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esponsibilities of one another, however, the house and farm were able to be
maintained as before, this 'peasant' survival mechanism serving equally well in the
Australian setting. Maddalena ran the farm with the assistance of her older children
while the younger offspring cared for the toddlers. In many families of the time the
number of offspring was so large that the children ranged in ages over 30 years ~ the
Righettis being one example ~ with someone always free to lend a helping hand.
While the death of Giacomo had aUered the pattem of Maddalena's life, times
had changed in other respects for the Righettis. After prospering for many decades
with their steam-operated butter factory, the arrival of milk separators from the United
Kingdom in the 1890s forced a decision between extending the business or bringing
about its closure."*" Battista, who was then in his 50s and had just planted over a
hectare of grape-vines as a new interest, decided on the latter course.'*^ Like the
Sartoris, the Righettis became reliant upon their own small farm, aiming at self-
sufficiency through the production of cheese, bacon, sausages and other preservable
food items. Sausages, made predominantly from pork with some beef or donkey meat,
had long been a cheap and nutritious winter food source of the alpine dwellers and,
despite a greater range and availability of fresh meats in Australia, continued to be
produced by the immigrants. Adaptation came in the form of a new type of sausage
comprising both pork and beef in near equal quantities and named a bullboar."^^ These
sausages quickly gained popularity among the Italian speakers, each family devising its
own special recipe by varying the quantities of meat, home-made wine, garlic and
spices added. The name bullboar suggests either that the sausages were introduced at
a time when most Italian speakers spoke some English, or that English speakers were
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