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Ticinesi could any longer support their starving populations and new solutions to their
problems were sought.
In 1851, over 20 men from the Valle Maggia sailed to the Califomian
goldfields. ^^ When another 100 Ticinesi departed for the same destination the
following year, it marked the beginning of a chain of migration to America which was
to last many decades.^^ At about the same time, however, an interest in the Australian
goldfields had begun to emerge. In January and March of 1851, the stonemasons
Giovanni Battista Giovannini of Maggia and Giovanni Antonio Palla of Cevio sailed to
the Colony.^' Unaware of the gold discoveries at the time of their departure (as the
news was not made public until some months later) the reason for their joumey is
unclear. It may have been that, accustomed to a life of emigration, they had thought
new opportunities might exist in the Australian colonies. They soon, however, found
themselves among the hordes of treasure-seekers headed for the Jim Crow mines
where gold had just been discovered. Palla retumed home to Ticino in April 1854 a
relatively wealthy man and the shipping companies in Europe, seizing upon the event,
began to promote Australia as the new land of opportunity.^* They initiated a highly
successfiil propaganda campaign which persuaded many hundreds of Ticinesi to depart
for the Australian goldfields. In the north of Italy, too, German shipping companies
appointed agents in the main cities of Venice, Milan and Genoa, who carried out a
lively recmiting campaign on behalf of the shipping companies organising voyages
from various German and British ports. Some companies even offered to advance part
of the travel fee in exchange for a per centage of the miner's profits. This irresponsible
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