Vilma Brunato has gathered some great memories in Werribee over five decades.
She shares them with Adem Saban.
What brought you to Werribee?
Marriage. I always used to come down here on weekends to visit my cousins, but I moved here when I married my husband Marc.
Where did you come from?
I was born in a town called Treviso in Italy, but I came to Melbourne at the age of three.
I lived in South Melbourne and absolutely loved it.
I could ride my bike to town, to the beach.
I used to say I’d never ever leave.
But you did, for Werribee?
Yes. When I moved here I came to this little old house and it had these cupboards: one was black, one was yellow, one was red, one was blue.
I sat down on the ground and cried that “I want to go back home”.
Now I would never leave Werribee.
What’s changed from then to now?
Everything. The people … now there are too many people.
The shops have changed, too.
Back then you could walk in and people would say, “Oh, Vilma, your product is over there”.
Now it’s so busy you can’t get anyone to serve you.
It’s no longer a country town.
So you raised your kids here in Werribee …what was that like?
Easy. We lived on Wedge Street and had half an acre vacant next door.
All the neighbours would send their kids down there and everybody would use it as a football and soccer ground.
We had plenty of pets.
Walking to school, we’d let the dogs and cats and chooks and ducks out, and they’d follow us down.
You just don’t get that anywhere these days.
What’s life like today?
I have 12 grandkids, which takes up a lot of time.
Over the school holidays I took nine of them to the zoo; we had to take a bus.
They really enjoyed it.
When all of the Brunatos get together – and there are a lot of us – we have a picnic down at Werribee Park.
It’s a lot of fun; the kids get out the water bombs. It’s great.
