immigrations

that's a big one....

James Duhig is a towering figure over Brisbane’s past. Queensland had a large Catholic representation in the population from early Irish migration, but also from much later migration from European, Asian, and African countries with significant Catholic traditions. Duhig’s impact was a connection between the Catholic population and his extraordinary skills as a church administrator, combined with the extraordinary length of time in his authority of Archbishop. The era of that long time also aided to the impact, when a sectarian Brisbane ethos meant that the ‘Protestant’ population could hardly ignore a powerful Catholic figure like Duhig. His background would strengthen his ties, or enhance controversy. Duhig was born in Limerick, Ireland, but had arrived in Queensland, at a young age, to be educated at the Irish Christian Brothers’ College of St Joseph’s, Gregory Terrace. Duhig then studied for the priesthood at the Urban University of Propaganda Fide. Outside of his conventional Catholic theology for the times, Duhig was influential in the acculturation of Brisbane to an overoptimistic urban development and land settlement policies. Unsurprisingly, he was also an important source of Catholic social conservatism, finding his polemic in blaming the cinema for lack of cohesion in family life and for the ‘perversion of the young’. As a brilliant statesman, as well as the church politician, he knew the art of charm. It particularly helped that Duhig was a genuine patron of the arts, having cultivated a love of art and literature from an early age. Source: mappingbrisbanehistory.com.au/history-location/035-james-....

Holy Name Cathedral was a planned but never-built Roman Catholic cathedral for the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Designed by Hennessy, Hennessy & Co, initially in an English Baroque style inspired by St Paul's in London, it was intended to have been the largest church building of any Christian denomination in the Southern Hemisphere. James Duhig, the Archbishop of Brisbane, was the chief proponent of the project. First designed in 1925, building began in 1927 and in the 1930s services were held in the crypt chapel on the site, the only part to be built. No further construction took place, and with Duhig's death in 1965 the project lost its impetus, but was not formally abandoned until the 1970s. The archdiocese sold the site to property developers in 1985, the crypt was demolished and an apartment complex was built on the site. Today the perimeter wall along Ann Street and part of Gotha Street are all that remain, and were heritage-listed in 1992. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Name_Cathedral,_Brisbane

The basic problem Italian migrants are facing, in their religious life, is the fact that in Australia they find a Catholic Church which does not have the language and religious mentality and practices of the Catholic Church they left in Italy; but they find a Catholic Church which has the customs, traditions and practices of the Irish Catholic. Church. For many years, the only Significant Catholic group in Australia was the Irish. The Irish people, since their first arrival, were under the care of a sufficient number of zealous priests, sisters and brothers. From their own resources, without any government aid, they built up the parish and school system. These two institutions successfully helped transmit the Catholic faith from one generation to the next and develop the Australian Catholic Church. Source: "Australian Parishes and Italian Immigrants ' by Giuseppe Visentin library.bsl.org.au/bsljspui/bitstream/1/11648/1/visenting...

Italians have literally shaped the landscape through sugarcane plantations. They built up the North and impacted more broadly on the state’s economic, social and cultural fabric and space. At the same time, they have been embroiled in labour and racial debates. Regional and homeland origins have defined the identities and loyalties of Italians. However, from the start, Italianness as a heritage and feeling has infused the Queensland countryside, towns and cities. Tracing the story mirrors several trajectories from colonial to state, and helps define Queensland’s position within the global and transnational movements. Escaping la miseria (poverty) Italians left Europe in search of work. By 1859 some Italians were already working in Queensland building railways, as miners, wood-cutters, sugarcane farmers, and priests (the latter on Stradbroke Island and at Warwick). The largest proportion remained in Ingham in the Hinchinbrook Shire. Their presence from 1891 generated heated debate in parliament and the press about their capacity to assimilate. By 1907, racist rhetoric was being used by the Bulletin newspaper, for instance, to question the racial hygiene of Italians, calling them ‘bucolic’, ‘dull-witted’, ‘primitive’ and ‘impoverished’. Such attacks provide a backdrop to the 1924 Royal Commission into alien labour in north Queensland. The Worker, among other newspapers, complained that the Federal Government was allowing ‘Mediterranean scum’ to invade the sugar planations. Until the 1970s Italians were considered less preferable than British and Northern Europeans in Queensland. In Ingham and across North Queensland, Italians were labelled ‘black’ because of the association of the sugar fields with non-white labour. The economic success of Ingham’s Italian community proved toxic despite the support of local police and many Anglo-Australians. Italians became ‘enemy aliens’ with the 1939 National Security Act, especially when Mussolini declared war in 1940. About 15% of Australia’s Italians were rounded-up for internment, including women and children. What can only be described as a ‘social war’ ensued, led by the Returned Services League. After World War II more Italian families arrived in Queensland. The era of the canecutter was over by 1972. At this time Italianness experienced a renaissance not only in Queensland but across Australia. By the 1970s, Italian names were found in the strata of business, politics and society, and Italian words - spaghetti, pasta, zucchini, pizza, gelato, cappuccino, vino - were integrated into the everyday experience of Queenslanders. Source: www.qhatlas.com.au/content/italians-queensland