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The following item is drawn from two articles that were written by Win Guatta, of Toora, a member of the Heritage League of long standing who is herself a descendant of early Walhalla's community of Italian migrants. The original articles were first published in the "Walhalla Chronicle" of May and September, 2001.
WALHALLA'S ITALIAN COMMUNITYby Win Guatta
Italian woodcutters Peter De Bondi and Steve Armanasco
Photo - Win Guatta
In the year 1900, two terrible accidents claimed the lives of nine Walhalla residents. Both involved the Italian community and both occurred in the area known as Poverty Point. Both incidents were covered extensively by the two newspapers current at the time, the "Walhalla Chronicle" and the shorter-lived "Walhalla Miner and Goldfields Advocate".
The first accident occurred on Sunday, 27 January between 5 pm and 6 pm at the end of a day’s fishing and recreation on the banks of the Thomson River. Four men had taken a punt into the waters: John Ferrari, Peter Novalia, George de Moroni and Joseph Pelusi. They had reached a deep stretch of water about a quarter of a mile below the junction of the Thomson and Aberfeldy Rivers and between 3 and 4 miles above the Thomson Bridge. There, they paddled over to the bank and took on board two children, Luisa and Luis Bonazzi. Proceeding downstream for about 20 yards below the spot where Stephen Armanasco was fishing, they then turned and rowed upstream for about 100 yards. In his deposition to the inquiry, Stephen Armanasco said he saw small waves, caused by the paddling, totally obscuring the sides of the flat-bottomed punt. In a short time the water splashing into the boat finally unsettled it and, according to another witness, Chas Pelusi, "it went sheer down".
The Thomson River "boat-hole"
Those of the party who could swim tried to save themselves and their friends. Peter Novalia, with Luisa Bonazzi attempted to grasp the upturned boat, "but it glided away from them at every attempt and it is said that through these fruitless efforts and wasted energy that Novalia became powerless to reach the bank". Charles Pelusi rushed immediately into the river and reached his brother, Joseph, "a second too late".
The "Walhalla Miner and Goldfields Advocate" reported that Pelusi rendered all the assistance in his power to recover the bodies as did Messrs Bruni, Collins, Seear, Edwards, Duffy, Amor and Milner. Trooper Graham and Constable Walsh, notified by an onlooker, James Menghini, used drag hooks loaned by Mr Dawson, manager of the Long Tunnel Mine and the Walhalla Fire Brigade but the bodies were not recovered until the following morning, in the very spot where they went down.
The paper further noted the intense mourning of their fellow Italians, who had arrived from all quarters on hearing the news. Domenic Moratti, a man known for his concern for his countrymen, was deeply distressed and set about arranging the funerals. He assisted, too, with the translation of the witnesses’ statements at the inquiry.
Magistrate Mr J H Pearson held an inquiry into the deaths on Monday afternoon after he and the witnesses had viewed the bodies at Barry’s Exchange Hotel where they were taken after the accident. Senior Constable Kissane conducted the inquiry and heard from witnesses: Stephen Armanasco, Bernard Ferrari, James Menghini, Charles Pelusi, James Bonazzi and Constable Walsh. Mr Pearson found that the six persons met their deaths by drowning in the Thomson River as a result of their boat overturning by accident.
Peter Novalia was aged 36, John Ferrari 34, George de Marone 30, Joseph Pelusi 27, Luisa Bonazzi 13 and Luis Bonazzi 11.
The funeral was reported in the "Walhalla Miner":
Funeral procession for the drowning victims
The public demonstration was not only a tribute to the dead, but an acknowledgment of the popularity of the Italians residing in and around Walhalla, who are amongst the most law-abiding and respected of our citizens. Their peaceable demeanour on all occasions, their anxiety to give assistance when needed for deserving objects, and their evident desire to earn the respect due to strangers in a strange land make the Walhalla Italians respected by all classes in the community.
The second accident claimed the lives of three members of the Della Torre - De Luis family and severely injured a fourth. Domenico Della Torre, his wife, Domenica (known as Maggie), their two children, Mary aged 7 and Domenico aged 20 months lived at Poverty Point. Maggie’s little brother William De Luis aged 9 years 7 months, was staying with them at the time.
At 2.30 am on Saturday 27 October, as a gale roared through the mountains, a tree thirty feet long and three feet in diameter broke from the bottom of its trunk and slid with fearful velocity from a height of several hundred feet.. It swept everything before it, crashing through the weatherboard cottage where the family members were sleeping and causing the deaths of Maggie, her baby, Domenico and William.
At the Magisterial Inquiry, held before Mr Samuel Rothwell J P, at the Thomson River on 27 October, Domenico Della Torre described how he had woken to the great noise of a tree falling, got up in the dark to check on the children and was struck by the tree as it crashed down the mountain. He was rendered helpless but when he regained consciousness he was able to get to his neighbour, Domenic Moratti, for assistance.
