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The experience of the joumey fostered concem for the well-being of compatriots and a
recognition of the need to estabUsh support networks. These informal assistance
groups became the basis for the more permanent clubs and societies which aided the
Italian speakers m Australia.
Like their fellow countrymen arriving at the ports of North and South America,
the Italians and Ticinesi were initially dependent on assistance from official sources.
Because the dominant attitude in the nineteenth century regarding social welfare was,
however, that direct social provision by the State, especially in the form of cash
benefits, undermined the reUance and initiative of the individual and encouraged
pauperism, most help came in the form of charity. Such charitable organisations
included the Melboume Benevolent Society ~ which aimed to 'relieve the aged, infirm,
disabled or destitute poor of all creeds and nations'^' ~ and various hospitals, asylums
and societies. A huge increase in population resulting from the gold msh had,
however, strained the resources of the societies and many were poorly managed and
inefficient: despite its aims, the Melboume Benevolent Society could only provide
temporary accommodation for people arriving from the United Kingdom. In 1853
concemed citizens met to form an Immigrants' Aid Society which offered
accommodation and employment advice, medical aid and some temporary loans to
those in need. The govemment, however, only offered welfare assistance through
these charitable organisations, feeling that, 'recipients of relief would be more grateful
and less willing to place continued demands for assistance upon privately organised
and operated charities.'^* This method of funding also avoided the need to introduce a
Poor Law and increase the taxes on the wealthy ~ despite the Colony of Victoria being
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