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where he began dairy farming. The money for this venture appears to have come from
his gold mining profits, as did a further purchase of land in the Bullarook Forest in
1865 ~ possibly on the site where St Joseph's Church was later erected.' Gaetano
Tomasetti (introduced in the previous section) was already living in the area, as were
several other Italian-speaking and Irish families. In July 1871, Andrea purchased
another small block at Blampied which backed onto land to be purchased by Gaetano
Tomasetti a fortnight later (ref figure 13). Continuing the traditional methods of
mcreasing the efficiency of small land holdings, the two men acquired 70 cows in
common and shared many of their farming duties ~ thereby contributing to the
prosperity of Blampied as a farming community.
No community populated by Italian speakers could be complete, however,
without a Catholic church to give its people a social and spiritual focus, and the
Lafranchis were soon pleased to see the laying of the foundation stone for St Joseph's
Church in 1871. They were also happy to be included among the working party of
stonemasons on the building site along with Gaetano Tomasetti and several other
Italian speakers. Living, working and farming in the district, the immigrants developed
a closely-knit community which provided opportunity for fuller expression of their
language and cultural traditions. In matters of religion, however, the Irish immigrants
dominated, the dismissal of Frs Barsanti and Bassetto (cf above pp. 142-143) in the
1870s pointing to the intolerance shown towards Italian Catholic practices.
Farming, mining and working on St Joseph's Church, Andrea soon eamed
sufficient to buy a further block of land on the main road towards Eganstown (ref
157