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Rosario Corvaia first travelled to Australia in 1953 on the ship Oceania. Into his trunk he had packed his guitar and large flat metal container (fitted into the base) full of homemade olive oil. The Oceania arrived in Fremantle on 3rd April 1953 and a day later Rosario was driven to a limestone quarry near Wanneroo where he commenced work. His job was breaking up limestne and stacking the lime kilns, for which he was paid 2 pounds sterling a day. When the kilns were fired he earned an extra pound feeding logs into the kilns at night. He remained in the quarry for over a year, living in a lime-washed sapling and hessian hut. He then worked as a market gardener and later as a labourer in country towns of WA. In 1961 Rosario returned home to his village in Sicily. He married Carmela Salvia and they departed for Australia, arriving on 10 April 1962 and settling in Perth.

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