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had an association with a Mr Tunzi from Lodano in Ticino. ^^ By the end of the decade
gold finds were still occurring in the Deep Creek area, however, the retums had grown
weaker and he may have moved on to other fields or had begun to settle the land.
Maurizio Morganti, whose life was described earlier, (see Morganti section) came to
the area around 1862 and it was not long before he was also joined by Gaetano
Tomasetti.
From 1863, Gaetano is knovm to have lived six to eight kilometres along the
Daylesford to Hepbum road in an area which was becoming increasingly popular with
permanent settlers.^'* Many had availed themselves of the recent govemment
arrangements which made land available on more favourable terms to miners wishing
to settle. By 1863, blocks averaging a half hectare were being taken up around Mt
Prospect (opposite Egan's Corinella Station) in an area where Gaetano was eventually
to settle. Gaetano had been eaming extra income by working on various local building
sites where the skiUs of Italian speakers were again sought. It is possible he worked on
the Deep Creek Bridge in 1864, and on St Peter's Church in Daylesford which was
completed in May 1865. He had also retained his mining interests and may have been
working a block at Mt Prospect (ref figure 13) with Giovanni Lafranchi from CogUo.^*
Lafranchi later split with Tomasetti and in June 1865 applied for a licence to occupy
land measuring just over seven hectares one kilometre past the Eganstown Cemetery
(on the left-hand side before reaching the Mt Prospect crossroads). ^^ By September of
that year, Gaetano had been in contact with the Department of Lands and Survey and
was paying four pounds annual rent on Lafranchi's land. By then he had possibly
repaid his debt to the Avegno councU for, not long after, he also applied to the
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