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QUANCHI
Among the ItaUan-speaking settlers who made their way to Jim Crow in the
peak year of 1854 was Vincenzo Quanchi, who paved the way for the subsequent
emigration of other family members to the Daylesford area.
Vincenzo Gaudenzio Quanchi was bom on 4 January 1809 in Maggia, a village
lying at the heart of the VaUe Maggia in Ticino (ref figure 4). Watched over by his
father Giovan Pietro Quanchi, he grew to manhood, took up employment as a tailor,
married and produced a family. His wife Serafina Bonetti bore seven children: Maria
in 1835, Alessandro in 1841, Maddalena in 1843, Cesare Geronimo in 1845, Giovanni
Pietro in 1847, Filomena Benedetta in 1849 and Cesare Maurizio in 1852.^ Like other
viUages in the valley, Maggia supported its people through its agriculture and seasonal
work found in neighbouring regions: in 1850 over four per cent of the population
worked outside Maggia.^ During the years of devastating poverty in the 1850s, fathers
and sons of stmggling famiUes sought escape in the goldfields of North America and
Australia: the former destination had been popular since 1843 but the latter became so
only after 1854.^ In 1851, Giovanni Giovannini, a local stonemason, departed for the
Colony of Victoria with his friend Giovanni Pala from Cevio (ref figure 4). Unaware
of the gold finds at the time of their departure, the men soon joined the waves of
adventurers heading for the mines of Jim Crow where fortunes were reportedly being
made. Their reports of the new land soon aroused the enthusiasm of the Maggesi
(natives of Maggia), who eagerly purchased passages to Australia. Though more
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