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Filippini. In 1859 three applications by Ticinesi were recorded wdth similar numbers in
1860, fifteen in 1861 and seven or eight over the next two years.*' In 1863, an Act
was passed giving aliens the same rights in respect of buying land as natural bom
British subjects.^" Though fifteen Italian speakers sought naturalisation in 1864 and
seven in 1865 ~ the reasons stated on their application forms being to purchase land
- after this date many began to delay the decision: despite Swiss law permitting the
holding of dual citizenship, men, such as Gaetano Tomasetti, Isidoro Rodoni and
Osvaldo Vanzetta (all of whom are included in this study) did not seek British
citizenship for many years. Likewise Alessandro Quanchi and his brother Lorenzo,
both of whom had arrived in Australia in 1855, were not naturalised until 1897 and
1905 respectively. There is no doubt, however, that the greatest number of
naturalisations were recorded in the years of successive Land Acts. An examination of
the records of land purchase in the Daylesford district between 1850 and 1900 reveals
a sizeable concentration of Italian speakers. Around 60 names are registered with
several settlers having acquired more than one block. ^^ It is, however, difficult to
estabUsh exact numbers of buyers as in many cases names were misspelt and possibly
recorded twice. F. RapocioU and F. RabochoUi, foi example, who bought land in
Eganstovm in 1879 and 1880, may in fact have been the one person. Judging by the
number of misspellings in the district's rates books, the sumames of the Italian
speakers often confused the official record keepers, who tended to write the names as
they were pronounced in English: hence Bianchi (pronounced Bianki) became Bianci.
For this reason, it is also difficuh to estabUsh how much land was purchased although,
in most cases, the land holdings were small. Often the settlers would purchase one
small block on which to begin farming then later, as they became more financially
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