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however, the first of several bad seasons for the farmers of the district, with the
Catholic Church reporting many families not sending their children to school but
keeping them home to work. Assuming that at least some of these families were
Italian-speaking, the traditional agrarian community reliance on family labour was
apparently active in Australia and in part responsible for the apathetic attitude to
institutionalised learmng. While the Tomasettis were stmggling to survive a difficuh
year, Gaetano was himself cheered to receive the licence to occupy Lot 153 near
Eastem HiU.
From this stretch of eight hectares, family records suggest that, in order to give
Kate a fresh start after her iUness, Gaetano may have transferred a house to the
roadside of his block near St Joseph's. Timber houses in the late 1800s were often
moved and reset on brick or stone foundations. Soon known as 'Tomasettis' Place', it
was a simple home built close to the road and painted a stony pink colour ~ perhaps an
attempt to recreate the appearance of Gaetano's home in Avegno. Its front door
opened directly onto a main living area with bedrooms to the right and left and a
kitchen and another bedroom housed in a detached building at the rear. It had a
verandah and a picket fence, and a cellar dug into the hill behind the house to store the
family's wine and various food-stuffs. The new home was not to be Kate's panacea,
however, and by 24 July 1878, three years after the birth of Antonio, she was again ill.
Certified in Daylesford as delusional, she was retumed by police to the Kew asylum
where she was found to be pregnant with twins. ^^ During these bouts of illness,
Gaetano experienced difficulty discussing her medical condition with the English-
speaking doctors and, no doubt, felt further alienated by his dealings with an
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