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Alessandro Brocchi's defence of his compatriots against the shipping companies (cf
above p, 103) ~ and given the help and advice which they so desperately needed. In
some cases Italian speakers arrived in Melboume to take up jobs which had been pre­
arranged by friends or family, or were invited to join mining parties heading to the Jim
Crow goldfields, Celestino Righetti from Someo wrote glowing letters to his home of
the aid rendered to arriving compatriots (cf above p, 206) ~ aid which he found
essential due to the lack of govemment and Church aid at that time. Despite this, a
number of immigrants were disappointed with the lack of work opportunities in the
Colony and soon regretted their decision to leave their homelands. Their early weeks
and months in Australia were marred by a sense of disillusionment; a perception that
they had been deceived by the travel agents and shipping companies (who had
promised them work) and mistreated by the ship's crew during the joumey. This sense
of disillusionment, however, was tempered by a determination to succeed, and out of
these two factors the process of transformation towards a new, hybrid identity took
root.
Seeking the support of compatriots, the ItaUan speakers ~ as in California^ ~
headed to the areas where they knew other ItaUan speakers would be and where they
could expect to find temporary accommodation wdth friends. Clustering in this way,
only few Ticinesi or northem Italians settled at Ballarat or Clunes, where substantial
gold finds had also been made. Reaching Jim Crow, some of the men set up temporary
shehers and began mining for gold in small partnerships of two or three, the
composition of the groups usually being determined by the men's common debt. The
sharing of food, accommodation and moral support bonded the immigrants, increasing
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