Domenic Moratti who lived in a cottage adjoining the Della Torres said he heard Domenico Della Torre calling for help. He ran over to the house and although it was dark he could tell that the bedrooms of the house had been totally destroyed. Mrs Della Torre was partly covered by the smashed bedstead. He sought the children, feeling for them as it was dark and the high winds prevented him from keeping a light. The children were both alive when he found them. He took them to his place where they both died shortly afterwards. Maggie had sustained severe injury to her spine and died on Sunday night.
Mounted Constable Ernest Graham attended this accident too. He had been called by Domenic Moratti at 5 am on the morning of the 27th and witnessed the destruction of the bedroom and the two children lying dead in Domenic Moratti’s cottage.
The "Walhalla Chronicle" in its account of the tragedy reported:
Maggie (Domenica Margherita) Della Torre was the daughter of Giovanni and Domenica (nee Omodei) De Luis who, with their other children, Angelina, Giovanni (Jack) and Margherita Domenica (Lena) migrated to Australia from Tirano, Italy in the 1880s. They settled in Walhalla where William was born in 1891. The Della Torres had one other child, Peter, who died as an infant in 1892. Angelina married Giovanni Guatta (from Viano, Switzerland) and they lived in Walhalla till their deaths in 1940 and 1948. Lena married Bortolo (Bob) Ferrari (from Tirano, Italy) and after the mines closed, moved to Moe where they farmed.
Giovanni (Jack) De Luis died in Bairnsdale in 1964, age 89. The parents, Giovanni and Domenica, both died in 1918 and are buried in the Walhalla Cemetery. .
Gold was discovered in Walhalla in 1863 and by the 1880s and 1890s the town was at the height of its prosperity. The population reached 4,000 by 1900. Many Italians came (mostly from Lombardy and the Poschiavo Valley in Switzerland)1, some to seek for gold, most to take advantage of the work required in its production. Wood, to feed the hungry furnaces, became the second largest industry in Walhalla and Italians were the main providers of this resource for the mines.
There were miles and miles of tramways around the mountains leading to the mines in and around Walhalla2. These tramways were the means whereby horses (the Long Tunnel extended mine had two light steam locomotives) pulled the trams with the wood to feed the mine furnaces. Some of the Italians contracted to supply the mines and then they subcontracted to others (splitters) to do the cutting and the carting. Number One South Tram (1885 - 1910) was owned by the Long Tunnel Mining Company and operated by George Valentine Morgan3.
Along this tram, on the banks of the Thomson River about three miles from Walhalla township, a community of Italians made their home. It was known as Poverty Point.
Italian woodcutter families on the timber tramway, c. 1910
In his book, "My Walhalla"4, Lou de Prada whose family lived at Poverty Point described, with warmth and remembered happiness, the dwellings and the lifestyle of these pioneers. They built their bark houses; bark was easily procurable, and very efficient in keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer. They built close against the hillsides, digging into the hills for shelter and for level flooring. Each house had a cellar in which the milk and cheese were kept fresh in the summer heat. The woodcutters used the remains of anthills as a mortar to keep the floor hard and to cement the stones in the fireplaces and chimneys.
Most of the families had goats or a cow and so had a ready supply of milk from which to make cheese and together with the vegetables they grew on higher land they had sufficient to live very well, only needing to buy such things as flour, meat, kerosene at the stores in Walhalla. Heavy goods were transported by packhorse. They certainly did not seem to be destitute as the name Poverty Point might suggest. Indeed the name seems to have been in use before the Italians arrived. Lou de Prada's friends, Harry Roberts and Martin Elliott claimed it was so called because no gold was found there in spite of great effort. After unsuccessful prospecting, the miners had left the area with an apt name as far as they were concerned.
Yet life must have been extremely difficult for the families at Poverty Point. We know that they were living and working in a very isolated area, three miles from school and town. The work was physically demanding and dangerous, often resulting in severe injury as hospital records and Walhalla Chronicles witness. We know from other sources they sometimes had to wait six to nine months to be paid their £2/10/- a week. The climate was extremely cold in winter, hot in summer. Most of these difficulties the Poverty Point Italians shared with other wood cutters and contractors in Walhalla.
When the hills around Walhalla were denuded, the Long Tunnel Mining Company constructed a bridge across the Thomson River to provide access to the forests on the Moondarra side. On 22 June 1900 the Steel Bridge was opened enabling the tramway to be extended. Fire destroyed the wooden decking of the bridge in 1944 but the steel structure remained. It was re-decked in 19765 and stands as a memorial to the wood suppliers and their families, sadly, many of whom are now forgotten.
