Riccardo Checchi

It's messages like this one from Riccardo Checchi that remind me of the warmth and strong bonds that made EPT such a strong community, an extended family.

Dear Miss Carroli

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Riccardo Checchi. I am also a former EPT man. Actually, I am a bit more than that because I worked at SAE Milano for almost 12 years before moving to Australia in 1967.

During my years with both companies I have accumulated a knowledge of people and stories that could be of interest to those that were associated with EPT.

I am also in possession of documents that could be described as historical, i.e. I have the article of incorporation of the company in Australia, brochures, personal letters etc etc

Since my retirement I have toyed with the idea of writing about EPT.

I am glad that you beat me to it!

In case you wonder, I got your email address and phone number from Leo Di Rocco the last of a generation of Di Roccos working for the company.

Incidentally, after reading your Transmission Lines 1954-1974 I have spread the word around and I can assure you that there is a group of people interested in cooperating with you should you wish to expand the story.

How did I get in touch with others, you may ask? I am the person responsible for organizing the yearly reunion of the "EPT survivors", usually in a nice restaurant because as we say in italian "Tutti i salmi finiscono in gloria"

I take this opportunity to thank you for the marvellous job you have done (I hope it is only a start) and wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.

Warmest regards
Riccardo Checchi

I've since been in touch with Riccardo because of his genuine interest in writing a history and preserving the documents. This will mean a different trajectory of work and perhaps some consultation with the library about we might establish an archive. In a later message he said:

as far as I am concerned you can use anything you like to put together an EPT history but............. please just do it.

If there is anything to assist just let me know; I am even prepared to come to Brisbane to receive instructions. People like your father, Perissinotto, Ziliani, Guazzelli and many many others have done a lot not only for EPT but also for this country.

The electricity sparking from the Snowy Mountains Scheme comes from EPT. We watch television in Sydney through Channel 9, another EPT success. And what about Mt. Coo-tha and many many others. I am very passionate about this old company of ours.

The Perissinotto family are good friends of my family and I was glad to see Riccardo's reference to them. My mother continues to stay in touch with Elio and Rita. I remember days spent with the family at their farm in Gympie.

Antonio Cardinale, Paolo Cardinale

A lovely message from Carmen Caridinale via facebook about her nonno and father, former EPT workers Antonio Cardinale and Paolo Cardinale.

Hi Linda.

I came across your blog transmission line and was very impressed! my grandparents migrated from Italy to Marayong. My grandfather Antonio Cardinale worked in EPT for many years as the cook. After working at EPT my grandfather opened up a Caltex Petrol Station opposite marayong railway and continued to live in marayong with his wife Carmela, sons Victorrio and Paolo (my dad).

My dad married my mum and brought a house in marayong also, then i was born (1982), I was even baptized in at anthonys church by padre silvio and also my communion. I can remember dad telling me stories about EPT and he had alot of friends who lived in marayong and worked in EPT. Unfortunately my dad passed away 8 years ago so I can no longer hear the stories.

I love your blog as it reminds me of the past and the importance of culture.

Carmen cardinale

In a subsequent message, Carmen said "It would be great to find out if anyone remembers my nonno or my dad." She also gave me a photo of her father, Paolo Cardinale, at the helm of an EPT jeep, which I believe were ex-military. I remember bouncing around in the back of those things as a kid, when I accompanied my father on site visits.

More pictures from Marco Nanni

I didn't realise that Marco Nanni had posted more photographs to his Flickr photostream including some beautiful photos of the men at work and of life and conditions in the camps, including some encounters with wildlife.

An amazing couple of weeks

It's been a remarkable couple of weeks. Other than my home city being hit by severe flooding, I've received several emails from EPT workers and their families - all promising to share photographs and stories. This has prompted me to think a bit about Transmission Lines and perhaps the need for a more formal approach. This project started out as a bit of an experiment about developing personal/family histories via content sharing, just focusing on my father's life, but it now seems to be turning into a community - rather like the EPT camps which were the focus of so much of our families' lives. I'll be sharing the messages and photographs that have been sent to me and hopefully making some approaches to the State Library of Queensland to help me set up an archive. However, I do intend to retain the project as a personal project focused on modes of storytelling using online media.

I've loved reading the emails from the former workers and their families. And thank everyone who has been in contact. I've felt an instant rapport with each person as they talk about their fathers and grandfathers. Perhaps there needs to be another space for people to gather (facebook?) so that more of these stories can be shared. What a legacy!

More pictures from Mr Venturi

Some months ago Mr Venturi kindly emailed more photographs of the Marayong Camp taken in the mid 1950s by his father. The photographs show the Marayong office and steelworks under construction (1956).





He also sent a black and white photo showing the preparation (cut, shape and galvanisation) of the steel girders used in the transmission line towers.

Tesatura: photos from Marco Nanni

Marco Nanni has set up a Flickr photostream. These are incredibly evocative images that genuinely provide a sense of the height and heaviness of the work involved. Just look at the acrobatics of the workers! Here is a slide show of the images.



Thank you for sharing Marco!

