Bruno Sudiro was from an Italian migrant family, arriving in the Northern Rivers in 1949. Bruno has worked on dams, been a council worker, part of the bush fire brigade and part of an award-winning gardening team. Humans of Lismore Denise Alsion spoke to Bruno about his life so far.

I was born in Lismore Base and raised in Cawongla. Mum and Dad came out here from the north of Italy, about 75kms west of Venice, in December 1949 and went straight to Cawongla. I was born in August 1950. I went to the convent school in Kyogle.

My Mum had another baby boy in Italy before I was born. His name was Bruno too. That’s one of the main reasons they moved to Australia when he was 6 months old. He suffered from Bronchitis and lung issues and the Doctor said you need to move to a warmer climate for the baby.

My father had a brother already over here..Uncle Marino out at Cawongla. All the Sudiro’s eventually came out here because the poverty was so bad in Italy at the time and they had no future prospects. They all worked so hard out here from absolutely nothing to make something of themselves for their families.

My parents were coming over the Red Sea and on the way my little brother died. Back in those days they had to bury him at sea and Mum never ever got over it. She had nowhere to grieve and to have to throw your baby overboard into the sea. I can’t imagine the pain. It was so difficult for my Mum.

I came along the next year and my parents named me after my brother. Not long after, my sister Silvana came along. My Mum took a lock of my baby brothers hair and when she passed away last year we put his hair and other special things with Mum so she took him with her.

I spent most of my teenage years working with Dad on farms. When I was 19 Dad said there’s more to the world than the farm so I went to work for Transfield building a dam up in Emerald, QLD. After a while I scored a job at the Northpine dam for about 6 years.

In the meantime I had married in 72 and we had our first son David and decided to come home back to Kyogle. I ended up getting a job on Council and we managed the Kyogle Gardens Caravan park for about 23 years. After that I went and worked for facility maintenance with Council. I painted buildings, cleaned toilets, dug graves, you name it, we did it. I became a Gardener too and stayed on so 35 years all up with the Council. We had 3 boys, David, Stephen and Paul. My wife and I split in about 1994.

I was involved with the Bush Fire Brigade originally in Cawongla, then Brisbane and back with the Kyogle Brigade. In 1996 I was awarded the Australia Fire Service medal. Back in those days there were only two of us in NSW that got that award. I ended up weaning myself out of the brigade because it’s more of a young fella’s job.

We also got the award in 2012 for Tidy Town of NSW when I was the gardener. That was pretty cool. We missed by one vote of winning the Tidy Town of Australia. Ian Judd was the President of the Tidy Town Committee. He was incredible and deserves a mention. Fantastic bloke!

Mum and Dad moved to Girards Hill, Lismore in about 1972. I moved here in 2014 because Mum was getting on and she was by herself. We lost Dad in 2006. I looked after Mum. She wasn’t well at the end. She passed away and I’m still here and I miss her. I drink coffee (laughs), do a bit of fishing, motorbike riding and Marino and I have a little patch up at the Zanetti’s at Tullera where we grow a bit of this and a bit of that.

These days my son David is in Kyogle and has David’s Bakehouse, the bakery in town, Stephen is up in Brisbane and he’s a Welding Inspector and Paul works for the Tweed Council. David has 3 kids, Stephen has 3 and Paul has 2 so I have 8 Grandkids. I’m a very lucky man.

The Northern Rivers is a beautiful place to bring up kids but what I love now is as I’m getting on, I have all my specialists nearby and such a variety of fresh produce markets, cafes and restaurants. I can walk downtown. It’s a great place to live.”