Dino Pezzino was the Master Shoemaker that inspired Ernesto Sirolli’ work in 1980 in Western Australia

To Joe and Charlie Pezzino, to Dino’s family and friends.


In Death of Dino Pezzino

For the past thirty years Dino has honored me with his friendship. He was like an uncle to me and I went to see him every time I was in Western Australia. Dino was truly a great man. Generous, friendly and …funny! He was the force behind the Fremantle Shoemakers Cooperative and few people truly understood that he taught Australian unemployed kids for free, in the evenings and out of his great heart. He was taken to court by the Shoemakers Union because he was teaching unemployed kids without having a Ticket to do so. So Dino submitted himself to be examined by a panel of expert shoemakers, half of which he had taught the trade (!), got a Ticket and got the satisfaction of winning the court case. Not only did he win, the Judge highly praised his work, awarded damages against the Union and the Fremantle Shoemakers Cooperative, received the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Award for best job creation scheme in Australia in 1982.

A master in his art, Dino commanded the respect, even the awe, of the men and women he taught. He started his apprenticeship in Sicily when he was fourteen years old in his uncle’s shop. His first job was to straighten used tacks that his uncle had used to make shoes. He became very good and his skills literally saved his life. As a prisoner of war he was interned at Buchenwald where he was asked whether he wanted to work or not. He offered to work and was sent to a factory that made shoes for the German army. Here during his lunch hours, with leather from the seat of a downed US Bomber, he made a pair of boots. A German officer took notice and asked whether Dino could make him a pair….very soon ALL the German officers wanted his boots and Dino was handsomely paid, in army rations!

That’s Dino for you, the ultimate charmer, the friendly, funny, gifted artisan who only did, beautifully, what he loved to do.

You were an inspiration Dino, travel well my friend. I know precisely who got to get a beautiful pair of Kangaroo leather’ moccasins, like the ones that I still have in my wardrobe. I never thought that I would be jealous of the Almighty because of an infinite supply of Dino’s shoes!


Ernesto Sirolli