# Book 3: Australia Beckoned

- Link: https://italiajoe.com/when-australia-beckoned/
- Published: 2024-05-17T05:35:54+00:00
- Author: Joseph Simonetti

_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.