A SUITCASE IN MELBOURNE






Museum Victoria
Italian Historical Collection		   This is the story of a suitcase brought to Melbourne from Campodolcino, now shown at the Victoria Museum. So reads the card that describes it to the visitors.

Gabriele Francoli brought this suitcase to Melbourne in 1924 when he immigrated from Campodolcino, Sondrio, in Northern Italy. He was 22 years old.
Gabriele lived in Gembrook, Victoria, for a number of years and was a prominent figure in the development in the saw milling industry in the area. It was this work, which was considered an important contribution in the war effort, that kept him from the internment during the Second World War. This was a fate endured by many German and Italian Australians.
The suitcase symbolises the journey of innumerable people from their homelands and the few belongings brought with them with which to begin their new lives in Victoria.
(Museum Victoria Italian Historical Society CO.AS.IT Collection)

In 1924 at the age of 21 years, after having done his military service, Gabriele left Italy for Australia. A friend from Campodolcino, Mario Scaramella, accompanied him. On the ship was a Vito Ventura, a young blacksmith from Sicily, whose sister he married two years later. They disembarked at Melbourne and eventually lived and worked at the large "Victoria Hardwood Timber Co. at Powelltown". From there, Gabriele developed and acquired all the skills necessary to be a Mill-Wright and Sawmiller.
The Francoli family in Campodolcino had ran sawmills for at least 4 generations back. In Australia, Gabriele spent his working life building, managing and working in sawmills in Victoria. He acquired a strong reputation as a successful Saw-miller in both bush and town. The logging was done mainly in the area of Victoria called Gippsland.
Some of his career has been described in the pioneer history of a town called Gembrook, Victoria.
A story like many others. Stories with roots in our valley, worth keeping in our memory.
Just open a suitcase.

(From an E-mail exchange with Carl Gabriel Francoli, Australia)