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egarded as one of the richest places in the world at that time.^' The Italian speakers,
made aware of the rigid class stmcture which underlay Australian society (as presaged
on the sea voyage), and resigned to never receiving fair and adequate welfare
assistance, and having been strengthened in their resolve to eschew their dependency
on others m the tradition of the peasant region from which they had come, would
concentrate their resources on the care of their own families and compatriots.
Men such as Brocchi helped form committees to assist the travellers, greeting
them on arrival and directing them to possible sources of work and accommodation.
EngUsh speakers were also represented on the aid committees, Henry John Porter, one
time Honourable Secretary, coming to the aid of passengers on the Daniel Ross on 26
April 1855. On the 3 May 1855, he stated that it had been 'necessary to give aid to
some who yesterday and today were without food.''*" In several cases the English
speakers were sympathetic to the needs of the Swiss and offered them work in big
companies engaged in road and raU constmction. It was some time, however, before
any assistance of an official nature arrived from Switzerland: Louis Chapalay, a
businessman from the French speaking canton Vaud, was installed as Swiss diplomat
on 19 March 1855. Making his home in Sydney, and thus iU placed to help those
Ticinesi arriving in Melboume, he was, nonetheless, sympathetic to their needs and
wrote a letter to the Gazette de Lausanne in 1855 describing their plight:
trevar d'eccupare 85 stranieri in un paese come queste, non era
cosa troppe facile, tanto piu per costere che non avevano
I'esperienza delle abitudini della colonia, ne la pratica necessaria
per mettersi al lavoro delle miniere.'*'^
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