Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story

Barzelatto Menindee home


Accommodation

How different housing seemed in Broken Hill. We did not leave mansions behind, but most of our homes were made of stone or brick. The 'tinny' was quite a contrast: so too the boarding houses in which our single men were accommodated.








We lived in a shed that Ivan had built at the back of his father's house at 329 Piper Street. It was very nice — lovely bedroom. I had never had vinyl on the floor before and that was a lovely floral one. It was luxury. We had a lovely bed and furniture; everything was new. Ivan had it all organised for me. Ivan's step-mother and I used to cook together in the old house.
Jagoda Vlatko

We had a room in a big boarding house — single men's accommodation which was owned by Mr Puccini. We had our meals in another place.
Jack De Franceschi

I stayed in two places when I first came back to Broken Hill from Wilcannia. I stayed at 9 Argent Street with Emilio Giobbi and then moved to 53 Argent Street.
Luigi Zanette

We lived at Millie and Rudi Alagich's place for about six months. Millie is Nick's sister. Nick's parents came back to Broken Hill and we moved in with them for about a year. I had a child in that time and then we bought a house in Patton Street and have been here ever since.
Joyce Ravlich

I did the cementing for the foundations and I was always helping. The house was ready in 1954 and we have lived here ever since.
Dagmar Kanck

There was no bathroom; the shower was only a hose outside. The toilet was outside in those days and we went to the toilet before the cart men came to change the pan because afterwards the smell of phenol would cling to you!
Silvana Michl

I made about forty-six thousand cement bricks. I couldn't afford to put the roof on for about three or four years. Eventually I saved the money, bought the material and finished the roof and the inside of the house.
Con Frangonasopoulos

Mum and Dad came back to Broken Hill and lived at 341 Piper Street until she died in 1991. I can remember the house having wall-papered hessian backed rooms, and dirt floors in the kitchen and verandah.
Millie Alagich

Dad had a house ready for us in Crystal Street. There were two or three houses with one big yard. No fences between us and we were all Maltese.
Emily Tonna


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Barzelatto Menindee home


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Old tinny — many migrants settled in "tinnies"


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Red-roofed house — formerly Puccini's boarding house


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Norwegian embroidery