Vincenzo Vitale was born March 5th, 1942 to Angelina and Salvatore Vitale. He has lived at Ripple Creek on Herbert River in Queensland all his life. He spent a lot of his childhood in the creek and down the river, fishing, swimming, water skiing and learning a lot about the environment. He started farming at sixteen and a half, joined a theatre group, tennis clubs and basketball and fishing clubs as well. In 1967, he married a dairy farmer's daughter named Monica and had three children named Marina andrea and Vincent. He became an honorary fish inspector in 1972. Later on in the early 1990s, he took an environmental stance against the sugar industry and the damages it was inflicting on riparian areas, wetlands and its role in the creation of runoff into the Great Barrier Reef. He is still very active in this regard.