The rich history of Canberra's Italian community won't be forgotten as its social club of more than five decades is moved, the club's president has promised.
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And the downsizing of the Italo Australian Club's footprint – with a redevelopment expected on its adjoining block in Forrest – is a reminder of just how impressive the efforts of its 217 founding members were.
Tony Vecchi, 79, of Lyons, was a backhoe operator and one of those founding members who donated their labour and money to create the first club building, opened in 1963.
"It was £3.50 to be a member [then a week's wage] ... we built the first stage with just a little room," he said.
Iseo Forna, 74, of Curtin, said he provided 31 days' free labour.
Aided by the construction industry's 3.30pm clock-off, the men made good use of their handiwork once the doors opened, regularly visiting seven days a week.
"Mostly we played cards, tressette and briscola," Mr Vecchi said.
The organisation was first formed as the Italian Club in the early 1950s.
The purpose-built clubroom catered for an Italian community boosted by the federal government post-war immigration drive, including many Snowy Hydro scheme workers.
The number of Canberrans born in Italy nearly quadrupled from 328 in the 1954 census to 1276 seven years later.
While a place for the culture and language of home, the club also embraced the policy of assimilation, with a monthly "Meet your friends" night to welcome Australians initiated soon after its opening.
Club president Claudio Ciuffetelli said the expansive two-storey Franklin Street building, extended on several occasions, was now financially unsustainable as lifestyles and government policy on gaming machine compliance shifted in the last 20 years.
"In the mid to late '90s, the Club lost its relevance as the necessary transition of generation change in terms of the management and positioning of the Club failed to occur," he said.
"It is likely we'll have a smaller, more sustainable, affordable facility, probably over on the culture centre block of land – we'll have an integrated cultural hub that will be in demand.
"It will be the little Italy of Canberra."
Mr Ciuffetelli said the club's deconcessionalised crown lease for its existing site, granted last year, had recently been registered with the Land Titles Office.
While it is hoped the new venue, first envisaged in 2009, will reinvigorate the membership – now about 3000, down from more than 7000 in the mid-'90s – for some the club has never stopped being at the centre of their lives.
"We still come every day – we probably don't drink as much as we used to," Mr Forna said with a grin.
Clarification: While a new Italo Australian Club building is likely to be built on the Italian Cultural Centre block of land, there are no plans for changes to the cultural centre itself, contrary to a photo caption in an earlier version of this article.
