Her tireless work and impeccable service throughout more than 40 years in politics were recognised this month, when she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) as part of the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

“It’s an unexpected honour, and one I feel I owe to my parents who, after the war, faced a long trip by ship to find some peace,” Tamburrino said.

“They’ve done so much and they’ve changed my life and that of my brother and my sister.

“They still mirror of all my success to this day.

“Above all, I owe my gratitude to the entire Italian community in Australia, and those who arrived in this new land clutching suitcases full of dreams, just like my family.

“They made this continent great; I still feel each one of their sacrifices profoundly.”

Originally from the Calabrian town of Varapodio, Tamburrino arrived in Melbourne on Good Friday of 1958.

Together with her mother and sister (her brother was born in 1959), she boarded the Neptunia to join her father in Australia.

“He’d already been in Australia for some time, by way of sponsorship,” she explained.

Tamburrino still vividly remembers every detail of her journey to Australia, from saying goodbye to her grandmother, relatives and friends in her hometown, to her unique ninth birthday celebrations at sea.

“It was difficult in the beginning – we were faced with a new language and culture, and my mom was always anxiously awaiting my grandmother’s letters from Italy.”

In 1976, after completing her studies and getting married, Tamburrino joined the Australian Labor Party, marking the start of her honourable service to the Australian Parliament alongside important political figures such as the former member of the Legislative Council of Victoria, John Walton, the former federal minister, Gareth Evans, and three members for Wills: Peter Khalil, Kelvin Thomson for 19 years, and the illustrious former prime minister, Bob Hawke.

For the past two and a half years, she’s been working at the social security and welfare agency Epasa Australia, in Brunswick West, maintaining her ties with the Italian community.

Tamburrino lived through an extraordinary era, in which Australia was enriched with new perspectives and there was an abundance of opportunities.

“It was a different life; I felt I could do a lot and I always worked to honour my heritage, especially within the community of Moreland,” she said.

“In the past, the bond between compatriots was stronger, people were closer and there was a greater sense of belonging; but I think it’s been a normal change over time.

“Over the years, many have moved away because, naturally, life takes people in different directions.

“However, I feel exactly the same as [I did ] 40 years ago.

“Every day I think back to the time when my parents enrolled me in school, here in Melbourne.

“The principal asked what they should call me in class, because Domenica was too difficult for Australians to pronounce.

“My father said that at home they called me ‘Mimma’; the principal immediately exclaimed that they’d call me ‘Mimi’, like the heroine in Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème.”