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established a small dairy farm on his property buying 70 cows in common with local
farmers Cerini, Righetti, Giorgi and Lafranchi,^' this practice, like bartering,
recognising the traditions of Europe. As the men built no fences, the cows roamed
freely about the paddocks and were watched on a rotation basis. The men also worked
co-operatively to clear the trees from their land and gmb stumps. They laboured in the
evening to dig out the stones and make the trenches in which to bury them.
Afterwards the men would plough the land with a common plough and a borrowed
horse. In this way, the co-operative spirit of the vUlage may be seen to have been
appUed in the Australian setting.
The Tomasettis' life took on a regular pattem with Kate busy child-rearing and
doing domestic chores and Gaetano farming his two blocks. While he axed, gmbbed,
sowed and weeded his vegetables, he also kept a steady watch for any gold specks, but
was always disappointed. Walking the distance between the blocks each day he was
able to call in on his friends Carlo Giorgi, Filippo Cerini and Maurizio Morganti and,
from his land on the main road, watch the rising stone walls of St Joseph's Church. To
the community each block represented the growth and stability of their small town. In
April 1871 a census of the Daylesford area, which included the Mt Prospect district,
revealed a population of 18,500. Included in the census was the Tomasettis' third
child Elizabeth who had been bom on 10 December 1870 and christened three months
later. While Kate concentrated her attention on her new baby and the ailing James,
Gaetano's concems were of a different kind. He was still waiting for the Lands
Department to issue permission to buy the block on the main road near St Joseph's
Church, officially known as Lot 96a. He remained confident of successfully mining
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