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peasant farmers. Along with those unsuccessful in securing wage labour, they were
throvm back into alluvial mining wdth very Uttle prospect of success.
Together with the poor retums from alluvial mining, the major handicap for the
Italian speakers was their lack of mining experience. As Pascoe has noted, Italy was
poor m minerals and, despite its fame in quarrying, had few of those mining
communities so conspicuous in the social landscape of northem Europe." While some
mining had occurred in the sub-alpine region of Italy, along the Tyrrhenian coast and
on the islands, ItaUans (and thus Ticinesi) did not have the extensive mining experience
of the Welsh, Cornish or northem French. They were usually ignorant of the best
areas to mine or the most appropriate equipment. Even in 1886 they continued to
make poor decisions. Filippo Pasquilini from Ticino recounted how he wasted large
amounts of money on equipment he could not operate:
Io e subito una grand perdita a Ballarat o fatto una macquina care
e un cavallo per lavare terra e tutto mi e andatto male ma non e
cosa di stupirsi perche in questi paesi quando che si a 1000 e 2000
franchi se gli spendi in grand laveri e da spesso si perde il lavoro
ed il denari e nen si puo far mene in questi paesi.^*
As early as 1855 Daylesford had become the centre of deep lead mining and quartz
cmshing and ItaUan speakers found themselves further excluded from the mainstream
mining activities.
The shanty towns imposed a harsh life on the diggers who worked from dawn
to dusk with only liquor to brighten their spirits. Amid the excitement of searching for
gold and the vibrance and colour of town life, was the back-breaking labour, the
appalling discomfort and the fear of destitution. After shifts, sometimes fourteen hours
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