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difficulties, but rather pride in the farming skiUs inherited from her peasant ancestors
which had helped her to survive the difficult times.
Neither Alessandro nor Maddalena lived to see Victoria's next major drought
m 1914. By 1905 Alessandro had moved to Allendale where he died (after 50 years in
Australia) at 64 years of age from 'miner's complaint', an Ulness caused by dust
reaching the lungs: the search for gold had thus brought new hazards into the
peasants' lives. Maddalena died two years later from what her doctor (A. M. Hill of
Castlemaine) described as Bright's Disease and Syncope Indefinita, or fainting spells.'*'
She was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Franklinford cemetery while
Alessandro was interred as a Methodist at Creswick; Alessandro's decision twice to
change his reUgion perhaps reflected the young age at which he had arrived in Australia
and his ability to divest himself more easily of matemal and cultural ties. Whatever the
explanation, the result was that such decisions suggest an active process of
accommodation into the broader (Anglo-Celtic) community.
A similar process can be seen to have been at work with Maddalena's children,
all of whom settled within close proximity to Yandoit but only one of whom,
Celestino, married an Italian speaker. None pursued professional careers though one
grandchild became a doctor and another two economists. Alessandro's children
(excluding three who had died) each moved away from the district, two becoming
miners Uke their father and Maddalena's son James. They maintained regular contact
with their aunt over the years, always returning home from their visits with a supply of
home-made wine and a reminder of the traditions which their forebears had brought to
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