Avoiding the monoculture: Italian migrants in Ingham fight to keep their history alive

The Australian Italian festival in northern Queensland is struggling to find young volunteers to step in for ageing first-generation migrants

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A lot has changed in the 70 years that Emilio Beltramelli has lived in Ingham. The sugarcane is no longer cut by hand and his Italian ancestry, once a source of discrimination, is now celebrated.

“We were 70 cutters that came originally, we left Venice and went by Sicily before going to Cairns. It took us 32 days”, says Beltramelli. “I’ll tell you what, there are not many of us left.”

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