By NARELLE COULTER
IT is hard to imagine 1000 free-range chickens roaming in Noble Park, but that is Mary Bertolini’s earliest memory of the suburb she has called home her entire life.
Mary’s Italian immigrant parents moved from Carlton to Noble Park in the 1940s when they bought a five-acre farm.
Mary grew up on the farm, went to school in Noble Park, worked for many years at a fruit shop then a deli in the area and she and husband Sergio bought up their own three sons in the house on Buckley Street they built shortly after their marriage in 1962.
Their home, with its verdant backyard vegetable patch, is increasingly being surrounded by multi-storey unit developments as Noble Park is transformed by the push for higher density living to accommodate Melbourne’s burgeoning population.
Noble Park is unrecognisable from the suburb of Mary’s childhood when she helped tend the chickens and played cricket on the unmade roads and enjoyed bonfire and cracker night with friends.
“It was good growing up here. In those days it was freer. Heatherton Road was just a dirt track in those days. The area was just bush when we came here.
“Mum looked after the chooks and would sell the eggs to the grocers shop in Noble Park.“
On Saturdays, Mary and her older brother and mother would load up with eggs and take the train to Carlton to visit family and friends. It was her mother’s outing for the week.
The family had two milking cows and Mary’s mum would make cheese out of the milk which was also sold to Italian friends. Her dad grew vegetables.
“When I was older I remember selling cucumbers door to door.
“There wasn’t much around in ’Struggle Town’ as Noble Park was referred to. The ice cart bought ice because we didn’t have refrigerators. The milk man drove a horse-drawn cart.“
Mary attended Noble Park Primary School and Dandenong High School.
Her first job was in the Myer head office in the city. However, she hated the travel so quit for a job closer to home working for Rino Rech at his continental grocers, near the corner of Heatherton and Chandler roads.
In 1958, Mary’s parents sold the farm to the Catholic Church for 16,000 pounds.
With some of the proceeds, the family took a trip to Italy. Mary was 20.
On the return journey, Mary met Sergio who was immigrating to Australia with plans to join his brother who was working on a tobacco farm at Mareeba.
“It was like the Love Boat,“ laughed Sergio with a cheeky grin.
Mary added: “There was group of us who used to hang out together on the ship. It was actually while we were having dinner in Genoa that we first met. The boat left the next day. Sergio and I went to see a film with my brother.
“It was only after we left the boat probably that we realised we had feelings for each other.“
Initially Sergio hated Australia.
“Too many snakes and kangaroos,“ he laughs now.
The couple was married on October 6, 1962, at St Anthony’s Catholic Church.
Unusually, the bride arrived before the groom.
“He lived with my cousin and was busy playing cards,“ Mary laughed.
Their wedding was featured in the Journal under the heading “Shipboard romance for young Italian couple“.
As a wedding gift, Mary’s parents gave the couple a block of land on Buckley Road mainly because her father didn’t want Mary moving to Queensland.
The couple built their home in 1963 where they raised sons Stephen, Adrian and Daniel.
Their four grandchildren are now regular visitors.
The couple enjoy reading the Journal, keeping abreast of the ongoing changes in their beloved Noble Park.
“I love getting the Journal and reading all about what is happening in the area,“ Mary said.
“I’ve lived here my entire life and I don’t want to move.“
“What keeps me here are the people past and present and especially my faith community of St Anthony’s who have always been very supportive.
“I often joke to family and friends that my next abode is (retirement home) Noble Manor.“
