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than his love of Australia: after 25 years in the Colony, and at 52 years of age, he had
possibly abandoned all hope of return to Italy, Testifier to the naturalisation
proceedings was Swiss settler Michael Bedolla (referred to several times previously),
further evidence of the family's close Unks with the Italian-speaking community. By the
late 1890s the family had retumed to Hepbum where Battista continued to mine for
gold. On 11 September 1903, the last of the Milesi children was bom and named Karl
Ferdinand, an acknowledgment of his mother's ethnic origins; along wdth Franklin, his
name suggested a loosening of ties with Italy. Most of the seven boys and six giris
eventually abbreviated their names which gave them a more anglicised form: Antonio
becoming Tony, Giacomina Mina, Amelia Millie and Margherita Rita.
On 6 November 1907, only four years after the birth of Karl and leaving
Augusta to raise their young family alone, Battista died at 61 years of age.^* Angelo,
too, might have been dead by this stage, after having remained in Yandoit all his life.
In 1901 Augusta suffered the tragic death of her son John Hepbum at age eighteen in a
farming accident;^^ despite his transfer to Australia, Battista Milesi had not removed
danger from the workplace of his family. John was buried, along with his father, in the
Daylesford Cemetery. The remaining children all grew to adulthood and married, two
to members of the one Italian-speaking family: the Tinettis of Shepherds Flat.
Andrea and Aquilino Tinetti had emigrated to Australia during the 1860s from
Biasca, a viUage in the Riviera region of Ticino (ref figure 3). Making his home at
Shepherds Flat (ref figure 8), while his brother settled at Hepbum, AquiUno had
retumed to Ticino in 1870 in order to marry Maria Virgilia Capriroli. Back in
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