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for, the peoples of Europe. During the voyage the two married women shared a
compartment while the single giri roomed with the men ~ this possibly to avoid
unwelcome male advances. Life as an emigrant, she discovered, was vastly different
from that in the village and one to which she had quickly to adapt.
Antonio's whereabouts in his early years in Australia are undocumented, but, as
most of his compatriots from Someo were living in the Jim Crow area, it is reasonable
to assume that this is where he headed. While mining may have been his first
occupation, it is possible he acquired labouring jobs with the many countrymen who
had now diversified into farming or a trade. The fate of most of his male travel
companions is unclear although both Giuseppe Righetti and Eustachio Morganti
retumed to Someo after some time.*"* (Eustachio, it will be recalled, had settled for a
time at Blampied.) Drawdng upon his kinship links, Antonio may have resided for a
time with his cousin Lucrezia, whose husband Felice Giacometti had emigrated from
Someo in 1854 (when Antonio was eleven); marrying in that same year, it is Ukely the
couple anticipated a lifetime in the Colony. Lucrezia joined Felice on a dairy farm and
vineyard at Musk Vale, an area occupied by other Italian-speaking settlers, such as
Serafino Righetti from Someo. After a time Antonio shifted to Bullarook where his
brother Giacomo was living. Eventually he settled at nearby Eastem Hill,** another
area popular with emigrants from the Valle Maggia, and where his neighbours included
Maurizio Morganti from Someo and Gaetano Tomasetti from Avegno (see previous
sections). It was not by coincidence that the ItaUan speakers settled near one another:
rather, they found security in the close proximity of village compatriots and family.
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