ITALIAN IMMIGRATION

Half way around the world and away from friends and family Western Australia’s vast land became home for many immigrants from Europe escaping poverty and political hardship.

Italy was traditionally a country of emigration. Seasonal emigration to other parts of world was common practice at the time. People from the Alpine and surrounding zones of northern Italy moved to and fro into neighboring countries to seek seasonal work.

Immigration into Australia occurred coinciding with periods of prosperity in Australia and Depression in Europe, particularly by helpless and bewildered peasants from villages. Much of the immigration was intended to be temporary in nature, although poverty was seen to be the main reason for people searching for a new home and new opportunities.

But this was not always the case. Many came to earn cash in the land of milk and honey, then return home and buy more land to maintain their families and settle back into their own country. However, sadly as many as ten to twenty years often passed before families were united and in some cases they never returned home. There have been five main waves of immigration of people from Italy, Yugoslavia and surrounding countries into Australia. Initially in the 1850’s and then the 1880’s followed by 1907 to 1914 and 1920’s to 1939 and later following WW11.

 

The first census to give separate figures for Italians living in Australia was taken in 1871 and most of these would have come during the gold rush years of the 1850’s to 1890’s.  By 1911 the number had risen to 6,719 and between the wars, 1922 the Italian population was 8,000 and in 1937 it was 26500. For the first time unassisted non-British migrants reached significant proportions.  The immigration coming mainly from Italy, Yugoslavia and Germany. In 1930 assisted immigration stopped and between 1932 and 1936, due to the poor employment prospects for migrants, they were required to have fifty pounds on entering Australia. This effectively stopped Italian males arriving until the post World War period when assisted and unassisted migrants arrived in large numbers providing labour for Australia’s secondary industries. It was thought that increased population would give Australia a greater feeling of security following proof of her vulnerability during the WW11.  Australia also felt her responsibilities towards the refugees and displaced persons of Europe and offered them a safe haven.

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Nearly every Italian who came to Western Australia before the WW11 worked either in the mines, cut timber or worked in the market gardens for other Italians already settled in WA.  The timber industry was one of the first industries to be established in Western Australia.  The south of the state was once dotted with timber mill towns but many of these are now extinct and their history and lifestyle fast disappearing. Timber was also cut in the goldfields. Wood was needed for the steam driven winders in the mines, generators and pumps. Salmon gums and gimlet were cut in massive quantities to support thousands of kilometres of shafts and slopes underground.  As the area around the mine became cut out and the railways began forging into more distant areas, thus was born the “woodlines”

The Millar's Company and the Australian Hardwood Company were responsible for opening up much of the timber country in the southwest.  The Department of Forest was established in 1895.  The first Annual report of the Woods and Forests Department of WA was published on June 20th 1897. In its report it noted that about 2500 men were employed in the timber industry and many were Italian immigrants.
 

One thousand four hundred and fifty one horses and two hundred and eighty four bullocks were used in the industry. There were 193 miles of private rail line and tramways used in the forest. The peak of the industry in WA was reached in 1913.

Further along the Darling Scarp the timber industry was expanding with settlements in the hills. In 1864 Ben Mason commenced in the timber industry with his first timber mill at the corner of Welshpool Road and Lesmurdie Rd and later near the junction of Welshpool Rd and Canning Road in Carmel known as Mason’s Mill. Lionel White and Edward Keane later took over Mason’s Mill and set up a new Mill known as Canning Mills situated at the junction of Canning Rd and Canning Mills Rd in Karragullen. Canning Mills grew into a large settlement complete with inn, general store, bakery, hospital, resident doctor and school. Many Italians worked as sleeper hewers and felling trees for the Canning Mill and the scattered small mills throughout the forest. Lui Zola was a well-known blacksmith who worked in Mason mill, Barton’s Mill and Canning Mill and was known for his great girth and sense of humour and his home made alcoholic beverages.
 

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A smaller mill, Smailes mill was later built east towards Carinyah and dozens of spot mills and smaller cutters operated in the area between Canning Mill and Barton’s mill in Pickering Brook and Karragullen. Many Italian woodcutters lived alone in huts scattered throughout the bush earning enough money to send home to their families before returning home themselves.  Sadly this often did not happen.

Barton’s Mill was situated east of Kalamunda, in the area now called Pickering Brook and was originally owned by John Barton.  When he died in 1908 Millars took over the Mill and moved it two miles east. Many Italian immigrants worked as cutters and sleeper cutters during the life of the mill. The original mill settlement housed families in tents, bark huts and weatherboard homes.  A school was opened at the Mill in 1910.

In October 1883 regulation were gazetted requiring all timber cutters to be registered.  After the creation of the Forest Department in 1895 the supervision of all cutters was done by forest rangers. The trouble facing the Italians during the depression did not miss the timber workers.  Because of the lack of work the mills were forced to employ only union members.  Italians had to be naturalized to become union members and many had not been in Australian long enough to be eligible for naturalization.  They returned to Perth and eked out their savings until work was available again, usually in the agricultural industries.

There were many problems facing migrants in the years before and after the Second World War. Tensions ran high during this time. Civilian Aliens were non-naturalised people of suspect sympathies, mainly Italian, who were placed in the Civilian Aliens Corps. (CAC) and put into camps at Rottenest, Harvey, Northam and some mill townships.

Naturalised Italians were seconded to the Defense Department as “manpower” and were required to work in the timber industry or agriculture. Many Italians in the Pickering Brook area who were orchardists and vegetable growers and who had no other man power to run the properties were allowed to return and work their properties. It is reported that the policeman from the Kelmscott Police Station would ride his bike up the hill to Pickering Brook on a regular basis to check that the Italians were still working the orchards and vegetable gardens.

