Anna Camarda

Front door open – fridge door open!

Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Anna was born in 1950 in Monteodorisio in the  Abruzzo region of Italy. Postwar rebuilding was underway, but central Italy still bore the scars of bombing, damaged infrastructure and economic hardship. Unemployment was high and the lira (the currency of Italy) had collapsed in value. Seeking a better future, Anna’s father Giuseppe migrated to Western Australia.

Young Anna on the steps of her family home in Monteodorisio, Abruzzo – a shy but sweet moment. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Grazia  with her daughters Rosina and Anna in Monteodorisio – a family in limbo while Giuseppe worked in Australia to build a future for them.
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Official family portrait – mother Grazia, Anna, father Giuseppe and sister Rosina, shortly before her father’s departure for Australia, 1952

Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Five years later, Anna and her mother Grazia and sister Rosina boarded the Australia to reunite with Giuseppe, whom Anna had not seen since she was 18 months old. The voyage was difficult, with Grazia and many others suffering seasickness, while she and her sister wandered the ship. When they arrived in April 1957, Anna remembers her mother pointing to Giuseppe, a distant figure waving from the dock. Their quiet, emotional reunion marked the start of a new life together.

Aboard the Australia, 1957. Anna (far right) with sister Rosina and two other young passengers bound for a new life in Fremantle. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

The family settled in East Fremantle on Preston Point Road, where they lived until the early 1970s. Guiseppe worked as a labourer while Grazia held several jobs, mainly as a hospital cook. Anna adapted quickly to school, learning English with ease and later studying English and English Literature at tertiary level. 

Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Teenage Anna on the bonnet of the family Holden, East Fremantle. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

In the mid-1960s, Jimmy Camarda met Anna by chance in Fremantle and was immediately struck by her beauty and charm. After a courtship of more than three years, they married at the Immaculate Conception Church in East Fremantle on 22 July 1967.

Jimmy was a lobster fisher from a proud Sicilian family that had worked the coast off Fremantle for decades. His grandfather Francesco had arrived in the 1885, followed by his father Fedele in 1908 – just 12 years old. Francesco worked hard and shared cramped quarters with other fishers in a world far from home. He began pushing a cart from Rockingham to the old Fremantle Fish Market to sell his catch, before settling in Fremantle like many of his peers.

Fedele turned to fishing and craypotting aboard the Bruno. Pulling up pots by hand without a winch was relentless work. Once he had enough crays to sell, he carried his catch to the old jetty behind Cicerello’s at Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour, selling them by the baker’s dozen. Fedele eventually married Francesca, and together they raised nine children, including Jimmy.

Anna and Jimmy built a life of love, family and enterprise, becoming one of Western Australia's most respected pioneering fishing families. Equal partners in life and business, Jimmy worked long hours crayfishing initially aboard the Cinderella, while Anna raised their children and managed the accounts. By 1971, with three children and a growing business, her days began in the quiet darkness of 1.30 am preparing sandwiches and coffee for the crew before turning her attention to the children and household.

In 1972, they partnered with Jimmy’s brother to buy the Minnamurra, and by the 1973–74 season, Jimmy was skippering the Alice. Anna’s foresight and tireless work also helped fund new ventures, leading to the acquisition of Neptune II and III – the foundation of the family business that still exists today. 

Their eldest son, Fedele, joined the industry in 1986 during the America’s Cup in Fremantle. Today, three generations work aboard the Neptune III – Jimmy, sons Fedele and Joe, and grandson James. Fedele also serves as deputy chair of the Western Rock Lobster Council and as a Fremantle councillor.

Anna with husband Jimmy, about 1980. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda.

The Camarda family’s identity is deeply tied to Fremantle’s Blessing of the Fleet, first held in 1948 and celebrated annually for more than 75 years. The tradition began in Molfetta over a century ago, when a statue of the Madonna was carried from the church and placed onto local boats to bless them. The ritual sought protection for fishers at sea and bountiful catches.

In Fremantle, the festival remains a highlight for fishing families – a time of devotion, pride and storytelling, as old traditions are shared with new generations. In 2021, Anna and her family had the honour of carrying the Madonna aboard Neptune III – a treasured moment in their family’s history.

Anna and husband Jimmy with family members building traditional beehive pots – once a familiar sight in Fremantle backyards and central to Western Australia’s lobster industry. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

At the helm of Neptune III, Anna and Jimmy steer through Fremantle waters – finding rare quiet moments amid the demands of fishing life.
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Out at sea on Neptune III, Anna shows off the day’s catch. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Anna aboard Neptune III, in the waters off Fremantle.
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Recent years have brought tough times for the family’s crayfishing business, testing Anna and Jimmy’s endurance. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and Chinese trade restrictions devastated the industry worth more than half a billion dollars. With planes grounded and restaurants closed, demand collapsed.

Almost all of Western Australia’s lobster catch – 95 per cent – had been exported live to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where buyers paid up to $90 a kilo, compared to less than $30 locally. When China stopped accepting shipments, tonnes of live lobsters were left stranded in airports and warehouses.

For many fishers, it seemed the end. However, working with others the Western Rock Lobster Council persuaded the WA Government to revive an old tradition – legalising ‘back of boat’ sales. Neptune III became the first vessel in WA to sell directly from the wharf, just as Jimmy’s grandfather had done a century earlier. Through tenacity and Anna’s skill in diversifying the family’s businesses, they weathered the crisis. Today, the family continues to prosper.

Away from boats and markets, Anna is just as well known for her cooking and hospitality. Her motto says it all: ‘Front door open – fridge door open!’ Every meal Anna prepares is made with love, and her kitchen is a sanctuary – a place where children and grandchildren drop by daily for coffee, snacks, a meal and plenty of laughter. Her table is always abundant, especially during celebrations, when she serves family favourites such as pasta marinara, porchetta, beef braciole, crayfish dishes, cutlets and tiramisu, alongside classics from beyond Italy like sweet-and-sour pork, apple crumble and her show-stopping pavlovas.

Sea of tomatoes ready to be transformed  into passata, keeping family traditions alive. 
Credit: Anna and Jimmy Camarda

Anna is the heartbeat of the Camarda family, offering constant, gentle support and unwavering love. She and Jimmy are proud parents to Fedele, Francesca, Joseph, and Steven, and devoted grandparents to James, Nicholas, Michael, Olivia, Jordan, Mitchell, Jack, Riley, Jayden, and Alanah – the centre of Anna’s world.

Anna’s own mother taught her that commitment to family is everything, a legacy she has carried forward as a nonna herself. Brava Anna!