The Spagnolo Family Legacy
Discover the story of a family whose journey from Calabria to Griffith helped shape generations of business, community leadership, and lasting relationships across the Riverina.
OUR FAMILY STORY
Celebrating Generations of Family, Heritage & Community
On September 13, 1949, Giuseppe Spagnolo and his sister Mary stepped off the ship Sorrenti onto Australian soil after 24 days at sea. They had left Plati in Reggio Calabria with a trade, a suitcase and the hope that this vast, unfamiliar country might offer something Italy could not.
They would not be alone for long. One by one, the Spagnolo siblings followed with Antonio the year after, then Caterina in 1951, Francesco in 1952 and Teresa in 1953. Each arrival was a small reunion, and each farewell back in Plati another act of courage.
But parents Rocco and Domenica could not come. Strict medical immigration laws barred Domenica from entry. She had high blood pressure, and at a time when medication to treat it simply did not exist, she was left with no choice but to manage it through her own determination and wait.
For eight years, Rocco and Domenica remained in Italy while their children built new lives on the other side of the world. In 1957, they finally made the crossing to Australia, and the family was whole again for the first time in nearly a decade.
Like most immigrants, the family sought any work they could find, mostly demanding factory work in the western suburbs of Sydney. While the work was hard and the days long, all 11 children saved fastidiously for their future.
In 1957, Giuseppe married Rita, from the now-famous Calabria wine family. She grew up on a property without running water and had to fetch it from the channel for cooking and washing. Together in Griffith they made an impact.
Giuseppe put his training as a tailor to good use, opening a dry-cleaning and menswear shop on Banna Avenue in Griffith – Continental Dry Cleaners and Men’s Wear – which offered a pick-up and drop-off service and became a fixture of the town.
Rita was a tireless worker, growing vegetables, assisting her father in winemaking and making salami from the home-raised pigs she fed twice daily. She taught English to the latest arrivals of Italian girls and women and interpreted for them at doctors’ and solicitors’.
“Despite her young age, Mum never shied from hard, physical labour,” Roy says. “Her father told her a lifetime of stories which she thankfully passed down to us.”
Life for the next generation wasn’t all that different. Roy grew up on his grandfather’s property, sharing his bedroom with a relative. With an Italian-born father and an Australian-born mother, he grew up speaking both languages.
School in the 1960s was never going to be easy, not with a surname that sounded different and when you took your own special bread to school. “Fifty years later, that bread has become a delicacy,” Roy laughs.
On weekends and after school he worked at the winery, learning the business from the bottom up, never dreaming that one day many of the New World wineries would become major clients. He left school in Year 10, briefly considered becoming a panel beater, then decided a wine chemist sounded more glamorous.
An uncle urged him to look elsewhere. Roy moved to Sydney for three years to study accounting.
Following the death of his father in 1983, Roy returned to Griffith to help his mother and younger sister Mim. That’s when he met Lisa while working at Higgins Plos, where he spent 13 years learning the ropes. In 1997, Roy established Roy Spagnolo & Associates, and the practice has grown steadily ever since, today employing over 40 staff across a wide range of industries, including agriculture and wine and spirits. Roy credits his success to spending quality time with clients, anticipating their needs and nurturing growth. “We work hard ensuring our clients feel valued and aren’t just a number,” he says. His passion for Griffith has never dimmed. By using his contacts, he has been able to make things happen – bringing The Today Show to town, NRL games, concerts and special events. Roy spent five years as a volunteer firefighter and a similar period teaching accounting and real estate at TAFE, and he continues to mentor young professionals within the community.
His greatest love is reserved for the two women in his life, wife Lisa and daughter Olivia, who now works in the family business. “After trying for ten years, our miracle child was born two months premature, weighing less than a kilogram. She spent a few difficult months in hospital after a trying pregnancy.” He pauses. “Olivia is a beautiful girl inside and out. I would gladly give up everything I have for her in a heartbeat.” That experience, in part, helps explain the family’s significant fundraising efforts for the St Vincent’s Private Community Hospital, which became a reality for Griffith and the surrounding region in 2016. Roy says it was a humbling moment seeing the hospital named the Casella Spagnolo Building. The Spagnolo family story – from a small general store in Plati to a thriving practice on Yambil Street – is one of hard work, generosity and deep community roots. And Roy has never forgotten where it all began. “The harder you work, the luckier you become,” he says. “Remember that anything is possible if you try hard and have the right attitude. “Never forget where you come from. Show humility and respect and always try to give back to your community.”
Great advice from a man whose family has been doing exactly that for more than seventy years.
