Overview

In 1940, as ever more countries lined up on either side of burgeoning global conflict, Italian migrant families in Australia were forcibly separated. While the men were rounded up and imprisoned in internment camps, the women were left to carry on alone in isolated pockets of community in suburbs like Carlton. Having little more than one another for company and the generations of tradition they had brought with them, these trailblazers would go on to transform the country they made home. In the wave of immigration that followed the end of World War II, Italian women were once again at the forefront of rebuilding the lives of their families. In the process, they left a lasting influence on Australian culture, permeating the realms of fashion, business, community leadership and more.