Liquor bottle, 1980, free-blown glass


Cultural background: My parents were both born in Portugal

Place of origin:                                   
Marinha Grande, Portugal

Start of migration journey:                  
I started in Marinha Grand, Portugal, then to Belgium and took a boat to London here
I flew to Australia in January 1968

Place of arrival in Australia :                   
Melbourne, Victoria - January 1968

First home in Australia :                          
Wallsend, NSW

Migration Accommodation:                               
Bonegilla, Victoria for two weeks and I was then sent to Wollongong, NSW for six months

Initial employment in Australia :              
My first job in Australia was as a railway labourer at BHP in Port Kembla

Other employment in Australia :              
1968 Master Blower, Phillips Lighting Industries, Wallsend, NSW.                   
1976-78 Part-time teacher of Glass Blowing, College of Advanced Education, Newcastle.
1979-82 Tutor in Glass Blowing at Caulfield Institute of  Technology (now Monash University).

Julio's story

I was born in Marinha Grande Portugal in 1933, a village with a long history for the ancient craft of glass blowing. At the age of twelve I became an apprentice in the National Fabrica de Vidros in Marinha Grande.  I told my parents that I wanted to go to work like my friends and they were clever enough to start me in a factory that also had a primary, secondary and even an industrial school.  So every day after work, I went to study until I was seventeen.  Then I worked in the factory for a few years and at the age of twenty one I was transferred to the Fabrica Abgolana. 

By 1956, I was a fully qualified Glass Blower and began work at the Vicris Glass Works.  Then in 1962, I became Master Glass Blower at the Dorsteenhutte Glass Works of Wolfach in the Black Forest of Germany, I was there for five years.  During this time I volunteered as an interpreter for the two hundred Portuguese workers in the township.

While I was in Germany two Portuguese men asked me to interpret for them in the Australian Embassy, which was four hundred kilometres away.  I was talking with one of the staff and a man called me over, he was the Australian Ambassador.  He asked my profession and when I told him that I was a Master Glass Blower the Ambassador said "Australia needs people like you" and he recommended me to come here.  

I arrived in Australia, January 1968, with my wife and eight year old son.  When I first came here I worked with BHP in Port Kembla as a railway labourer for six months.  Then we moved to Newcastle and I found Phillips Lighting Industries where I became a Master Glass Blower.  From 1976-78 I went to teach part time at College of Advanced Education in Newcastle and in 1979, I worked as a tutor in Glass Blowing at Caulfield Institute of Technology in Melbourne (now Chisholm) where I helped to establish the glass workshop, I stayed until 1982.    

In 1982 I moved to Tomago, a suburb of Newcastle and I set up my own studio where I developed some skills to do all of the work myself without the need for trained assistants.  I made tools and little turning machines to help me; they turn the blowpipe and warm it up for me while I am working on something else.  I do not know anyone else who works like this.

In 1998 I was asked by the Lord Mayor of Marinha Grande to return to Portugal as the guest of honour at the 2nd Biennale for glass artists.  In that same year I was asked to return to receive an award for the Most Internationally Recognised Master Glass Blower of Portugal.  The city was celebrating  250 years of glass blowing history with the official opening of the countrys' first glass museum by the President of Portugal.  

I have had many exhibitions both locally and internationally and in 2002 I collaborated with Stephen Skillitzi to create a show called 'War of the Worlds'.  Stephen came here and stayed for two weeks to discuss designs and do some work with me.  I did the blowing and Stephen assembled the pieces at his studio in South Australia(SA).  This was a travelling show starting in South Australia and has ended up here in my studio.

Last year in 2006 I was one of a few people who were presented with a Masters Degree by a glass school in Portugal called Crisform, College of Glass Masters.  It was opened in September 2005 and is one of the best glass schools in the world.

I now consider Australia my first country, I go to Portugal every year but after two or three months I am very happy to come back here.  The first two years when we arrived were very difficult but after that I started to like it here even more than Portugal.