Piera was born in Libya to parents of Italian and Maltese extraction just after the Second World War. Although her family had lived there for two generations, there was a growing hostility towards people of fairer, more European appearance, so Piera's father decided to move the family to Australia, where they had relatives living in Melbourne. Piera was only 9 when the family arrived in Melbourne with barely a word of English when she started school. Of course, once the family left Libya, they could never return.
Piera would eventually move, somewhat reluctantly, with her husband, to the small town of Wilmot in North-west Tasmania, an area with a reasonable community of alternative lifestylers, but eventually she would fall in love with the place. She now lives in Devonport, within sight of the port and the Spirit of Tasmania, the main sea route for visitors to and from the island.
