Ross Rocca

Interview with Ross Rocca

Ross Rocca's family arrived from Italy and worked hard on their farm in Ryde. During World War II, although they were classed as 'enemy aliens', the Rocca family were not interned because they grew vegetables for supply to the Australian Army. Mr Rocca describes how the land use in Ryde changed after the War as land was resumed for housing development.

Interviewer: Pauline Curby 
Date of the interview: October 1998

Audio extracts (.wav format):

  1. Arriving from Italy
  2. Working on the Mangano's farm at Marsfield
  3. Starting the family farm at Small's Road, Ryde
  4. Farm duties and school days
  5. Providing vegetables to the Army during World War II
  6. Selling at Paddy's Market
  7. Chinese market gardens
  8. Housing Commission land acquisition

Transcript(PDF, 181KB) - 29 pages

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