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their sense of inter-dependence and tmst. At night, they would cluster around the
campfire to discuss the day's events and talk of Ufe back home. Isolated ~ like the
Chinese or Germans ~ from others in the Australian community by their lack of
EngUsh skUls, Italian became the force to drive them closer together; and, since most
were Uliterate, it found its richest expression in oral form. The letters which arrived
from the homeland were treasures to be savoured by the few who could read, the high
levels of Uliteracy increasing the dependency of some men upon others. Since, without
someone to read and write their letters, the immigrants were cut off from their families
in Europe, it was a skill which interfered with their traditional power stmcture: no
longer based solely on age, sex or farming skill, it was now centred upon their level of
education. There fhus emerged from within the immigrant population 'informal
leaders' ~ people whose skiUs were necessary for the immigrants' survival in Australia,
And since most Italian speakers spoke the dialect of their particular region, they lent
most heavily on the members of their extended family or close personal associates,
further strengthening kin and village ties, at the same time as new pattems of
leadership were emerging,
Italian was not only a bonding force among the Italian speakers but also an
outward expression of their ethnicity on the goldfields. Having brought few omaments,
art works, books or household items with them from Europe, they had only tenuous
material Unks with the homeland. Pietro Gaggioni had carried a cow-hom with him
from his viUage of Gordevio but, only used many years later to call him from his mine,
ix lost much of its cultural significance (cf above p. 358), The Italian speakers were
also constrained in how far they could express their ethnic ties through their cuUnary
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