At the beginning of the depression years many Italians who were no longer able to find work in the timber and mining industries, returned to Perth. Those who had saved money wanted to buy land and at that time the market gardens in Wanneroo were providing work for the Italians returning to the city.
 

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The new Italians wishing to purchase land in Pickering Brook were required to meet with the Department of Agriculture and give their reasons for wanting to own land in Pickering Brook, which had been part of the Soldier Settlement.  If they had a history of working in agriculture in Australia they were given the right to purchase the land.

One of the earliest land owners in the district was Dom Marchetti who came to Australia in 1922.  As he was a narturalised resident he often accompanied many of the earlier Italians to the Department of Agriculture to plead their case. Leo Vinci bought a carrier business in Pickering Brook in 1938 and carried loads of vegetable to the local market.  Leo was also known as the local ambulance during that time taking many women to hospital to have their children.
 

Later as the orchard industry began to develop on the Darling Scarp new families moved to the hills.  Many took up land that had originally been gazette as “Soldier Settlement” land and either had not been taken up by returned soldiers or people who could not succeed on the land. Fruit growing became an important development of Pickering Brook, Karragullen and Roleystone.

With the orchards being developed the Italian families had to find other ways to make money. An extract from the diary of the Price family shows that many Italians in those days 1920=1930’s supplied most of the charcoal for burning for a 30-year period.  It was a specialized job requiring precision and attention.   

Very little was known about fruit growing in those early days and the new immigrants made many mistakes.  As market gardeners found it difficult during the Depression, so did the fruit growers, as the work was labour intensive.  However, the World War 11 army contracts to supply the Defense Department with vegetables saved many Italian families while they waited for their orchards to develop and be productive.

As the timber mills selected and cut the heavier timber from what is now called Karragullen the land was made available for rural holdings. Later land in nearby locations the land was sub-divided into smaller holdings and these were bought by Italians moving into the area and many of these families remain on the land working the orchards.

The Government eventually took over the running of the Zig Zag railway and extended the line from Pickering Brook to Karragullen. Most of the orchards in the main in those early days were planted with apples and by the 1920’s the most favoured apple was the Granny Smith.
 

The difficulties facing Italian immigrants into the Pickering Brook and Karragullen areas was the sheer isolation, especially for the women who had left their families in Italy to join their husbands. The isolation of women in the outlying mill towns was a great tragedy. Everyone at times would like to talk to someone in their own tongue about certain things in your heart and mind and about personal matters, not necessarily to their husbands. If cut off from this social interaction the heart withers and diminishes. As the years moved on and immigration increased the loneliness and isolation for the women lessened. Rose Giumelli (nee Sala-Tenna) recalls the hardship her mother suffered during those early years isolated in Barton’s Mill and later in Pickering Brook. She said “Coping with young children and the isolation of the women in the outlying areas in the early days was a great tragedy.”

It is doubtful if any Italian women had any concept of the kind of place Australia was and how isolated their lives would become. Had they been aware of the hardships that followed many of them may not have come.

Often marriages occurred by proxy and for many reasons. The men were lonely and isolated from women and there were very few single Italian women in the area at the time. The ideal lifestyle of women depending of the total earnings of the husband was unheard of during these early days for the Italian women. The hard, somewhat unpaid work of these women in the orchards and vegetable gardens and chicken yards of the day contributed to the subsistence of the family. In the earlier days there was very little social interaction, especially for the women.  The men who worked and owned land in Pickering Brook, Karragullen and the surrounding areas could interact much better with the Australian workers and were able to form long lasting friendships over the years.

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A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN PROMOTING THE STATE AS "THE LAND OF GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES" SPONSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT, ATTRACTED A FLOW OF IMMIGRANTS, BOTH UN-ASSISTED AND WITH SOME FINANCIAL AID BETWEEN THE YEARS 1903 AND 1913.        #5

Following WW11 there was an increased immigration of Italians into the area sponsored by friends and family.  These people were generally from the South of Italy and initially that in itself caused some friction between the old age division between the North and South of Italy.  But as the years have gone by these old habits have disappeared with integration and a greater community has developed.

In 1955 a small group of Ursaline nuns were removed from China and arrived at St. Brigid's in Lesmurdie.  The Italian population in Pickering Brook and Karragullen during the late 1940’s and early 1950 had increased and a committee was formed to raise funds to build a Catholic Church /School in Pickering Brook and a Church in Karragullen. A Convent was built near the School for the Italian Ursaline nuns to run the school. The school was completed and opened in 1955 with 90 pupils from Pickering Brook and Karragullen. By 1974 the debt was paid off and the nuns bought the community a Statue of Our Lady of  Graces for whom the church is named. This statue was imported from Italy and on the first Sunday in March of each year a Feast Day celebration is held at the Church.

Despite the hardship and separation that these early immigrants endured it was clear to them that to survive in this harsh country they had to take the lowliest jobs such as mining and cutting timber in isolated areas. However, they survived and worked hard to provide a better life for themselves and for their families.

The families who came into Pickering Brook and Karragullen and made this district their home have added a new level of community and culture into the area. The Italian influence on the Australian way of life in the communities of Pickering Brook and Karragullen has been enormous and often too difficult to isolate it into categories. The Italian immigrants and their descendants have done their best to integrate and introduce their neighbors to their food, wine and culture. They have made this district proud to be a part of the first wave of immigration into Western Australia and we thank them for their contribution to the district.

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Copyright : Gordon Freegard  2008-2020