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as well as the many Italian-speaking vignerons providing wine. The (previously
mentioned) Borsa brewery was in Bridport Street and was formed into a company in
1865 with assets comprising 200 wooden casks and brewing vats. The Italian
speakers' involvement in the brewing industry'^ suggests not only their sensitivity to
market forces but also willingness to adapt and prosper from the changing needs of
theu- host environment. Liquor played an important role in alleviating the misery of the
Italian speakers and in (re)creating a meaningful social world. After the excessive
drinking and 'inunoral' behaviour of the 'scouting' years, hotels became more
important as venues for discussing the day's events and receiving the help and
emotional support normally provided by families.
Besides hotels, the Italian speakers, who soon made up ten to twelve per cent
of the Daylesford population, established other businesses. ButchneU's Daylesford
Directory, an official Usting of the area's population in 1865, cites over 30 ItaUan-
sounding names associated with the hotel trade, bakeries, grocery stores, blacksmiths
and butchers. An early owner of the Wombat Flat Bakery, in about 1854, was Antonio
Matte, the business later coming into the hands of a succession of Swiss owners,
including J. Monotti, partners Vitorelli and Fasoli, and J. J. Monico. Before he tumed
hotelier J. LavezoUa operated a bakery, as did the Pozzi brothers, Battista Righetti and
the Vanzettas of Hepbum. Butchers included the Sartori and Borsa families, both of
whom owned shops in Daylesford. Supplying meat or bread to the Daylesford Hospital
several of these traders, including Borsa, FasoU, Perini and Monotti, extended their
business deal'ngs to the EngUsh-spe^king community." At one time Pedrini's w/ine bar
in Yandoit also served as a butcher shop, the slaughtering carried out at the rear of the
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