Family honoured

By Lia Bichel
AN inspirational history about a Dandenong businessman and his family’s rags to riches story is featured in a new book by Melbourne author Des Tobin.
Michael Tricarico: The Journey, Not the Destination tells the story of the Italian family’s struggle as impoverished provincial peasants, to overcoming hardships with back-breaking hard work and their rise to become prominent figures in Melbourne’s Italian community.
Mr Tricario, who has run Silvan Australia Pty Ltd for almost 50 years, said he wanted to tell his family’s story so he could have a memoir for his children and grandchildren.
“The purpose of the book was so my children, grandchildren and generations to come know where they came from. I think it is important for the rest of the family,” he said.
“The book tells what it took for our family to get here. It tells about early migrants, the difficulties they had coming to Australia.”
Mr Tobin, of Tobin Brothers Funeral Directors in Melbourne, said he was proud of the book.
“It is a wonderful story of a family arriving in the country in the 1920s with no money, no prospects and no English,” he said.
“The only thing his father (Guiseppe) had was integrity, value and desires to have a better life for his family – and he certainly gave them that.”
Besides telling the Tricarico family’s journey, secrets and struggles, the book also has black and white and colour photographs and archival documents from the 1920s.
Michael Tricarico: The Journey, Not the Destination is available at www.killaghy.com for $50 (plus postage).