If you visit the area today, you will find it hard to believe that people lived there, that they kept cows and were able to grow vegetables and fruit trees. The terrain is extremely steep. In some respects however. the conditions would have been somewhat similar to those of their places of origin in the mountains of northern Italy and Switzerland.
The Italians of Walhalla have become identified with Poverty Point most likely because that was where a significant number of families settled and the drowning of the six etched the site in the memories of those who knew Walhalla. However, from at least the 1870s, Italians lived in the town itself and in other areas around Walhalla.
Michelangelo Stub Monteagresti, from Livorno, was the manager and shareholder of several gold mines in Walhalla in the 1870s, including The Welcome, Golden Dream, Evening Star, Longfellow, Empress in which Lucio, Pietro and Angelo Monigatti, from Brusio had shares6.
Michelangelo's house occupied the fourth block north of the State School. On the opposite side of the road was the office of The Longfellow Gold Mining Company of which he was manager7. Antonio Simonin was the proprietor of the Alpine Hotel from at least 1882 till 1884 when the licence was transferred to Victor Campagnola8.
In 1898, Giovanni Guatta from Viano, Switzerland, obtained a colonial wine licence and he and his wife Angelina (née De Luis) operated a wine shop opposite the State School till 1913. Pietro and Luigi Pianta from Tirano, Italy, had held the licence from 1893 until 1898 (with the exception of the years 1895 and 1896).
Bernardo Plozza and Giacomo Rinaldi also lived in the centre of the town.
The 1908-1909 Rate Payers Roll shows that there were little pockets where Walhalla Italians either lived or farmed together. The word 'hut' noted on the rates, most likely indicates a garden or a farm where the rate payer ran a cow, grew hay or oats and planted vegetables and fruit trees. Like my grandfather, Giovanni Guatta, he would have a hut, in this case a three room building with a stone fireplace where he would spend the weekend and tend his crops. After he retired he would go up each day, returning home in the evening with a log of wood on his shoulder to keep the home fires burning. In Britannia Gully, four Italians lived or farmed an area: John Cabassi, wood cutter, from Tovo, Italy, Peter De Campo, splitter; Giovanni Guatta, contractor, from Viano, Switzerland (Giovanni Guatta was also a wine licensee and paid rates on a shop / dwelling in Main Street); Giovanni De Luis, charcoal burner from Tirano, Italy. In Consuls Gully you would find Dominic Danesi, splitter from Livorno, Italy, and Bortolo Ferrari, miner from Tirano, Italy. Along Mitchell's Tram there were three ratepayers: John Frantalini, James Franketti, and Antonio De Bondi; all worked as splitters. Along the South Tram lived John De Prada, Luis Bertozzi, Steven Armanasco, one of the De Bondi, Michael Magatelli, Andrew Ferrari and Joseph Omodei, all of whom were splitters.
Even though men may have worked as splitters or contractors, they often followed other pursuits in their quest to make a living. For example, Steve Armanasco had at least one mine along the Britannia Gully.
At Ostler's Creek between Walhalla and Toongabbie, Luigi Iseppi from Brusio, Switzerland, had two properties with a house and barn on one and a house/land classification on the other. Iseppi was a farmer. Also at Ostler's Creek was Lydia Bertino, farmer, and Antonio Merlo, contractor from Viano, Switzerland. Dominic Rinaldi, Robert Battista and Benjamin Partoza, all splitters, had huts on land along Number 7 Tramway.
Picnic at the De Bondi family's property at "Kelly's"
Along the Long Tunnel Extended Tramway, the De Bondi family from Tirano had three properties with huts on two of them and a house and garden on the other. The rate payer was Laurence De Bondi. Three other Italians had huts along this tramway: James Plozza, from Viano, Switzerland, and Peter De Campo, also a splitter.
In addition to these small communities of Italians, other single entries are noted on the Roll. Antonio Bruni, miner from Centra, Switzerland, had a house on the Eastern Branch of Stringers Creek. Charles Fermio was a miner and his house was situated on the Slaughterhouse Spur. Peter Molinari, a miner from Tirano, Italy, occupied a house on Tubal Cain Road. Antonio Plozza had a hut at the Coronation.
Two of the tramways were operated by Italians. Both were horse-drawn and owned by the Long Tunnel Gold Mining Company. Borserini's Tramway, operating prior to 1900, was located along the Old Walhalla Road, while Campagnola's Tramway operated between 1900 and 1910 and ran from the Maiden Town Ridge to South Eureka Creek9.
Gherado Borserini came from Stazzone, Italy.
The "Walhalla Miner's" report of the funeral of the six people drowned in the Thomson River paid tribute to the Walhalla Italians, referring to '...their peaceable demeanour, their anxiety to give assistance when needed for deserving objects'. The "Walhalla Chronicle" testified to this assessment on many occasions. The following three items are such examples. On September 15, the paper reported:
The Italian residents of the district through Mr C Della Torre have handed the secretary of the local hospital a sum of £12/4/5 [over $1500 when valued in 2005's currency] subscribed by them in aid of the institution. Mr. Renshaw desires to express his thanks for the same.
