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the guest-house was again damaged by fire, this time to such an extent that it was
closed down. StiU operating under the name of Locamo it had, up to that time,
retained its links with the Swiss family who had been its founders. By the 1950s, the
Daylesford district had seen the decline of its guest-house industry, increased car
ownership aUowing people to make day trips to Daylesford and reducing the need for
an extended stay. The four Perini women moved to a house in the Melboume suburb
of Caulfield which they again named Locamo as an expression to their neighbours of
their cultural roots. It was a happy home with a continual coming and going of friends
and relatives.
At the end of the twentieth century, little remains of the Perini family at
Hepbum Springs, WiUiam's daughter Marie Butler being the only descendant still
resident in the tovm. RecaUing her childhood among the 'aunts and uncles' of the
closely-knit Italian-speaking community, she retained many happy memories of her
youth. Her father's home had eventually been sold and converted into a guest-house
named Perini. It was among several guest-houses and tourist establishments given
Swiss or Italian names as a link with the district's rich cultural heritage. The Perini
family had contributed in many ways to the development of Hepbum Springs, not only
through the round of picnics, sports events and fancy-dress balls offered at Locamo,
but through the family's generous community involvement. This involvement, which
has been evident throughout many of the case studies in this thesis, might suggest that,
outside the peasant setting, the community became an extension of the immigrants'
famiUar model ~ one which was more able to integrate outsiders. This is an idea
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