Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

the gained unity, independence and political freedom, the vast majority felt oppressed
by civil and military obligations manifested in increased taxes, high living costs and the
threat of military conscription. Along with the peasants and workers emigrating from
Italy were political activists and revolutionaries displaced and disenchanted by the
failure of the 1848 revolutions.** Nine years old at the time of his brother's departure
in 1855, Battista (the name by which he was better known) had waited eight years to
join Angelo on the goldfields.
Arriving in Australia in March 1863 aboard an English vessel, Battista may
have mined for a time before settling in the large Italian-speaking community of
Hepbum. By this time Angelo had found extra work as a stonemason in Yandoit,
applying the skills common to many Lombard peasants (see Morganti section).
Several Italian families had begun settling in the area around Yandoit Hill (ref figure
12) ~ further evidence of the clustering of viUage populations ~ erecting traditional
Lombard peasant-style houses, cow bams and dairies made entirely from the local
stone. Angelo may have assisted on the building sites of several of these properties
including those of (among others) the Gervasoni, Invemizzi and Tognolini families (see
Gervasoni section). Some members of the Milesi family, not directly related to Angelo
and Battista, also settied in the area, possibly becoming ovmers of Mlesis' Hotel.*'
Angelo himself was living in a wooden house by 1871 in nearby Smeaton Road,
American Gully." Rates books for 1882 record his address as Nuggety Gully but the
close proximity of the two areas may indicate the one address.
254