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Provenance of the Wittenoom Italians
Approximately 230,000 Italians came to Australia between 1947 and 1966.
71
Of those1,102
went to work at Wittenoom. They came from 18 of Italy’s 20 regions, excluding the Val
D’Aosta and Umbria.
72
Among them was one family from Italy’s informal colony, Egypt.
73
The 36 Italians interviewed in this research reflect the larger representation from the
67
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1301.0 – Year Book Australia (2005), Australia’s top four overseas
birthplace groups. Retrieved 26 March 2010 from
http//www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/ABS@.NSF/Previous
products/1301.0Feature%2
68
Castles, Op Cit. p. 345.
69
Bosworth, Op Cit. p. 614
70
National Archives of Australia, Perth: Commonwealth Immigration file, Western Australia, file no.
W50/H/7038.
71
Castles et al., Op Cit. p. 243.
72
Merler, Ercolanelli & de Klerk, Op Cit. p. 257.
73
At the July 2011 Biennial conference of the Australasian Centre of Italian Studies: New Directions, I
attended a keynote address on Italian colonization by Associate Professor Mia Fuller of the University
of California, Berkley. To my question regarding Egypt’s role in Italy’s colonization policy, she
explained that Egypt was not part of Italy’s formal colonization pursuits which included Tripoli (now
Libya) and Ethiopia (now Eritrea). Egypt was under the control of the British, and was part of an
informal colonization encouraged by the Italian government, during the early part of the 20
th
century.
88
Lombardy region, consistent with the figures reported by Merler, Ercolanelli and de Klerk.
74
Eleven of the interviewees originated from the region of Lombardy, one from Friuli Venezia
Giulia, two from the Veneto, two from the Trentino Alto Adige, five from Tuscany (two from
the Island of Elba), two from Abruzzo, two from Molise, six from Calabria, three from Sicily
and two from Egypt.
Maria Detoni (nee Caffieri), an eight year old when she arrived in Wittenoom with her
family in May 1951 from the Island of Elba, reported that the first Italians to go to Wittenoom
in 1950 were the Displaced Persons relocated under the International Refugee Organization
program. Among them were her late husband’s family.
75
Three displaced families were
mentioned during my fieldwork: the Detoni, Sterpini and Gere families.
76
Migrant selection
documents show these displaced families had arrived in Fremantle on the 11
th
June 1950.
They had been selected on the basis of their age, physical fitness and their ability to do
manual work. From Fremantle they were transferred by train to Northam Immigration and
Reception and Training Centre where they spent three to four weeks undergoing an
introductory English course and familiarization with Australia before being sent to Wittenoom,
where they were contracted to stay for two years.
77
The three families mentioned above
stayed considerably longer.
78
The narratives of surviving family members and migration documents confirm that by
the 16 February 1951 the first recruits, experienced miners from the villages of Clusone,
Rovetta and Fino del Monte in the Seriana Valley of Lombardy had arrived (see figure 13
earlier).
79
On the 11 April nine men from the village of Vermiglio in the Trentino Alto Adige
74
Merler, Ercolanelli, & de Klerk, Op Cit. p. 257.
75
Interview with Maria Detoni, Perth, December 2010.
76
Interviews with Maria Detoni, Perth, December 2010; Maria Scali, Perth, September 2009; Lina
Tagliaferri, November, Perth 2010.
77
National Archives of Australia, Name search: Migrant Selection Documents for displaced persons
who travelled to Australia per Oxfordshire departing Naples, 15 May, 1950. Series A12030, Control
symbol 615-617, Barcode 4763662. See series notes pp. 1-9.
78
Interviews with Maria Detoni, Perth, December, 2010; Maria Scali, Perth, September 2009; Lina
Tagliaferri, November, Perth 2010.
79
Interviews with Francesco and Emilia Oprandi, Perth, October 2009; Lina Tagliaferri, Perth,
November 2008. National Archives of Australia, Perth: Series no. PP6/1. Control symbol 1950/H/6460,
Barcode 4312970. Paul Hallam Reagan [Application for admission of Evaristo Scandella, Attilio
Oprandi, Bartolo Ferrari, Donato Ferrari, Giovani Visinoni, Luigi Ranza, Samuele Brasi, Giuseppe
Bonomi, Angelo Poloni, Angelo Alberti and William Hermans to Australia]. Arrived Fremantle per
Napoli, 16 February 1951. Series no. K1331. Control Symbol 1957/Oprandi A. Barcode 3261509.
89
region with no mining experience had also arrived, desperate for work.
80
By May the Caffieri,
Galletti and Tamagni families (recently unemployed Island of Elba coalminers) had joined
them.
81
Meanwhile British workers and ticketed Australian miners had been leaving at the end
of their six month contract, refusing to tolerate the working conditions.
82
Because of their
inability to retain workers, CSR kept in regular contact with the Department of Immigration to
monitor the arrival of their Italian and Dutch recruits.
83
CSR’s objective to establish a reliable
labour force would mainly be met by immigrant Italians. Their desperate need for work made
them ideal employees, and they tolerated the working conditions. Many Italians already in
Western Australian, who were dissatisfied with the lack of steady employment opportunities
and low paying jobs, upon hearing about the earning potential in Wittenoom also applied to
work there. They would experience conditions even more confronting than those on their
arrival in Perth.
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