Story of
Sterita Park
In 1952 Stefano (Steve) DiGiorgio, not yet 20 years of age, left the small village of Secinaro in Italy and boarded a ship for Australia.
He was an assisted migrant with 10 pounds in his pocket and one suitcase and he saw Australia as the land of opportunity. Unfortunately like so many other migrants he found himself incarcerated in the Williamstown Migrant Centre, despite the fact he had a contract to cut cane in Queensland.
He was shunted between military camps on the Mornington Peninsula and after pleading with the Italian Consul to go free he then moved to Lucindale to work on a farming property – Bokara Station as a farm labourer.
It was here that he developed a passion for machinery and livestock. Determined to fulfill his contract to cut cane, for the next three years he spent six months at Bokara and six months at Innisfail in Queensland.
During this time he kept in touch writing letters to his sweetheart Rita back in Italy. In late 1956 he returned to Italy to marry her.
Soon after arriving back in Australia with his bride he purchased 160ha of scrub which was the beginning of Sterita Park (Sterita comes from the combined names of Steve and Rita). He bought an old Track Marshall bull dozer and cleared a patch on the property to build their family home which still stands today.
Neighbours seeing what he had been doing with his dozer began asking him to do clearing work for them and this was the start of his earth moving and scrub clearing contracting business.
While Steve focused on his contracting business and developing his 160ha, Rita was milking up to 70 dairy cows up until the mid 1960’s. As more land was bought and developed the focus turned into sheep and beef cattle, predominantly Herefords. Steve loved his Herefords.
In the late 1970’s Angus bulls were introduced to join Hereford heifers for calving ease. Upon seeing how successful this was by the mid 1990’s all the Herefords were all but gone.
By this time the herd had grown significantly and we saw the necessity to breed some of our own bulls. Sourcing embryos from leading studs in Australia seemed a natural transition and progression for the herd. From the early 2000’s we began importing 30-40 embryos a year from the Sydenstricker (Sydgen) herd in Missouri, USA which has laid down the foundation for the herd where it is today.
Our inaugural sale was in 2008 opened by Ben Eggers from Sydgen, selling 30 bulls. Our annual offering has now grown to 100 bulls with a further 60-80 sold out of the paddock on farm.
Our philosophy and commitment to a balanced breeding approach remains our focus for the future.
