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transferred."** Hs daughter Mary became its first caretaker and Josephine its first
sacristan (keeper of sacred vessels and vestments). Josephine also gained recognition
for her participation on various school and church committees.
Though representative of the Italian-speaking community in Australia, the
Vanina family was most tangibly linked with Ticino through the language and
memories of Luigia. Luigia's death in 1930 at 79 years of age thus cut the final bonds
uniting the European and immigrant families. At her funeral she was fondly
remembered as a kind and generous family member and, in her obituary, as 'one of its
[Daylesford's] oldest and best knovm residents'.'*' The church service again provided
opportunity to reaffirm kinship links and strengthen ethnic community ties. After her
death, the Vanina clan remained centred in Hepburn, Fred and his wife occupying
Biasca and other family members clustering nearby. Fred renovated Biasca to suit his
personal needs, adding an attic, another bedroom, a porch and a bathroom. A 200 litre
dmm converted to a laundry trough was a symbol of the 'peasant' attributes of
ingenuity and thrift he had inherited from his parents. In one room of the house Fred
regularly invited his friends over to smoke their pipes and drink a glass of his
home-made wine. Sold for threepence a bottle, the wine was transferred from the
cellar through a round hole cut out from the floor, this arrangement being subsequently
celebrated wdthin the family as typifying peasant pragmatism."**
Fred retained his good health into old age, at a school reunion in 1929 winning
the 'veterans' race' over 54 metres. Among other events in which he and Charlie
participated was a theatrical performance highlighting the past contribution of the
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