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traveUing companions of many emigrants, most left their villages in small groups
comprising family members or friends, this cushioning the impact of the departure.
While peasants had long understood the need to leave families in search of seasonal
work, they had not experienced such long and distant separations and, for all their
promises of retum, there remained the possibility that someone (including themselves)
could die during the absence. With the departures, therefore, began the loosening of
viUage and family ties, the first stage in a process which would continue in the Colony.
The inability to transport personal belongings reinforced this break as fumiture,
household omaments, cooking utensils and familiar tools, which linked the emigrants
with their cultural heritage, were left behind. Some Ticinesi, such as Carlo Traversi
who was mentioned eariier, brought musical instmments and other items to Australia,
these becoming precious material links with the past as well as symbolic markers for
the future.
Despite the inevitable doubts and insecurities, these people were eager to reach
their destinations and optimistic about the future. They arrived at their points of
departure by a variety of means: some sections of the joumey were made on foot,
some sections with the use of a horse and cart and other sections by train. These
arrangements were included in the terms of the travel contracts. ^'* Travelling on foot,
the emigrants walked over difficult and mountainous terrain, often suffering damage to
their health. Giuseppe Strozzi from Biasca, with a letter received from his son in the
Colony in 1855, cannot faU to have been moved by the following description of the
joumey:
II nostro picol viaggio che abbiamo fatto finora e statto un
onorevole viaggio e siamo stati bene, forche Rossetti Giuseppe di
Pietro Sesante e Tatti Pietro questi due si trovano nella citta Dover
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