Another story

This comment was posted to Transmission Lines and I thought it needed more prominence - another story about an SAE/EPT worker who made the journey to Australia. We may have some more photos to look at. Incidentally, I haven't been working much on the blog but I have some photographs from Giovanni Venturi which I will publish soon. I have also heard received a brief note from a former inspector who I will contact shortly.

Cara Linda,

hoping you do speak and read italian I will write it in italian, if you dont understand please let me know and I will try to write it in english.

Mi chiamo Marco Nanni, mio padre, morto nel 2003, si chiamava Umberto Nanni e venne in Australia nel 1954 insieme a mia madre per conto della SAE spa, approdando anche lui a Sidney e quindi inizialmente a Marayong. Era un geometra-topografo (surveyor) ed ha lavorato in molti dei progetti che hai menzionato nel blog e altri ancora. Io personalmente sono nato ad Adelaide nel 1959 al tempo dei progetti 275 Kv Port Augusta - Magill (Adelaide), della 132 Kv Port Augusta - Woomera e della prima antenna TV sul monte Lofty ad Adelaide di 513 ft.

Ho moltissime foto di tutti i cantieri, personale, operai etc, almeno un 300 foto che vorrei sistemare e pubblicare online pensi possa interessare ?

Dopo Adelaide ho vissuto i miei primi anni sul progetto 330 Kv Tumut-Yass, con campi a Wee Jasper, Goobragandra, Yarrangobilly, Mt.Kiandra fino a Cooma.

Mi ha lasciato degli scritti autobiografici e molte lettere di lavoro con la EPT e EC, oltre che le foto di cui ti dicevo.

Se pensi possa interessare fammi sapere...

salutoni, marco

Google Translate says:

My name is Marco Nanni, my father, who died in 2003, was named Umberto Nanni and came to Australia in 1954 with my mother on behalf of SAE spa, arriving in Sydney, and then he started at Marayong. He was a surveyor surveyor (surveyor) and has worked in many of the projects you mentioned in the blog, and more. I personally was born in Adelaide in 1959 to the time of the project 275 kV Port Augusta - Magill (Adelaide), 132 Kv of Port Augusta - Woomera and the first TV antenna on Mount Lofty in Adelaide of 513 ft.

I have a lot of photos of all the sites, staff, workers etc, at least 300 photos that I would like to fix and publish online you think might be of interest?

After Adelaide I lived my first years on the project 330 kV Tumut, Yass, Wee Jasper with fields, Goobragandra, Yarrangobilly, Mt.Kiandra to Cooma.

He left many letters and autobiographical writings of working with the EC and EPT, as well as photos of where I was saying.

If you think you might be interested let me know ...

Salutoni, marco

List of places

I was having dinner with my family at mum's place last night and needed to refer to an atlas. So I grabbed the Ampol Touring Atlas of Australia (4th edition, published in 1973) which has endured in the book shelves along with old school books and Readers' Digest editions classics. A yellowed sheet of paper slipped out while I was flipping through the maps. It turned out to be a list of place names where my father had worked. Another attempt at personal record keeping and I sometimes wonder if my father was worried about forgetting. Written in pencil in his ad hoc handwriting, there were new names on this list that aren't on the map or other records. My mother confirmed that the list represented places where my father had worked but that it wasn't complete - she noted a couple of places were not on the list. So I have a new source of information to cross reference with the other documents.

Digital Story on You Tube

This video was produced during a digital storytelling workshop at the State Library of Queensland - under the watchful guidance of Gavin and David. It extends the work of the Transmission Lines project.

Digital Story in Progress

I've been working on a digital story as part of a short course I'm doing at the State Library of Queensland. Here's some work in progress ... So far I've written the script - the video and audio is yet to come.


My father, like most, amassed a large collection of tools. If, when visiting my mother’s house, our visitors enter the garage, they are greeted by a massive shifting spanner hanging on the wall. At a half metre or so long, it’s not the sort of tool that easily fits into a utility belt or back pocket – “what do you use that for?” they’d ask. So I would explain that it belonged to my dad, who worked as a rigger and a linesman building high tension power lines for about 20 years. It’s almost a rite of passage as husbands are initiated into our family with each querying that spanner.

The company he worked for in Italy offered him a job in Australia. When his boat landed in Sydney in 1956, he was driven out to a camp at Blacktown to work on power lines in the city’s west. The company’s motto was ‘one tower per day’ regardless of weather conditions and terrain. He often spoke of the rigours of that life – while on the job he lived in camps with other workers, mostly migrants, in makeshift barracks – It was hard work in sometimes harsh country.

I used to think my father was a giant. He built big things, like high tension power lines, and had big tools, like that spanner. His voice boomed and his laugh roared. He had large hands, toughened by working with steel. He drove heavy vehicles and crossed great distances, stringing cable all the way.

He took pride in his work and my mother once told me that no one ever died in my father's gang when he was a foreman. She also told me that he had just the right touch for stringing those lines. My family often recalls its life as an itinerary. We lived here, then moved elsewhere, following the weave of the power lines.