Mr Filippo Casella and Casella Wines

The Hon. TONY CATANZARITI [3.00 a.m.]: Tonight I wish to talk about Mr Filippo Casella—a remarkable man from the Riverina. I am sure many members would be familiar with the name Casella and that they would be aware that Casella Wines is the home of the famous Yellowtail wine, which is crushed at the facility in Yenda and which accounts for a staggering 10 per cent of the entire Australian annual vintage crush. The wine is then exported across the globe. Members would also be aware that Casella Wines employs 500 permanent employees, has 600 contract grape growers, and Yellowtail is the number one exported wine in the United States of America and Canada. However, many members will not know of Filippo Casella, who started this great Australian agricultural success. Tonight I wish to rectify that oversight.

Filippo Casella was born in Sicily on 24 October 1920, educated through the public system to grade 5, and privately educated from grade 6 to grade 10. At the age of 15 Filippo worked in vineyards throughout Sicily for four years. In 1939, sensing that war was imminent, 19-year-old Filippo volunteered to go to Africa and he served as a radio operator with the Bersiglieri—the elite motorised force. Radio operators were not issued with a rifle, and with only a pistol Filippo was ordered to advance on a tank that swept through a local village, gunning the houses one by one.

During an attack in 1941 Filippo was captured and placed in a prisoner of war camp in India and he was under British control for the next five years. There he was fortunate to be surrounded by academics and, under their guidance, he studied French and English, astronomy and mathematics and, under Professor Pietro Voluti of Dugesia, he studied world and Italian politics. As well as mastering English he was able to speak the local Indian dialect, which was useful when trading for blankets, food and cigarettes. After the war Filippo married Maria in 1947 in Sicily and he migrated to Australia in 1951, with Maria joining him in 1957.

Filippo and Maria have four children—Rosa, Joe, John and Marcello. Filippo worked hard as a cane cutter and fruit picker, moved between Queensland and Griffith, and finally settled in the Griffith area in 1962. He began share farming in Yenda, bought the Casella site in 1965, and started making wine in 1969. Filippo was finally recognised for his war efforts and the National Association Combatence presented him with the War Merit Cross along with medal decorations for the 1940 to 1943 campaign of Libya and the 1943 to 1945 liberation of Italy.

I was honoured to be present and to share a great moment when the New South Wales Italian Consul General, Benedetto Latteri, presented those medals to Filippo and spoke of the significance that surrounded them. Filippo's son John acknowledged and thanked the Consul General on Filippo's behalf. The medals took many years to find their way to Filippo, and local consul representatives worked hard with Italian authorities to make the day happen.

Winemaking had been passed through the generations to both Filippo and Maria and it was only natural that this progression continued. The Casella family started producing wine on their property on farm 1471 Yenda in 1969. Filippo would take family members with him on his biannual trip to Queensland, being away for months at a time selling their wines to family and friends with whom he had built strong bonds from his time as an itinerant worker cutting cane and picking fruit. He made this trip right up until 1990. Filippo has continued his winemaking heritage and in Australia has built an empire that continues his family heritage. I congratulate Filippo on his remarkable life and achievements.