When Carmine (Charlie) Tarquinio opened Ballarat’s first pizza restaurant in 1971 few knew it was about to change the city’s culinary experience.
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From the moment the doors of Eureka Pizza first opened, the city’s discovery, and love, of Italian food only grew stronger.
Before anyone knew it the city was beginning to notice all things Italian, from the local fruit grocers, to the Italian doctors and teachers.
Now more than 200 Italian families call Ballarat home, each with a different story to tell.
Charlie’s story is only one of many the Ballarat Italian Association (BIA) is hoping to unearth in its newly launched heritage project aimed at providing an historic account of the city’s Italian community.
To help get the project off the ground the association is calling on Italians living in Ballarat who are keen to tell their stories about their migration, settlement, and working and life experiences to get on board.
BIA president Chez Dichiera said the idea behind the book was to document the contributions Italians have made to the Ballarat community since the gold rush.
“A lot of the members are getting old, we hear their stories and we want to remember them,” he said.
“We want their experiences first hand.
“Look at Charlie, he brought pizza to Ballarat and all of a sudden all these others started setting up. He started changing people’s view of food.
“There must be more stories like his.”
Mr Dichiera said it is also hoped the book will inform people that migration and multiculturalism isn’t a bad thing.
“Some of these Italians went through the same problem many (of today’s immigrants) face, but they’ve now become part of the woodwork,” he said.
Melbourne author and journalist Jan McGuinness, who speaks fluent Italian, has joined the project and will help research and interview local Italians.
She was in Ballarat on Thursday to talk about the project.
“It’s another way of recording Ballarat’s history. There were a lot of Italians on the goldfields,” she said.
“It’s also giving people a chance to understand Italy. No one left this country because they wanted to.”
The book is expected to be released in time for Christmas 2018.
If you wish to have your story feature in the book you can contact Mr Dichiera on 0400 990 542 or emailed on cedichiera@bigpond.com
