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VANINA
Unlike the Guscettis, who arrived in Australia as a family, emigration separated
Carlo Vanina from his wdfe and children for many years until they were reunited in the
Colony. Immigration for them came to mean adaptation to, not only a new physical
environment and way of life, but also the changes which long separation brought to
personal relationships and family roles. For the Vanina children, who had grown up in
Ticino, it also meant the arrival of siblings who would be socialised in a culture
different from their own. The Vaninas emigrated to Australia from the village of
Biasca in the Ticinese region of Riviera (ref figure 3). While the region itself suffered
relatively little dismption between 1850 and 1860 due to emigration (60 individuals or
1.3 per cent), nearly all of the departures which did take place were from the village of
Biasca.* In 1854, Carlo Vanina joined several members of his extended family and
(previously introduced) fellow Biascans, Giuseppe Rossetti, Andrea and Aquilino
Tinetti, in the joumey to Australia. Later reunited with his wife and family, he
reconstituted his own stable family unit and a way of life familiar to him in Ticino.
Based on cooperation and strong kinship links, as demonstrated in this section, the
Vanina life-style helped reinforce positive attitudes towards Italian speakers as they
became permanent citizens of Australia.
Cario Vanina was bom to a farming family in Biasca in 1826, his parents Marta
and Carlo Antonio Vanina producing four more offspring: Caterina in 1818, Giuseppe
Antonio in 1821, Anna Maria in 1823 and Maria Antonia Luigia in 1825.^ Constantly
plagued by poverty, life became even more intolerable in 1851 when Giuseppe's
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