In its issue of December 13, 1897, the "Chronicle" advised its readers that Italian residents were forming a society to provide medical attention and nursing for any of their countrymen who might meet with accidents. Mr Rinaldi was the instigator and he had received good promises of support, At the second annual banquet of the Italian Medical Aid Society, the Chairman, Domenic Moratti led a discussion about securing names of those in need, Mr N Ferrari sang and the company were also entertained by members of the Choral Society: E Bassarollo, G del Frate, G Giudici, G Armanasco, G Pelusi, D Cabassi, D Della Torre, P Fopoli and A Rossi.
The Italian Choir gave their services on many occasions, as on 4 November 1898 when they sang with the Mountaineer Band to raise money for the Rotunda. The public showed appreciation by subscribing £9/1/9. The following week, a letter to the newspaper thanked the Band and the Choir and it was noted that prior to their performing that day, the members of the Choir had the sad duty of farewelling one of their countrymen. Bernardo Pefferino had died of miner's complaint.
Italians participated in the legal processes of the day. From 1879 until 1914 the following men did their duty as jurors at the Walhalla Court, many of them more than once: Giuseppe Antoniolo, Antonio Lanfranchi, Luigi Bruni, Victor Campagnola, Giovanni Guatta, Michael Magatelli, Antonio Merlo10.
Enjoying a game of bocce.
From left: Giovanni Guatta, unidentified, Sam Cabassi, Peter Guatta, Luigi Pianta, Steve Armanasco, Peter De Bondi, Charlie Cha Ling, Lorenzo De Bondi, Tony De Bondi, Tony Guatta, Dominic Danesi and Bob Ferrari.
c. 1910
Two unpublished memoirs add another dimension to the regard in which Italians were held in Walhalla. Both purvey a warmth towards them and an appreciation of their personal and cultural qualities. James Hill, born in Walhalla in 1901 recalled:
Isabella Frances Cleugh in her "Childhood Reminiscences of Early Walhalla", remembered:
About 4 pm on Saturday afternoons they would track in and, having finished their shopping, had a pow-wow with their resident countrymen. They would trek back to their huts about 8 pm. After they left the township they'd start singing. Some of them had splendid voices and when singing quartets it was a great treat to listen to them. I was told some of them were clever musicians, both instrumentalists and vocalists. Some people had them set, and their sin, in their eyes, was they always took a supply of wine back with their rations. People forget that wine was their national beverage and never once did I hear of an Italian woodcutter being drunk and incapable12.
One of the initial aims of my research was to locate and record as many names as possible. The significant presence of Italians in Walhalla, while being generally acknowledged in writings by historians has been largely anonymous. In some cases I have found it difficult to track people and match names on one set of records with those on another. For example, Ben De Luis appears only in the baptismal records. Besides the De Luises already mentioned, I have found a Matthew [Matteo] De Luis in Naturalisation records and on electoral rolls. One also needs to be aware of the custom of anglicising, or using another name if the father's / son's or mother's / daughter's were the same. Sometimes a person was known by his second or third name. Antonio Bruni's name, for example, was Giuseppe Antonio Luigi. Even surnames can be tricky. In Italian records, the De Bondi family were known as D'Abbondi13.
Many Italian names appear in Catholic Church records.
It is likely that the list below contains the names of some of the people who lived at Poverty Point. Walhalla's Catholic Church, St Patrick's, was part of the parish of Cowwarr and a priest would travel for Mass, baptisms and funerals.
By the time the Long Tunnel Gold Mine closed in 1914, most of the Italians had left Walhalla.
They were not alone in leaving. The town began to die as one after another of its enterprises closed down. The chronology of events from 1911 in William Harrison Lee's "The Switzerland of Australia" makes sad reading indeed. However, Walhalla has never entirely died. My grandparents remained in Walhalla and for most of their descendants it is a special place.
Over many years, we have seen attempts to recapture something of its heyday and today it is looking as good as it has ever looked in my memory. And what is most pleasing is the emphasis that is being put on bringing to light its history, a history in which the Italians of Walhalla had a significant role.
The following baptisms (listed again below in alphabetical order) are recorded in the baptismal register for Walhalla held in the Catholic Presbytery at Heyfield.
The following names and dates of burial (listed again below in alphabetical order) are recorded in the records of the Walhalla Cemetery.
My thanks to John Aldersea and Greg Hansford for sharing their research with me and to John for taking me and my family to visit the sites where our great grandparents, Giovanni and Domenica De Luis lived and where our grandfather, Giovanni Guatta had his "farm".
In alphabetical order, the names of those Italians buried at Walhalla are:
Baptisms in alphabetical order were as follows:
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