In 1934, Bortolo applied for naturalization. He had been home to Italy in 1924, arriving back in Fremantle on the Citta de Genova on 11 October 1924, aged 39 years, when he was listed as being a miner, and again on 24 June 1930, he arrived on the Oronsay from Naples, at the age of 45 years. On that trip, he was listed as being a coal miner.
Bortolo is buried in Plot Number 292, of the Roman Catholic portion of the Leonora Cemetery.