The story of how New Italy came to be is an interesting one that starts with a French nobleman, rather than in Italy, and was never meant to end in Australia, or even for Australia to be a part of it.
The museum has stories of the Italian colony that formed New Italy and artifacts of the rudimentary farming tools used in the early days of the settlement.
The French Nobleman, Marquis de Rays, took advantage of the unification of Italy in the 1800s and with tales of a future in a tropical colony called La Nourvelle France, located around the Solomon Islands and the eastern islands of Papua New Guinea.
The planning was poor without adequate food and inappropriate sites, the New Italy expeditioners left in 1880 on the third of four ships, the SS India. They believed in what Marquis de Rays was offering, instead, they arrived to a couple of rough huts and dense rainforest, resulting in disaster and death. Marquis de Rays was extradited from Spain and arrested for neglect causing death.
The survivers of the New Italy expeditioners, from newborns to grandparents in their sixties, abandoned the site. Some settled in Papua New Guinea, some returned to Europe, and some sought to find their way to Australia. Still, on SS India, they reached Noumea and became stranded when the ship was declared unsafe and more of them died.
Sir Henry Parkes allowed the remaining expeditioners to settle in Australia, arriving on the SS James Paterson as shipwrecked mariners. This was not typical at the time as immigration policy was preferenced as British society, however, the agricultural background and desire for productive lives in Australia allowed them to stay.
The expeditioners were required to be separated for one year to integrate amoungst the colonists with the assurance they could freely participate in Australian society after the year was completed. Children were separated the same as adults, having to work alone with strangers, spread out from Sydney to Singleton and Goulburn.
With the year fulfilled the northern rivers was the last region available for the selection of land. The New Italy expeditioners selected land that no one else wanted, seen as too poor to bother with as other nearby regions had richer subtropical rainforests.
There was plenty of better land available to select, however, it is thought they chose the poor sandy soil and swampy country because there were a number of land selections in the area, allowing them to select farms together.
Over 3,000 acres were taken up by thirty-four Italian families in the 1880s, joined by other Italian families in addition to the expedition survivors. New Italy has 202 people by 1887, 103 of them were children under sixteen.
They worked hard on the barren soil, establishing small farms for vegetables, crops, orchards, and vineyards from cuttings they brought from Italy. Unable to sustain the settlement themselves, men travelled for work, away for up to 6 months.
In the earlier years of the 1900s, the families built enough resources to enable their younger people to leave the settlement for richer farmlands.
New Italy is a stopping point when travelling along the Pacific Hwy. It is a brown sign I have driven by so many times and muttered to myself that one day I’ll have to stop to have a look.
The museum contains a fascinating story and worth dropping by. The cafe could do with a more Italian feel about it. Other than the very basic pre-made pizzas, the selections are not anything Italian.
The parking area moved from near the entrance of the museum to a new area down Swan Bay Road, probably due to the upgrade of the highway that passes by it. It has resulted in a longer uphill walk and while it is not steep but it isn’t as accessible for disabled people as it was previously.
I’m unsure if New Italy is still available as a free camp. It used to be before the changes but I can’t find any information from 2019 to confirm if you can still stay overnight. If you can stay in the new parking area, this is an improvement from staying next to the highway and helping it to be a bit quieter.
To get there:
New Italy is on the Pacific Hwy south of Ballina and north of Grafton.
From the north, after leaving Woodburn, continue on the highway for about 10km with New Italy on the right.
From the south, after crossing over the Clarence River near Maclean, continue on the highway for about 27km with New Italy on the left.
