Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

eaders, carrying messages from compatriots to their families; for Beretta, Pedroncini
and others, the letter provided contact with their homeland and encouraged them to
remain together with Vincenzo as a village unit. Through his language skills Vincenzo
thus gained a power and a responsibUity over his compatriots which may have
precipitated his later emergence into pubUc life. Writing in ItaUan, five years after his
arrival, his language reflected the Anglo-Celtic influence, the word tonella (tunnel)
being preferred over the ItaUan word galleria; presumably the men made contact with
English speakers in the mines. Such hybridization of language (to be also recalled are
the earUer examples in the Pozzi and Scounting sections) may be read as a reflection of
the broader 'syncretisation' of life taking place among the Italian-speaking settlers.
While Vincenzo may have written often to his family, he complained that he received
few letters from his father. ^^ Isolation from loved ones was among the principal
reasons for the immigrants' retum to their homelands and may have been why Pietro
and Giuseppe were back in Mergoscia by 1864.
Vincenzo's decision to remain in Australia suggests some success in the mines
or that he had other plans for increasing his income. Toward the end of the 1850s he
had opened up the Commissioner's Reef gold mine in the hills east of the first police
camp at Spring Creek." The mine was first worked as an open-cut and, like most reef
mines in this northem part of the goldfields, gave rich promise down to about 21
metres then petered out. Vincenzo's mine, though not greatly productive, was worked
on and off for many years. Like many compatriots, however, Vincenzo was not
content to rely solely on mining: while it had provided a means of access to the Jim
Crow district, it was soon exchanged (or retained as a minor interest) for the more
183