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Working on the goldfields as miners or labourers, the Italian speakers became
more aware of the languages and cultures of other ethnic groups, especially the Anglo-
Cehs. Within a short space of time they had adopted various anglicisms into their ovm
language, predominantly words and phrases ~ clem (claim), ciansarla (to chance it)
and prospetto (prospect) ~ which related to their experiences as miners (cf above p.
246). Ethnic conflicts, where they occurred, centred chiefly around events on the
goldfields and the tensions involved in the search for gold. Among the Ticinesi and
northem Italians were few reported incidents of racism, apart from some complaints
that Englishmen favoured their own as workers. The general mood of the goldfields
was peaceful and, among the Italian speakers, there was little reported incidence of
serious crime. As a group, they were considered hard working and amicable. In
contrast, the Chinese at Jim Crow, Uke their compatriots elsewhere, suffered
victimisation for having the misfortune of'looking different'; but, despite the animosity
shown toward them by most ethnic groups, the Chinese were regularly visited in their
camps by Europeans seeking the entertainments of their hotels and gambling dens.
Here, where weekends took on a carnival atmosphere, were early signs of an emerging
muhicultural Australia.
Desphe the pleasures for some of gambling and excessive drinking, most Italian
speakers longed to be reunited wdth their families. Their lives were hard and lonely and
lacked the comfort of female companionship. Once they began to doubt the wdsdom of
their joumey, and accepted the impossibility of retum to their homes, they requested
their wives and children to join them in Australia or, if single, decided to marry. The
successive land acts of the 1860s enabled the purchase of small allotments at
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