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preferred the famiUarity of the Daylesford region wdth its physical similarity to the
alpine regions of Ticino and the reassurance afforded by its expanding Italian-speaking
community. They realised that a retum to traditional occupations, where lay the only
real hope of success, depended on the support of compatriots as a labour force and
market for their goods and services. If nothing else the 'scouting' years had proven the
difficulty for non-English speakers to find work and to share in the prosperity of
mainstream society. Expressing the fhistration of his compatriots, Giuseppe Ferrari
from Ticino wrote: 'L 'Australia sard come gli altri paesim doe, nelle mani dei
capitalista, i ricchi si inriccano e i poveri si impoveriscono', *" and, like his fellow
immigrants, sought refuge in traditional occupations and the support of their village
companions. Through self-sufficiency, they hoped to regain the independent life-style
which had enabled them (until the 1850s) to survive in Europe. Farming, store
ovmership, baking, wine-making, blacksmithing and other trades thus replaced mining
in the quest for a secure future.
According to the 1855 Conto Reso, an official Swiss document detailing the
countty's emigration to Australia, by far the greatest skills of the Italian speakers lay in
farming:
Fu scarse il numere degli eperai che emigrarano nel 1855,
scarsissime quelle degli esercenti arti o prefessioni liberali;
I'emigrazione si cempone quasi per intiere della classe dei
contadini."
Despite the level of literacy discussed eariier,*^ of the 44 emigrants from the Swiss
viUage of Vogomo, 23 had signed their loan contract with a cross: most were reliant
upon the knowledge passed on from viUage elders who had survived centuries battiing
infertUe soUs and a harsh climate. As D'Aprano accurately notes:
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