Vale Francesco Biancuzzo: Much-loved Geraldton shoemaker dies at 89 after battle with Alzheimer’s

In the heart of Geraldton, there is a small shoe shop with a story that’s intertwined with the fabric of the community.

Francesco Biancuzzo died on Sunday, June 16, aged 89, leaving behind a legacy spanning decades of hard work, dedication and kindness.

Francesco’s journey began in 1956 in Capo D’Orlando, Sicily, when the 22-year-old borrowed money from his father to board a boat which would take him to Australia.

Driven by a dream, Francesco arrived in Fremantle with nothing to his name but a fierce determination to work, which he would be afforded after a chance meeting at a well-known Freo watering hole.

At the Sail and Anchor, Francesco — with his limited English, informed his friends he needed to go home. The next day he was getting the early train to Kalgoorlie where he had secured a job working on the rails.

Joe Biancuzzo, Francesco’s son, recounts: ”Tony Fowler said ‘oh no you don’t. You don’t have a job at the railway. I need a bootmaker tomorrow. You’re coming home with me’.”

The next day, Francesco got into a car and drove to Geraldton to begin work with Mr Fowler. He was an experienced bootmaker and had been learning the trade since he was 14 in Sicily.

Francesco returned to Italy in search of a girl named Nina whom he had fallen in love with before he moved to Australia. The pair married in Italy before coming back to Geraldton where they had three sons, Con, Joe and David.

In 1958, Mr Fowler told Francesco he would soon be retiring and gave him the opportunity to buy the shop off him — which Francesco did for $1500.

“He just wanted to work hard and do what he needed to do. He would work through the night by candlelight,” Joe Biancuzzo said.

“I know for a fact that my dad never had a day off, never complained. He got up and he loved going to work, and I feel exactly the same.” Joe Biancuzzo took over the family business, Central Shoe Store in Marine Terrace, in 2006.

He described his dad — a father of three and grandfather to nine — as the ultimate gentleman with the biggest heart.

“He was a small man but he had the biggest personality and everybody loved him,” he said.

Francesco, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease four years ago, succumbed to a brain bleed. He had lived at home in the loving care of his wife Nina until his last breath in hospital on Sunday.