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LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD
The major settlement of Daylesford's two to two and a half thousand ItaUan
speakers occurred, as discussed earlier, over a period of a few years and was mairUy
restricted to the geographical area surrounding the Jim Crow mines. The earliest
settlers clustered around the mines in small communities, seeking emotional and
physical support. With each new arrival, the communities grew larger and stronger and
networks were established to assist in finding work and lodgings. A strong sense of
inter-dependency developed among the men, the main barrier into the Anglo-Celtic
world being their lack of English skills, a poor understanding of the workings of British
law and few contacts in the world of'officialdom'. Apprehensions about success were
resolved in the way they knew best ~ banding together and forming communities
independent of the dominant Anglo-Australian society. Over time, these communities
became more permanent and, with the resumption of family life, more fully able to
nurture the language and culture of the ethnic community. This is not to deny,
however, the Italian speakers' willingness to integrate into Australian society, and this
concluding section, which looks back over the lives of the fifteen Italian-speaking
families, their friends and associates who emigrated to Victoria in the second half of
the nineteenth century, creates a picture of a people who stmggled to preserve
language, cultural tradhions and life-styles while still adapting to the needs and
demands of a new environment and society. By tracing in broad outline the experiences
of later waves of Italian immigrants to Australia, it notes the particular influence of the
Italians as a distinct ethnic group wl:Ue at the same time suggesting the universality of
immigrant behaviour and the processes which lead to integration into a foreign
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