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untimely death at age 31 left his young wdfe and four children in the care of his
extended family. By 1854 Carlo, who was also married with young children, decided
to seek a better fiiture in Australia. Aware of the Colony's rich gold resources — the
news having by then reached all parts of Ticino ~ he booked his passage to Melboume
with an agency of the Rebora shipping company then operating from Biasca.'
Financial aid not forthcoming from the village council ~ the villagers' petitions for
travel assistance only being heeded one year later ~ Carlo presumably drew upon his
personal savings."* Bidding fareweU to his wife Giuseppa (Detmise), four year old son
Giuseppe Isidoro and two year old daughter Maria Luigia, Carlo teamed up wdth nine
travel companions for the overland joumey to the port. While ~ like most Italian
speakers ~ he is almost certain to have pledged retum to Biasca, he was never to see
his homeland again and would only be reunited with his family in the Colony.
With his nine companions, the only Ticinese travellers. Carlo boarded the Carl
Ross at Hamburg on 12 November 1854.* After almost four months at sea, the group
disembarked at Melboume on 3 March 1855 and Carlo transferred to Jim Crow. He
worked on various goldfields, probably, like most Italian speakers, searching with a
few compatriots for alluvial gold. He appears to have been moderately successful for,
wdthin a few years, he had selected, cleared and fenced land in Hepbum and was living
in a small hut.* Judging by reports which flowed back to govemment officials in
Ticino by 1855, other Biascans had also fared reasonably weU ~ the Commissioner of
Riviera, according to Cheda, affirming that: 'Gli emigranti di Biasca — stando almeno
alle affermazioni del commissario di Riviera ~ avrebbero fatto pervenire dall
'Australia' notizie "piuttosto consolanti"'. ' Within seven years of his arrival in
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