For
Caterina, Aurelio, Zia Barbara, Pino, Claudio & Foca
You were over there and we were over here,
separated far too long.
The rebuilding of Italia’s political structures must contend with remnants of the ‘Resistance Movement’ more concerned with settling internal feuds. The Monarchy suffers a referendum defeat, ushering in ‘The First Republic’. In the South; landowners and the Mafia resist change. Fascism is not expunged and the legacy public service hierarchy remains. The Marshall Plan and cheap hydropower are a godsend to the reconstruction. Simonetti – Attisani families’ economic survival, is based on regrouping to create whatever income possible from the farms owned. The limited success leads Michele and Maria Concetta to decide on a plan to create wealth in America, but it was to be Australia. In 1956, Giuseppe was sent to join his father, by then already working in the Australian cane fields; he is just eight years old. South Italy is put under the social magnifying lens to provide a baseline comparison to Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, writers Lawson, Patterson, Dennis, and Rudd descriptors of the ‘boosh’ which lies in waiting for newcomers. Walking from Bonegilla to Cobram, Franz Vogel sees much of it firsthand. Michele, Pietro, and newly anointed ‘Joe’ experience the East Coast doing the itinerant shuffle between Mossman and Cobram.