The Wattle Flat Wesleyan Cemetery and a Most Successful Miner of the Turon
Figure 1: (left) The original Wesleyan Church (right) John (Giavanni) Mini on his 80th birthday dressed how he would like to return to his native Poschiavo, Switzerland as “a most successful miner of the Turon Goldfields”
The Wesleyan church and cemetery, consecrated in 1863, reflect the seeds of a future multi-cultural Australia. The Chinese were not the only ethnic group to come to the Turon Goldfields. Italian-Swiss from Poschiavo, Switzerland, including 18yr old Giovanni (John) Mini and 21yr old school teacher Carlo (Charles) Vassella, came because of the lure of gold and to avoid fighting in the Italian Civil War.