Carmelo (Charlie) Cacciola

New Farm State School ‘Old Boy’ Carmelo (Charlie) Cacciola’s has won two1st placings at the prestigious Australian Songwriters Association (ASA) Music Awards and nominated for a Golden Guitar.

Carmelo, also known as Charlie, was born in the small town of Caltabiano in Sicily. At the age of 4 he migrated with his family to Brisbane in the early 1950’s.

It took a while to adjust to the hustle and bustle of city life, especially as his parents wouldn’t allow him to speak English at home to preserve his cultural heritage.
Charlie began school at NFSS where Miss Goforth was his first teacher. He spent most of his youth working in his parents’ fruit shop at 720 Brunswick Street New Farm before, after school and weekends.
The shop located opposite the Astor Theatre was the drop in place for many of the who’s who around Brisbane in the 1960’s: Channel Nine presenter Ron Cadee, Olympian Hughie Williams who jogged with Charlie around the New Farm Park roses, local politicians like Sam Ramsden for whom he interpreted for the local Italian community, Australian Middle Weight champion who introduced Charlie to the Varsity Boxing club located by the Brisbane River near the Botanical Garden and he also met quite a few notorious characters of the sixties.
After leaving Kelvin Grove High School in 1964, he worked in the fruit shop between jobs and left home to start his 31-year career in the CBA in 1967 in Stanthorpe. Despite being told by his football coach that he was too scrawny to play grade Rugby League, Charlie made his 1st grade debut against Tenterfield NSW at just 18 years old.
At age 12 Charlie began a lifetime of community work when Beattie Dawson of Annie Street New ‘recruited’ students for the Mater Hospital door knock appeal.
Dressing as Santa Clause for the kids, mentoring young people, football coaching, assisting and supporting vulnerable young people and even contributing to the 2000 Commonwealth Boys’ Education Inquiry was all part of Charlie’s life.
The bank job took Charlie across Queensland from Stanthorpe, as far north as Hughenden, and even south to Sydney. He participated in the CBA’s Queensland Efficiency Review during 1980’s Hawke/Keating Banking reforms in which he advocated for changes to employment practices and more part-time roles for women returning to work.
In the 1970’s he successfully advocated for policy changes in the bank enabling women to obtain loans in their own right – an achievement he considers as one of his most significant. All this and more are penned in his unpublished auto biographies ‘Before the Sun Sets’ and ‘My Second Life.’
Towards the end of his corporate life at 60 years of age, he decided to pursue a life-long passion for writing, and began writing stories about migrants and the Australian way of life.

Writing in various genres, he co-authored a true crime novel, and penned children’s books, ‘James, Emily and the Storm Bird’ and ‘Zachery and Nonno’ go to the Races.

Charlie married into country music when he met a dairy farmer’s daughter, Lynda, in the small country town of Mundubbera, in the Burnett. From the first time he smelled a gum leaf and the dust he was captivated by the Australian bush.

Charlie’s songwriting journey began when he met singer/songwriter Jim Harding in 2010 at The Sundowners Country Music Club. Jim, a rugged country boy was also in the Burnett in the 1960’s working as a wrangler but they didn’t know each other then.

Before Jim sadly died of cancer in 2014, and inspired by their life and adventures in the Burnett, Charlie and Jim wrote City Boys and Cowgirls, Wonderful You, Nothing Compares to Your Smile, The Second Time Around, and Our Journey of Love.

Charlie wrote ‘Jacaranda Lane’, also sung by Jim, which was inspired by the Jacaranda trees on his in-laws’ dairy.

Charlie taught himself to play the guitar and continued writing country after Jim’s passing. He won first place in the ASA Lyrics Awards in 2015 with ‘Memoirs of Vietnam’, sung by John Abbott and in 2017 the song was nominated for the Rudy Brandsma Award. Charlie also wrote A Lifetime Loving You, A Friend Forever and My Shepherd’s Call for John.

Over 20 of his songs have been recognized in competitions including; Tamworth Songwriters Assoc, ASA, and a 2019 CMAA Golden Guitar nomination with ‘His Last Cattle Drive’ (A WW1 digger from Hughenden) sung by Dean Perrett who also sang ‘The Ballad of Black Caviar’; Charlie’s tribute and story of the legendary Australian racehorse.

Charlie’s fascination of Australian history and his respect for the sacrifices of our servicemen and women began on the eve of Anzac Day in the 1950’s when The New Farm State School students sang the National Anthem to the beat of the school band beneath the Australian flag and the scorching sun. Then they gathered by the school memorial where a grandpa of one of the kids, a WW1 Gallipoli Veteran, spoke to the students.

Like many NFSS old boys Charlie was playing Rugby League for Fortitude Valley when National Service was re-introduced in the 1960’s. He was not conscripted but many of his mates were. Their story of young baby-faced teenagers before and after the war is told in ‘Memoirs of Vietnam’.

In his unpublished memoirs ‘Before the Sun Sets’ he recalls some of the amazing
Veterans he met along his journey which is the inspiration for many of his Anzac songs.

Until his retirement Charlie often gave a hand at the local kitchen and shelter for the homeless during his work lunchbreak. He got to know many of them who came from all walks of life including the military.

He penned the song ‘THE BROKEN SOLDIER’ to raise awareness of the plight of our homeless veterans and he hopes to record it soon.

Now retired Charlie said he has seen better days and enjoys sharing his journey on the seniors speaking circuit.
His latest song sung by John Abbott, ‘The Battle of Coral and Balmoral’ (Vietnam) is composed by Charlie in collaboration with talented blind musician Steve Sparrow.
Charlie said he could never have imagined that as a young migrant boy of four who could not speak a word of English that he would have such an amazing journey. He states that it has been a journey enriched by his wife Lynda of 55 years, three sons, and seven grandchildren.