Lowveld - Dec 2019

ITALIAN
PASSION
Putting Low’s
Creek on the map
Little remains of the Italian heritage of Low’s Creek and the community of settlers
that coloured the landscape with fruit and vegetable farming in the 1900s to
1980s. But Giovanna Secco, one of the last remaining Italian settlers, has upheld
her family’s passion for farming, turning Low’s Creek into a hub of papaya and
macadamia production.
Text and photographer: Lindi Botha
Bfor life.
orn in Australia of Italian descent,
Giovanna has stayed true to her roots,
placing family above everything and
carving out an existence through
hard work, perseverance and a lust
Spending most of her childhood in Australia,
the family was cast back to Italy for a brief time
to care for her grandmother when she fell ill.
En route back to Australia, family responsibility
guided them to South Africa when Giovanna’s
aunt passed away, leaving a thriving farm that
needed to be taken care of before the family
could return home. They started working on
Kudu Farm in Low’s Creek on January 1, 1970.
Considering the volatility of the era, the family
was warned not to invest too much into the
country, as the outlook was not positive. “But my
aunt wanted the legacy of her family and the
farm to carry on, so we just continued with the
papayas and vegetables being cultivated.”
Giovanna’s father started planting mangoes, and
she recalls asking him why he is planting fruit
that the family would not be there to harvest in
five years’ time. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, if we are
not here someone else will be here to pick the
mangoes.’ And we are still picking them! We don’t
plant commercially anymore, but we have kept
a few that my father planted and they are not
going anywhere.” After four years Giovanna and
her brother, Dennis, were plunged even further
into the farming business when her father took
a step back and handed over the reins. Then in
1993, Dennis made the move back to Australia
with his family, but continued commuting to
The Catholic church at Tonetti still stands today
40 Get It Lowveld December 2019