08 – Continental Music Club

Radio 2RG, corner Ulong & Olympic Streets, Griffith

The Continental Music Club was formed in 1951 with the aim of promoting integration and fostering greater cohesion amongst the highly segregated Italian population and the wider Griffith community. It broadcast a weekly program on the regional radio station 2RG in the Italian and Spanish language which included music, community news and farming advice. The club also organised a number of social and cultural activities. An initiative of Al Grassby (better known as the Federal Minister for Immigration under the Whitlam Labor Government between 1972 and 1974), it forged a new campanilismo (sense of community) in the Griffith area. The club provided the model for multilingual radio in Australia.