaide. They farmed on Frogmore, Grange, Findon and Valetta Roads and formed a close community of families. These men, their wives and children made an important contribution to the production of fresh food in South Australia for over five decades.
Access
The public face of the project is presented in its website. The site includes recordings of interviews, some transcript, family biographies and photos, videos and other research. More interviews, photos and resources will be added as they are completed. Significant aspects of the website have been translated into Italian.
Research
Oral historian, Madeleine Regan is the principal researcher for the project. She began her research into the history of the Veneto community in 2006. The project has gathered interviews with the sons and daughters of the pioneer market gardeners and others connected to the farms in Frogmore Road and Findon Road. The second generation members of the pioneer market gardener families are now in their 80s and 90s.
In 2016 Madeleine began a PhD at Flinders University in Adelaide. Her study, Establishing family market gardens and transplanting Veneto identity to the western suburbs of Adelaide, 1920s-1970s, examines the interaction of place, community and shared social identity of the Veneto community of market gardeners over two generations. The focus of her study includes the oral histories and the use of the website to communicate the history of migration and settlement of the Veneto community in Adelaide since the late 1920s.
Oral histories
The recordings of the oral histories and some transcripts are catalogued in the JD Somerville Oral History Collection at the State Library of South Australia (SLSA). Over 90 hours of oral history recordings (43 interviews) have been collected to date, and are held in the SLSA. The process of transcribing interviews is ongoing. It is possible to locate interviews through the State Library catalogue.
The website was selected as a publication of national significance by the National Library of Australia in 2015. It is archived annually by PANDORA, a selective archival collection of historic online publications relating to Australia and Australians. It was established by the National Library in 1996. The National Library and its partners select websites that they consider are of significance and have long-term research value. The archive can be accessed via this link.
Click here to contact the project.
External links
Oral History Project – Veneto Market Gardeners
State Library of South Australia
Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia - PANDORA
References
Oral History Project – Veneto Market Gardeners
State Library of South Australia
Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia - PANDORA