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In 1855, when the gold fever shifted to Yandoit and up to 5,000 diggers moved
into the area to work the mines, the tovm's High Street became the main thoroughfare
for the Cobb and Co. coaches travelling from Ballarat to Bendigo. The street was
lined with shops and hotels, many of which were again mn by Italian speakers. At the
end of High Street, where the Cobb and Co. horses were changed, Pedrini's wine bar
attracted good trade (ref figure 12). Supplied with wine from a vineyard surrounding
the property, the premises decades later provided evidence of the building skill and
ingenuity of its original owners. The cellar, made from local stone and supported by
red box beams and oregon poles, housed large wooden wine barrels and a press used
to process the grapes. The wdne was fed to the saloon above via a pipe cut through the
floor and served to the drinkers across a bar several several centimetres wide.'" Also
in the Yandoit district, Luigi and Carlo Gervasoni (see section following) produced
home-made wine for their own and local consumption, the area becoming known
among the general community for its black and strong 'Yandoit plonk'.
Around Jim Crow, the hotels and wine bars were lively places with musical
bands, dancing girls, wrestling matches and billiard competitions. Counter lunches
could be purchased for a shilling and beer at threepence a pint. In order to attract the
custom of their countrymen, the ItaUan speakers' hotels, mostly weatherboard
buildings, had 'names which provided a tangible expression of their ethnic identity: the
WiUiam Tell, Traversi's, BasiU's, BedoUa's and Lucia Brigudi's Helvezia'.^^ J.
Lavezzola, a huge man weighing over 130 kilograms, constmcted his hotel in
Daylesford in 1860 next door to where Alex Pozzi would erect his bakery in 1866 (ref
figure 9). There were four breweries in Daylesford which supplied Uquor to the hotels
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