Paying tribute to vital workers

Commemorative plaque honours post-war European immigrants

ITALIAN migrant Luciano Codotto has come a long way from the days living between cane cutting jobs when his family came to Cairns in 1955.

Mr Codotto was almost eight years old when his family came to Cairns from Latisana, near Venice, seeking fortune in the aftermath of World War II.

“Mum and Dad worked in the cane farms as labourers, we lived in Cairns from May to November, then from November until next February was up in Mareeba for the tobacco season,” he said.

“We had nothing then, no electricity, no mobile, no shower, everything’s changed.”

A plaque will today be unveiled to honour the post-war migrants who lived at the Hartley Street Migrant Centre.

Mr Codotto, now 70, and his wife Gina are members of a small collective of post-WWII European migrants who sought recognition of the role the centre played in the lives of many newcomers to Australia and Cairns.

Mr Codotto lived at the now-demolished centre in between his family’s jobs.

Mrs Codotto, who also migrated from Italy with her family in 1956 said the Cairns lifestyle was infectious to many migrants who opted to stay after automation cut the number of labour jobs in the late 1960s.

“Many people who came over to make money tried to go back to their home countries and came back because it wasn’t the same,” she said.

Mayor Bob Manning said the wave of post-war European migration made the Far North one of the most culturally diverse regions in Australia.

“This influx of international migrants introduced new cultures, food, customs, skills and pastimes that have contributed significantly to our way of life in Cairns,” he said. Cairns Regional Council will officially unveil the memorial today at 10.30am in Jess Mitchell Park, near the Rondo Theatre in Greenslopes St, Edge Hill.