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given the opportunity to work through the ranks from cleaner to firestoker, to a driver
of various grades, until the highest paid job, an express train driver. In the 1900s, the
Morgantis moved back to Eganstown, wanting to be nearer the family. They shifted
into a weatherboard house on the main Daylesford road, not far from the red brick
house of Dionigi's childhood.*^
This old brick home became a popular destination of Dionigi's children who
loved to visit their grandmother, aunts and uncles. The family continued to attract
visitors from the Italian-speaking community, the Lafranchis and the Ferraris being
among their friends. One of the grand-daughters later recalled that it was 'a house full
of fun and the family spoke both in the Swiss dialect and in English'.*' The
grandchildren also leamed a little of this dialect even though no one really made the
effort to teach them. The aunts had, by this time, become expert cooks preparing both
traditional recipes and others, such as seasoning and puddings, learned from their
English speaking friends. Though there was evidence of assimilation into Australian
Ufe, the Ticinese culture remained strong at Eganstown. On 1 August of each year the
people celebrated Swiss National Day, a festival which had been introduced in
Switzerland at the end of the nineteenth century to commemorate the founding of the
Swiss Confederation in 1291. While those in Ticino celebrated with musical
performances and community singing, the festivities of the immigrant families included
eating traditional foods, playing Sv^ss baU games and much singing and dancing.
Referring to this day as mezzagosto, Maurizio's grand-daughter later suggested that
the CathoUc Feast of the Assumption (a ritual described in the Pozzi section) was also
celebrated at this time and that its Italian name had been carried forward into the
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