September 8, 2013, marked the opening of the new church at Good Shepherd Catholic Parish in Kelmscott.
The highly anticipated event was attended by hundreds of parishioners and clergy including Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB.
Angelo Bongiascia, an Italian immigrant who has made Perth his home told The Record about the history of the building of Good Shepherd parish which began almost 50 years ago.
Mr Bongiascia owned the land that was used to build the parish church; his involvement with the parish began in 1960.
“I didn’t sell the land to the church,” Mr Bongiascia said.
At the time there were between 10 and 15 migrant families mainly from Italy and Ireland living in the area; all the families came together and donated the money to the parish to enable it to buy the land.
“The church was built,” Mr Bongiascia said. “My friend Carlo Rozoli helped me build the first altar.”
Good Shepherd Catholic Church opened in 1962, however, when the priest arrived he had no house to live in.
“He was a young priest from Ireland,” Mr Bongiascia said. “He wanted to build a presbytery but we had no land.”
However, Mr Bongiascia managed to secure 1¼ acres of land and the presbytery was built.
Between 1963 and 1964 he worked on the foundation tiles and groundwork around the presbytery and by the time Fr Brunetti arrived at the parish a few years later the church had a debt of $24,000.
“The ability and capacity of Fr Brunetti and the parishioners cleared the debt,” Mr Bongiascia said.
“Fr Brunetti was very good at begging for money from the people,” Mr Bongiascia said with a laugh. “He managed to get the church some pews because up until then we were using steel chairs.”
Mr Bongiascia and Fr Brunetti shared a close friendship.
Although Mr Bongiascia lived in Serpentine for 17 years on a farm, together with his wife Paola he travelled to Kelmscott for Mass every Saturday evening.
“We couldn’t get down for 6.30pm,” Mr Bongiascia said, “So Fr Brunetti made the time 7pm.”
Fr Brunetti decided to widen the church and he collected signatures from the people to ask the Archbishop for permission to do so.
Although Mr Bongiascia wasn’t so sure about signing the petition, he told Fr Brunetti he would do whatever work was required of him.
“I said to him, “I’ll do the foundations and bring it up to level, are you happy?”” Mr Bongiascia said.
“But Fr said I can’t go yet so I stayed till the brick work and tiles was done, I was willing to help.”
After Fr Brunetti retired, Salesian priests came to Good Shepherd Parish and alterations to the presbytery were made with the help of Mr Bongiascia.
“If anything had to be done I did it,” he said. The next stage in the history of the parish building was that the Salesians wanted to buy the presbytery.
Fr Wenting called Mr Bongiascia, asking him about buying the presbytery, which was owned by Mr Bongiascia’s friend.
“Norm owned it,” Mr Bongiascia said. “I told Fr if he wanted the house he needed to buy it tonight because tomorrow could be too late.”
Fr Wenting put the idea of buying the presbytery to the council but he also needed the approval of the committee.
“I was part of the committee with Mr Haydock and Mr Voysey,” Mr Bongiascia said.
“They said no.” It seemed as if Fr Wenting wasn’t going to be able to buy the presbytery but Mr Bongiascia boldly stepped in.
“I said if the Salesians want to buy the house and if they don’t want it no more I’m prepared to buy it at the price of the market,” Mr Bongiascia said.
After that Fr Wenting and the Salesians were able to buy the presbytery, which now belongs to the church and Mr Bongiascia helped them move in.
A few years later the land on Albany Highway became vacant and Fr Burnoli, the head of the Salesian Order in Melbourne, came to Perth to have a look around.
He decided he wanted to buy the land, so Mrs Bongiascia enquired about the land and told her husband that it was for sale and owned by the Uniting Church.
“It was going for around $8,000,” Mr Bongiascia said.
“So I told the Uniting Church your church has no money and our church has no money.”
The Uniting Church sold the land to the Salesians for $5,000 and years later the Salesians built the parish hall on the land.
“Peter the architect got it ready with drawings,” Mr Bongiascia said. “I did the floor and the brickwork.”
Fr Murphy from Melbourne opened the parish hall in the 1980s.
The Salesians left the parish and the Neocatechumenal Way came to Good Shepherd but the building of the parish continued with the setting of the fence due to unforseen trouble.
“We had vandals,” Mr Bongiascia said. “I said we should put up a fence but nobody would listen then I told Fr Melvin to put up a fence and we’ll have less trouble.”
Peter the architect was once again called upon and he drew up the plans resulting in a fence being built around the parish compound to make it more secure.
“I did a lot of work on the tiles, the fence, the brick paving and the presbytery,” Mr Bongiascia said.
He also built the grotto 30 years ago.
“It is very special because it is Our Lady in the grotto,” Mr Bongiascia said.
The grotto reminds Mr Bongiascia of his hometown, a small city called Sondrio, north of Italy and close to Milan.
“I used to go to Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Italy,” Mr Bongiascia said. “And our grotto reminds me of that.”
Mr Bongiascia immigrated to Australia in 1949. He was married at St Anne’s in Belmont in 1954 and next year marks the 60th anniversary of his wedding to Mrs Paola Bongiascia.
“My trade is building,” he said.
“I didn’t know much English and I didn’t have much of an education because growing up during World War II, most of our teachers were in the army.
“But I wanted to be able to do something good, not just for the Church, but for the people and for God.”