Franco Belgiorno-Nettis is one of a handful of post-war migrant pioneers who contributed to get Australia 'off the sheep's back', transforming the country into a modern industrial nation.
Image: 1960s. Pipe-smoking Franco at his desk in Transfield House.
The eldest of three children, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis was born on 20 June 1915 in Cassano delle Murge, a small town in the region of Apulia, one of the poorest parts of Southern Italy.
Following in his father Giovanni steps, an engine driver in the Italian Railways, at the age of eighteen Franco became Italy's youngest Deputy Station Master at Trebisacce, in Calabria.
Having won a scholarship to attend the Turin Military Academy, after a five-year course he graduated as a Lieutenant in the Engineer Corps.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered to be sent to North Africa, where he served with distinction, was injured and in 1942 was awarded a Silver Medal for bravery. During the same year he was captured by the British and transported to a prisoners-of-war camp in India.
At the end of the war, he returned to Turin, where he graduated in civil and electrical engineering.
In 1948, he found employment in Milan, with Società Anonima Elettrificazione SpA (SAE), a company specialising in the construction of power lines. In 1951, he was sent to Australia, together with Carlo Salteri, a mechanical engineer, to help build the country's first steel tower high voltage transmission lines, on behalf of SAE's Australian subsidiary company, Electric Power Transmission Pty Ltd (EPT).
In December 1951 he married by proxy his fiancée Amina Cerino-Zegna, whom he had met in Turin and who joined him in Sydney in 1952. They would have three sons, Marco, Luca and Guido.
Realising Australia's potential, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis left EPT and registered his own construction and civil engineering business, Transfield Pty Ltd. in June 1956. Later in November that year, Carlo Salteri joined him as partner and Joint Managing Director of the new company.
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1964. Belgiorno-Nettis and Salteri at the beginning of their partnership.
The beginning was modest. Franco recounted that "I had to collect all my tools from my home and bring them to the site in Port Kembla, even the forks and spoons to give to the first people to start eating".
Transfield quickly developed into a serious player in Australia's engineering contracting business. In 1957 they purchased the site at Seven Hills, Sydney, where they would build their main factory, and in 1958 the subsidiary construction company SABEMO was established.
During the same year Transfield was awarded the contract for the construction of the longest power line in Australia, and in 1960 the company entered the competitive field of power generation by winning the bid for the construction of the Barron River Hydro Electric Extension Scheme, in Queensland.
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The rise of Transfield was due to a combination of favourable circumstances. As FBN put it: "Success or failure is influenced by a multiplicity of factors... A natural curiosity, a sense of adventure, enthusiasm, patience and good luck".
By 1961, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, who had become a naturalised Australian citizen in 1959, established the Transfield Art Prize. "I always felt", he explained, "I could be an unofficial ambassador, use Transfield to build a link between Italian and Australian culture". The Prize run until 1969. At the same time, Franco launched the Transfield Book Production Awards, and in 1968 set up at his Seven Hills factory the first Australian foundry for sculpture. For his generosity to the arts he would soon be dubbed "the Australian Lorenzo the Magnificent".
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Franco in front of his portrait, in the garb of a Renaissance man, painted by Pio Carlone.
By 1965, Transfield was employing 2000 people, many of whom were migrants of non-English-speaking background. "In a way Transfield, at that time, was a little immigrant complex", FBN said. During the same year, at Clontarf on Sydney Harbour, FBN completed the construction of his house, which Woman's Day lauded as being "of magnificent design" and "a striking example of his work".
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Franco and Amina Belgiorno-Nettis relaxing at their home in Clontarf during the 1960s.
FBN's involvement in the arts continued in 1973, with the launch of the first Biennale of Sydney, and in 1988 with the construction of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He would later say that "for more than thirty years, I have had the good fortune to share exciting periods of life with so many Australian artists".
One of the most exciting moments in FBN's life was when Pope John Paul II visited Transfield's Seven Hills works in 1986. He later described his conversation with the Pope as follows: "He spoke of his own experience as a labourer, about the dignity and satisfaction of everyday work, the sense of communion and self-esteem in the workplace and as part of a family".
In 1989, Both Franco and Carlo Salteri retired as Joint Managing Directors of the company, to be replaced by their eldest sons, respectively Marco and Paul. However, FBN lost none of his zest for life. In 1991, aged 76, he took a solo pilot licence.
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1989. Carlo, Marco, Franco and Paul at the time of the elders making way to the younger generation.
During his long life, FBN received many awards for his activities. Among them, in 1974 he was made CBE: Commander of the Order of the British Empire; in 1985, AM: a Member of the Order of Australia; in 1990 he received a Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Wollongong and in 1993 was awarded Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic.
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On the 8th July, 2006, while in Italy with his wife Amina at Le Grazie, near La Spezia, a 91 year old Franco Belgiorno-Nettis suffered a terminal stroke while repairing some flaking paint on a wall. His death was emblematic of the man's character: he worked up to his last minute and left us in a hurry. He ended his days in the land that forged his personality and nurtured his artistic imagination. His departure marks the close of the pioneering migrant period of Transfield in post-war Australia. He is sadly missed by Amina, sons Luca, Guido and Marco.
Image Gallery
MILITARY ACADEMY
EARLY YEARS
Peter Collins AM on Transfiled's First Contract...and more.
Prisoner of War in India.
War Years
