Can you imagine taking responsibility to pack up your whole family and move to an unknown land? It took desperation, hope and faith. Everything took a long time. There were no planes, but a slow ship that took three months to cross the ocean. There were no phones, let alone Internet, and no one to provide photographic evidence of what actually lay ahead in the promised colony of La Nouvelle, France. The expeditioners’ deep suspicion of the new Italian government meant they did not believe the officials’ warnings about their destination.

The colonists left from Barcelona on the 9th July 1880 on board the ‘SS India’, previously a sailing vessel, now converted to a steamer. They were bound for a barely inhabited island off the coast of New Guinea. The Sydney Morning Herald claimed there were 260 Italians and 30 French passengers (the exact number is unknown). Rotting food, overcrowding, illness, death and the increasing tropical heat made the trip very difficult. Ten of the Italians died on the voyage.

What horror must have been to arrive at Port Breton, the promised bustling settlement of the new colony on New Ireland, to find nothing but a couple of roughly built huts in a clearing of dense rainforest. Girolimo Tome later told the New South Wales Government: “…nothing was prepared for us; we found nothing but rocks, and stones”. Men, women and children quickly set about clearing, ploughing and planting crops. However, almost on the equator, the heat was overwhelming and torrential rains soon set in. Fever overwhelmed many. While plenty of equipment had arrived on board, including a crate of dog collars, there was very little food. What there was, Luiga Tome told the New South Wales commission, “was not fit for dogs”.

The Tomes lost their baby, and another twenty three Italians died on the island. Starving and desperate, they all abandoned New Ireland on 20th February 1881, bound for new Caledonia, Noumea, with the intention of reaching Australia. However, the ‘India’ was declared unseaworthy on their arrival, and the Italians became stranded in terrible conditions. Fifteen more died.

On 2nd April 1881, the Sydney Mail, which had been following the dreadful tale, said of the venture: “The end has come suddenly, and is clearly traceable to one or two things – either gross mismanagement, or heartless indifference on the part of the projectors. Whether any Australian government will care to meddle with so tangled a web seems doubtful: otherwise, they might find a home in these colonies, to the mutual advantage of themselves and of Australia.”