ON Sunday, Sunraysia’s young star Dylan Stephens will make his senior AFL debut with the Sydney Swans, another talented person from this region.
Sunraysia has provided a pool of players at various levels of the game thanks to its huge enthusiasm for the sport, but footy, like all other community sport, would not survive and thrive without the commitment of many volunteers who dedicate their time and passion.
This was a snippet of a conversation around the table over a happy drink with the Lamattina family on the occasion of this week’s birthday of Rocky, the family’s patriarch and the extraordinary business brains behind Rocky Lamattina & Sons, producers of 25 per cent of Australian carrots.
Sport plays a big part in the recreational pastimes of sons Angelo, Phil and John, brothers of Teresa and Josephine, who are heavily involved with the Robinvale community and its football team.
But if sport gets them enthused and somewhat animated, nothing beats their enthusiasm for carrots, the crop the family has turned into big business over two generations of hard work, risk and sacrifice.
And, as Heath Kendall writes in today’s Sunraysia Daily, theirs is the quintessential migrant success story, thanks to initiative, vision and inventiveness.
I was stunned by the complexity of the machinery designed by Angelo to wash, sort by size and quality, and pack the carrots.
It is like watching an orchestra, or even better, something beautiful like synchronised swimming.
And the conversation, again over drinks, turned to the many innovations Rocky introduced over time and how many in this region, like him, had revolutionised horticulture and viticulture by perfecting technological solutions.
As you travel through Wemen, you hardly notice the sheds in the far background, towards the Mallee dunes to the south. Who would have thought that that site would become a major operation of that size and sophistication, employing more than 100 people, in less than three decades.
Rocky can proudly sit at the head of the family table, happy with his lifetime achievements.
But what took my imagination was not the material capital, but the number of chairs in one spacious dining room — I counted 30 over two long, wide tables.
I look inquisitively at Mrs Cathy Lamattina, but before I could say anything she read my mind, and she said firmly: “La famiglia, 30”.
Now, that’s something to be really proud of.
